Minneapolis Institute of Art

Putti with the Impresa of Pope Leo X Medici

Jacopo Zucchi

Date

1585–87

Medium

Pen and brown ink wash over black chalk on laid paper

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Jacopo Zucchi trained in Florence under Giorgio Vasari and spent most of his career in Rome working for members of the Medici family in residence there. This study relates to decoration in the Villa Medici on the Pincian Hill in Rome, where Zucchi worked on several projects. This frecoed frieze, designed by Zucchi and executed by members of his shop in 1587, survives in the Villa's Chambre des imprese. It represents putti playing among garlands of fruit and elaborately sculpted volutes and cartouches with the personal emblems of illustrious members of the Medici family. This study features the impresa of the former Medici pope, Leo X (reigned 1513–1521)–a yoke with the motto SVAVE–which Zucchi inscribed on the banderole in the shield and placed below a papal crown supported by a small putto. Suave or soave means sweet, delicate, or easy, and alludes to the biblical passage For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew II:30). Italy, Europe

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