Studies of a Fox

Author: Surya Stemerding

This double-sided sheet with two studies of a fox on the recto may very well be by Federico Zuccaro, as was tentatively suggested by Van Regteren Altena.^[1] The artist seems to have started at upper right, sketching the head and front paws of the animal first, before redrawing it more carefully in a slightly different position below the first sketch. With this iteration, the fox was rendered in full, although its tail is no longer visible since this sheet has been trimmed. The studies resemble other drawings of animals by Federico, such as the Studies of a Greyhound in Brussels.^[2] Although the study in Brussels is slightly more finished than the Rotterdam drawing, it shows a similar rendering of the animal’s paws, eyes, and snout. Both drawings feature Federico’s distinctive hatching and the same combination of black and red chalk.

The Rotterdam Fox could be a study for an animal in the centre left background of Federico’s painting The Calumny of Apelles of c. 1569-72 in Rome,^[3] of which there are two preliminary versions, including a full-scale painted composition at Windsor.^[4] The connection is more clearly visible in the wash modello in Hamburg,^[5] which preceded the two painted versions. The Calumny was painted by Federico as a reaction to the decision made by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589) to appoint Jacopo Bertoia (1544-1574) to finish the decorations that Federico had started in the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola. The animals in the scene represent the vices that thrive under bad governance, with the fox symbolizing cruelty. If this is indeed a study for the Calumny, it is one of three preparatory drawings known today for this controversial work.^[6]

On the verso of the Rotterdam sheet are two bust-length figure sketches. The heads are characteristic of Federico, but attempts to link the two figures definitively to a known composition by him have thus far been unsuccessful. The mixed chalk technique is typical of studies by Federico in the late 1560s and recurs in several drawings from this period attributed to the artist by James Mundy.^[7] Moreover, the gentle gesture of humility of the figure on the left, presumably a study for Christ (with his arms crossed at his chest), was often used by the artist in the late 1560s and early 1570s. The head resembles extant studies of Christ, such as a full-length study in Paris,^[8] for Christ Raising the Son of the Widow of Nain, one of two altarpieces that Federico painted in Orvieto Cathedral between 1568 and 1570.^[9] It is unclear if the figure on the right on the Rotterdam verso was intended to be part of the same scene as the Christ, or even if it shows a woman or perhaps a youthful St John the Evangelist. There are figural analogies, for instance, with the figure of the young St John in the right background of Federico’s signed and dated painting of Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter (1593) in Lucca,^[10] which recalls the Orvieto paintings though executed more than two decades later.