Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Volume 3 (of 3) / Illustrating the Arms, Arts, and Literature of Italy, from 1440 To 1630

by James Dennistoun

36. Visitation of the Madonna, on canvas, painted, according to the Pesaro inventory, for the chapel there, on the visit of Pope Clement VIII. in 1598. It has disappeared.

37. Magdalen, on canvas. There are two pictures of this subject, and another in the Venturi list, one on panel, one on canvas, the latter of which is described as "the Magdalen in the Wilderness." I have not found either of them; but a Magdalen in devotion with Christ, upon canvas, is noted in the Pesaro inventory, and may probably be the large and fine picture now in the Sala di Baroccio at the Uffizi, known as Noli me tangere, in which the Saviour appears to the Magdalen after His resurrection.

38. Madonna, St. Francis, and St. Ubaldo, on canvas, unfinished. No doubt one of the votive pictures commissioned on the birth of Prince Federigo. (See above.) It has disappeared.

39. Portrait of Maestro Prospero, a Franciscan monk, half-length, on canvas; called by Venturi a Minim Observantine friar. Not identified.

The Zuccari.

40. Portrait of Duke Guidobaldi [II.] in armour, his hand upon a dog's head. In the Pesaro inventory it is said to be on panel; in that of Venturi it is ascribed to Baroccio. It has disappeared, but a bad copy is preserved in the Albani Palace at Urbino.

41. St. Peter in Prison, large. This picture is engraved at No. 373 of the folio work on the Pitti Gallery, and is said by Vasari to have been painted for Duke Guidobaldo II., by Federigo Zuccaro when about twenty-three years of age. It ranks among his best works; for though the idea is borrowed from Raffaele's fresco, the treatment and the effect of chiaroscuro are original and good. The heavy grated window and the monotonous colouring are however injurious to the work.

42. Head of St. Francis, on canvas. Lost, unless it be the Vision of the Saint in a wide landscape, on panel, No. 482 of the Pitti Gallery, where it is called anonymous. The Pesaro list describes him as in a landscape, by Federigo Zuccaro.

43. Calumny, large, by Federigo, unnoticed in the other inventories, and undiscovered.