Lot 6: A Knight Hospitaller swearing an oath

Jacopo Zucchi (Florence circa 1540-1596)
A Knight Hospitaller swearing an oath
pen and brown ink, brown wash, in an inscribed circle, circular on an 18th Century mount
diam: 4 in. (102 mm.)

An unidentified collector's mark device.
With C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf.

The handling of the contours and wash in this drawing is similar to two other works by Zucchi, The Ascension of Christ (Uffizi, Florence), and a horizontal sheet of Saint John and Saint Matthew each inscribed in a roundel (Louvre, Paris) (see E. Pillsbury, 'Drawings by Jacopo Zucchi' in Master Drawings , XII, no. 1, pl. 4b and 6). Pillsbury dates these two drawings to the end of the artist's time in Florence before he left for Rome in 1572, when his style was becoming looser and more fluid but was still influenced by his teacher, Giorgio Vasari (Pillsbury op. cit. , p. 8).