The armies of Pietro Farnese at the Relief of Bologna

Derived from Taddeo Zuccaro's preparatory drawings for one of the frescoes in the Sala dei Fasti Farnese at the Palazzo Farnese, Rome, painted in 1563-66 (C. Acidini Luchinat, Taddeo e Federico Zuccari, fratelli pittori del Cinquecento, Milan, 1998, p. 245, fig. 39). Two autograph compositions are known, one in a private collection which like the present drawing was formerly in Nicholas Lanier's collection (sold in these Rooms, 4 July 1995, lot 102) and another in the Uffizi (C. Acidini Lichinat, op. cit., p. 246, fig. 40). The fresco differs from the compositional drawings in the relative positions of the two armies, an alteration that reduces the dramatic effect of the finished version.