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Lot Essay
A compositional drawing for the first of a series of three tapestries commissioned in 1563 by Duke Cosimo de'Medici to be hung in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, and now at the Palazzo Pitti (L. Meoni, Gli arazzi nei musei fiorentini, La collezione medicea, Catalogo completa, I. La manifattura da Cosimo I a Cosimo II (1545-1621), Livorno, 1998, no. 43). The related tapestry was intended to decorate the southern wall of the Sala di Gualdrada Berti in the Quartiere di Eleonora, the suite of rooms dedicated to Cosimo's wife Eleonora of Toledo.
The Medici account books show that Sustris was paid for the cartoons only on 12 May 1565, although the tapestries themselves had been delivered to the Guardaroba at the Palazzo Vecchio as early as 25 November 1564 by the master weaver Benedetto di Michele Squilli. Given the fastidious work involved in completing the tapestries Sustris' designs would probably have had to have been complete by the beginning of 1564.
The present drawing, squared and highly finished, is a modello for the tapestry. The compositions vary only in minor details, but are reversed one to the other since the craftsmen would have woven the threads through from the back of the support, effectively working backwards. Another drawing, related to the left side of the second tapestry in the series, The Union of Florence and Fiesole, is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (F. Stampfle, Netherlandish drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1991, no. 100). The Morgan Library sheet, sketchier and of a much less finished character, is an early working drawing and shows in the margins a solution for the tapestry borders.
The tapestries were woven in Florence by the Arazzeria Medicea, the Ducal tapestry factory founded by Cosimo in 1554. Before 1545 the majority of tapestries woven for the Italian courts had to be ordered from the traditional weaving centres in Flanders. In 1545, in order to circumvent this monopoly, Cosimo called to Florence two Flemish weavers who had been working in Ferrara and asked them to open two workshops to compete with their Northern counterparts. These two then trained Italian artisans, and from 1554 when these two weavers had left Florence the operation became almost entirely Florentine until the dissolution of the Arazzeria Medicea in 1744.
The series of tapestries designed by Sustris was part of the campaign of aggrandisement ordered by Cosimo for the Palazzo Vecchio, which was intended to make the building a very public piece of propaganda. In 1540 Cosimo moved his family quarters from the Palazzo Medici to the Palazzo della Signoria (renamed the Palazzo Vecchio), previously the seat of the city's elected government. This change of purpose required an extensive scheme of rebuilding and redecoration, for which Cosimo employed the leading artists of the day, notably Bronzino, Pontormo and Francesco Salviati. In 1545 these three artists designed the first major cycle of tapestries, twenty panels illustrating the Story of Joseph, for the great hall, the Sala dei Duocento. In 1549 Cosimo again moved his residence, this time to the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the Arno, and the redecoration of the Palazzo Vecchio as a ceremonial instrument was expanded. This is particularly noticeable after 1555 when Vasari was appointed as Cosimo's 'artistic director', a role which was to occupy his creative energies until 1572.
The decorations for the Palazzo Vecchio were designed to glorify the Medici family, and followed a complex iconographic scheme developed by the humanist scholar Vincenzo Borghini. Sustris' design for The Goths besieging Fiesole in 405 is one of a series of three scenes depicting the History of Florence, events which by extension echoed the rise of the Medici family. Fiesole had been the Roman capital of Tuscany and the seat of a Bishop, but after it was sacked by the Goths in 405 it fell into decline and was superseded by Florence. The second scene of the series shows The Union of Florence and Fiesole, which took place in 1010 following the defeat of the people of Fiesole by the Florentines. The third scene shows the Consecration of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, possibly the reconsecration of 1059, the symbolic moment at which Florence becomes pre-eminent in Tuscany. These three tapestries were designed to be hung in the Sala di Gualdrada Berti, named after a Florentine maiden praised in Dante's Divina Comedia for her resolute modesty. The ceiling and walls of the room were painted with scenes illustrating Gualdrada's story by the Fleming Jan Stradanus in the same year the tapestries were woven.
Friedrich Sustris' first master was his father Lambert, a native of Amsterdam and an assistant of Titian. In about 1560 Friedrich was in Rome assisting Francesco Salviati on the preparations for his abortive decorations for the Sala Reggia at the Vatican. Three years later at the age of only 23 he went to Florence to assist Vasari and Stradanus, who at the time was the principal designer of tapestries for the Palazzo Vecchio. The three tapestry designs appear to have been Sustris' first commission for the Medici, for whom he also designed temporary decorations for court celebrations. In 1568 he was called to Augsburg to work for Hans Függer and in 1573 he moved to Munich where he became painter to Crown Prince William, later Duke of Bavaria. On William's accession Sustris occupied a position at court not unlike that held by Vasari in Florence. In 1586 he was joined by the Fleming Pieter Candid who had also spent his early career in Italy and who had also designed tapestries for the Medici.
Very few drawings dating from Sustris' Italian period survive. In addition to the present drawing and the drawing in the Pierpont Morgan Library are only two designs for the decoration of one of a series of ephemeral monuments erected for the arrival in Florence of Joanna of Austria, bride of Cosimo's eldest son Francesco, on 15 December 1565. One, of Cosimo de' Medici declared Pater Patriae by the Florentine Senate, is in the Louvre (B.W. Meijer, 'Per gli anni Italiani di Federico Sustris' in Studi di Storia dell'Arte in onore di Mina Gregori, Milan, 1994, pp. 142-143, fig. 5), while another, of Lorenzo of Urbino receiving the baton of a commander of Rome is in the Uffizi (K. Langedijk, The Portraits of the Medici, Florence, 1981-3, II, pp. 1059, fig. 58:25a, as Lambert Sustris, identified as Friedrich by R.A. Scorza, 'A new drawing for the Florentine "apparato" of 1565: Borghini, Butteri and the "Tuscan poets"', The Burlington Magazine, 1985, CXXVII, p. 888, note 2).
The Medici account books show that Sustris was paid for the cartoons only on 12 May 1565, although the tapestries themselves had been delivered to the Guardaroba at the Palazzo Vecchio as early as 25 November 1564 by the master weaver Benedetto di Michele Squilli. Given the fastidious work involved in completing the tapestries Sustris' designs would probably have had to have been complete by the beginning of 1564.
The present drawing, squared and highly finished, is a modello for the tapestry. The compositions vary only in minor details, but are reversed one to the other since the craftsmen would have woven the threads through from the back of the support, effectively working backwards. Another drawing, related to the left side of the second tapestry in the series, The Union of Florence and Fiesole, is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (F. Stampfle, Netherlandish drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1991, no. 100). The Morgan Library sheet, sketchier and of a much less finished character, is an early working drawing and shows in the margins a solution for the tapestry borders.
The tapestries were woven in Florence by the Arazzeria Medicea, the Ducal tapestry factory founded by Cosimo in 1554. Before 1545 the majority of tapestries woven for the Italian courts had to be ordered from the traditional weaving centres in Flanders. In 1545, in order to circumvent this monopoly, Cosimo called to Florence two Flemish weavers who had been working in Ferrara and asked them to open two workshops to compete with their Northern counterparts. These two then trained Italian artisans, and from 1554 when these two weavers had left Florence the operation became almost entirely Florentine until the dissolution of the Arazzeria Medicea in 1744.
The series of tapestries designed by Sustris was part of the campaign of aggrandisement ordered by Cosimo for the Palazzo Vecchio, which was intended to make the building a very public piece of propaganda. In 1540 Cosimo moved his family quarters from the Palazzo Medici to the Palazzo della Signoria (renamed the Palazzo Vecchio), previously the seat of the city's elected government. This change of purpose required an extensive scheme of rebuilding and redecoration, for which Cosimo employed the leading artists of the day, notably Bronzino, Pontormo and Francesco Salviati. In 1545 these three artists designed the first major cycle of tapestries, twenty panels illustrating the Story of Joseph, for the great hall, the Sala dei Duocento. In 1549 Cosimo again moved his residence, this time to the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the Arno, and the redecoration of the Palazzo Vecchio as a ceremonial instrument was expanded. This is particularly noticeable after 1555 when Vasari was appointed as Cosimo's 'artistic director', a role which was to occupy his creative energies until 1572.
The decorations for the Palazzo Vecchio were designed to glorify the Medici family, and followed a complex iconographic scheme developed by the humanist scholar Vincenzo Borghini. Sustris' design for The Goths besieging Fiesole in 405 is one of a series of three scenes depicting the History of Florence, events which by extension echoed the rise of the Medici family. Fiesole had been the Roman capital of Tuscany and the seat of a Bishop, but after it was sacked by the Goths in 405 it fell into decline and was superseded by Florence. The second scene of the series shows The Union of Florence and Fiesole, which took place in 1010 following the defeat of the people of Fiesole by the Florentines. The third scene shows the Consecration of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, possibly the reconsecration of 1059, the symbolic moment at which Florence becomes pre-eminent in Tuscany. These three tapestries were designed to be hung in the Sala di Gualdrada Berti, named after a Florentine maiden praised in Dante's Divina Comedia for her resolute modesty. The ceiling and walls of the room were painted with scenes illustrating Gualdrada's story by the Fleming Jan Stradanus in the same year the tapestries were woven.
Friedrich Sustris' first master was his father Lambert, a native of Amsterdam and an assistant of Titian. In about 1560 Friedrich was in Rome assisting Francesco Salviati on the preparations for his abortive decorations for the Sala Reggia at the Vatican. Three years later at the age of only 23 he went to Florence to assist Vasari and Stradanus, who at the time was the principal designer of tapestries for the Palazzo Vecchio. The three tapestry designs appear to have been Sustris' first commission for the Medici, for whom he also designed temporary decorations for court celebrations. In 1568 he was called to Augsburg to work for Hans Függer and in 1573 he moved to Munich where he became painter to Crown Prince William, later Duke of Bavaria. On William's accession Sustris occupied a position at court not unlike that held by Vasari in Florence. In 1586 he was joined by the Fleming Pieter Candid who had also spent his early career in Italy and who had also designed tapestries for the Medici.
Very few drawings dating from Sustris' Italian period survive. In addition to the present drawing and the drawing in the Pierpont Morgan Library are only two designs for the decoration of one of a series of ephemeral monuments erected for the arrival in Florence of Joanna of Austria, bride of Cosimo's eldest son Francesco, on 15 December 1565. One, of Cosimo de' Medici declared Pater Patriae by the Florentine Senate, is in the Louvre (B.W. Meijer, 'Per gli anni Italiani di Federico Sustris' in Studi di Storia dell'Arte in onore di Mina Gregori, Milan, 1994, pp. 142-143, fig. 5), while another, of Lorenzo of Urbino receiving the baton of a commander of Rome is in the Uffizi (K. Langedijk, The Portraits of the Medici, Florence, 1981-3, II, pp. 1059, fig. 58:25a, as Lambert Sustris, identified as Friedrich by R.A. Scorza, 'A new drawing for the Florentine "apparato" of 1565: Borghini, Butteri and the "Tuscan poets"', The Burlington Magazine, 1985, CXXVII, p. 888, note 2).