Design for a Panel with a Seated Figure of Mercury

This drawing – along with five others in the Morgan’s collection – relates to Vasari’s frescoes for Bindo Altoviti’s villa in Rome, on which Vasari was working in 1553.¹ At that time, Vasari was also engaged with fresco decorations for Altoviti’s palazzo across the river as well as those for the Villa Giulia, Rome, for Pope Paul III.² The Villa Altoviti’s frescoes were destroyed around 1864 and the general appearance of the loggia is unrecorded. However, a series of engravings by Tommaso Piroli, published in 1807, records the appearance of nine deities and personifications of the four seasons from the fresco cycle.³ Four of the Morgan sketches relate to the series of deities; three of them (Mercury, Luna, and Sol) correspond exactly, the fourth (Saturn) varies in pose from the engraved figure.⁴ There are thirteen further sketches relating to this commission in the Moravská Gallery, Brno, one of which is a variant of the figure of Saturn.⁵ Most likely, the Morgan sketches are fragments of a larger ceiling design that was cut up, possibly by Vasari himself.

Footnotes:

1. Morgan Library & Museum, New York, inv. 1984.61.1; 1984.61.2; 1984.62.1; 1984.62.2; 1984.64.1; 1984.64.2.
2. Härb 2015, 317. Altoviti’s palazzo was demolished in 1888, though its frescoes representing the twelve months, two river gods, and a Tribute to Ceres, were transferred to the Palazzo Venezia, Rome.
3. Davis 1979, figs. 1-13.
4. Morgan Library & Museum, New York, inv. 1984.62.1; 1984.62.2; 1984.64.1; 1984.64.2.
5. Härb 2015, 320-321, no. 162.