Portrait of Federico Zuccari
by GALIZIA, Fede, Oil on canvas, 56 x 43 cm
Formerly the painting was believed to be a self-portrait by Federico Zuccari. Evoking the work of Moroni, and visible in each of her earlier portraits, the painter’s sustained attention to pictorial truth is revealed by many elements. These include the virtuoso, realistic description of the heavy gold chains on the bust of the elderly painter, and the painstaking treatment of the profiles and the inscriptions on the medals. (The medals depict St Carlo Borromeo and Philip II.)