Federico Barocci tra Taddeo e Federico Zuccari a Roma attorno al 1560: il ruolo del disegno

The essay reconsiders the relationship between Federico Barocci and the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari during their Roman years (1553–1563), shifting the focus from the traditional notion of Barocci’s dependence to a more complex dynamic of creative exchange. Drawing from Bellori’s Lives, which present the young Barocci as a follower of the two Vadesi painters, the text shows that his artistic identity was already formed at that time, nourished both by dialogue with his contemporaries and by a profound assimilation of the lessons of Michelangelo and Titian. The combined analysis of painted works and, above all, of drawings reveals a surprising stylistic closeness among the three artists: fluctuating attributions, technical affinities, and parallel experiments in color and compositional structure attest to a shared visual environment. Within this context, a little-known sheet from the Uffizi with sketches for a portrait of a prelate, an Assumption, and a Nativity, emerges as crucial evidence. Its inventive, multi-subject structure is unusual for Barocci but akin to Taddeo’s working practice. The sheet makes it possible to further understand the network of visual relationships among the three artists, identifying the 1560s as a decisive moment of convergence. From this shared matrix there would soon develop two distinct languages: that of Barocci, founded on natural observation and on the slow elaboration of the graphic process, and that of Federico Zuccari, directed toward a theoretical conceptualization of drawing destined to culminate in the Idea de’ pittori, scultori et architetti.