Jacopo Zucchi
approximately 1541-approximately 1590
Design for a Medal Celebrating the Order of St. Stephen
ca. 1565
4 inches (102 mm) diameter
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, in an inscribed circle; laid down on an eighteenth-century mount.
2020.54
Gift of the Kasper Collection.
Notes
Preparatory for one of the fourteen bronze medals commemorating the deeds of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, this drawing is devoted to Cosimo's creation of the Holy Military Order of Saint Stephen. It shows a novice knight kneeling before an ancient altar and swearing allegiance to Cosimo, while he is presented with the Maltese cross and a ceremonial sword. As apparent in this drawing, Zucchi's early style of draftsmanship owes much to Giorgio Vasari, whose exaggerated anatomical form he sometimes pushed even further.
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Century Drawings
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