Federico Zuccari
1539–1609 · Duchy of Urbino · Mannerism
The story
When Giorgio Vasari died in 1574 he left the inside of Florence Cathedral's dome half-painted, a vast 'Last Judgment' swarming across the curved surface. The job of finishing it fell to Federico Zuccari, who completed the lower registers over the next few years.
Zuccari was one of the most travelled artists of his generation, working in Rome, Venice, Spain for Philip II, and even England. He was also a theorist and organiser: he helped shape the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, the painters' academy meant to raise the trade into a liberal art.
In Rome he built himself a strange house, the Palazzo Zuccari, with a doorway carved as a monster's gaping mouth. It still stands near the top of the Spanish Steps.
