Francesco Salviati's ceiling painting for Palazzo Grimani rediscovered

Apollo, Jan, 2004 by Andrea G. De Marchi

(5) Apuleius, The Golden Ass, translated by Robert Graves, Harmondsworth, 1950, p. 114, '... they paid her the homage due to the Goddess Venus alone.'

(6) The Christ Church drawing is actually attributed to Rosso in L. Mortari, Francesco Salviati, Rome, 1992, p. 247, no. 433; for the ceiling, see ibid., p. 287.

(7) For these works, see respectively A. Cecchi, in C. Monbeig Goguel (ed.), Francesco Salviati (1510-1563) o la Bella Maniera, exh. cat., Rome and Paris, 1998, nos. 25 and 36. See also Salviati's fresco of Saul and the Witch of Endor in the Palazzo Sacchetli, Rome (Mortari, op. dr., p. 126, no. 41, illustrated).

(8) M. Hirst, 'Three Ceiling Decorations of Francesco Salviati', in Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte, vol. XXVI, 1963, pp. 146-47, notes that the ceiling must have been completed by the middle of August 1540.

(9) See M. Hochmann, in Monbeig Goguel, op. cit, pp. 176-77; the second version of the woodcut ((Fig. 4) is dated 1602. For Salviati and engraving, see A. Nova, in ibid., pp. 66-73, and nos. 132-43. See also S. Boorsch, 'Salviati and Prints: the Question of Fagiuoli', in Monbeig Goguel, Costamagna and Hochmann, op. cit., pp. 499-518.

(10) J. Byam Shaw, Italian Drawings of the Fritz Lugt Collection, Paris, 1983, no. 29.

(11) C. Monbeig Goguel, Maestri toscani del Cinquecento, (Bilblioteca dei Disegni, no. XXII), Florence, 1979, no. 23. In view of the works' respective datings of 1539 and 1548-50, it seems likely that the later figure was based upon a now lost drawing.

(12) The corrections revealed by close examination of the original confirm Salviati's willingness to change his mind.

(13) For the Visitation, see M. Hirst, 'Francesco Salviati's "Visitation" ', Burlington Magazine, vol. CIII, no. 699 (June 1961), pp. 236 40.

(14) Vasari, op. cit. in n. 1 above (1967), vol. VI pp. 521-22.

(15) The x-rays made by PAN ART, Florence, do not entirely resolve the interpretation of these passages, because in some areas the extensive use of lead white makes the underlying paint layers impenetrable.

(16) For the Deposition, see M. Hochmann, in Monbeig Goguel, op. cit. in n. 7 above, no. 23.

(17) See the account in P. Humfrey, Venezia 1540-160, in La Pittura nel Veneto: Il Cinquecento, vol. II, Milan, 1998, p. 457, which, however, is not wholly reliable. Cheney, op. cit., notes 32 and 37, claims that Salviati was badly paid, and that this led him to leave Venice.

(18) M. Hochmann, in Monbeig Goguel, op. cit., p. 60, note 12, quotes a passage from one of the Grimani inventories (Venice, Archivio di State, Arch. Priv. Grimani di S. M. Formosa, ba. 5 proc. F), according to which the "Pezzi numero cinque di quadri grandi in tavola del Salviati [four of which were in fact by Menzocchi], erano nel soffitto della camera vicina al portego ed ora sono appesi al muro di detta camera' ('Five large paintings on panel by Salviati were in the ceiling of the room near the hail, and are now hanging on the walls of the said room'). Marilyn Perry, 'A renaissance showplace of art: The Palazzo Grimani at S Maria Formosa, Venice', APOLLO, vol. CXIII, no. 230 (April 1981), pp. 215 21, presumed that they were disposed of through a dealer without specifying when. It is worth noting that they are consistently recorded as being in the palace in Gaetano Milanesi's notes to his edition of Vasari; see G. Vasari, Le Vite ..., G. Milanesi (ed.), Florence, 1878-85, vol. VI, p. 324, note 1, p. 562, note 4, vol. VII , p. 19, note 1.