Artibus et Historiae no. 55 (XXVIII)
2007, ISSN 0391-9064Up
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LIONELLO PUPPI - Paolo Veronese in Spain
The interest of the Spanish court to commission Paolo Veronese to work on the construction site of El Escorial, instead of Federico Zuccari who originally was to be entrusted with the work, has never been given much attention by scholars, with the exception of a brief notice by M. Brunner.
The project was revealed by Juan de Idaquez, the ambassador of Spain to the Serenissima, on 5 January 1585, when the negotiations with Zuccari seemed to have come to a standstill, and it was known that Philip II wanted a Venetian painter to decorate his new residence.
It is probable that Caliari had rejected the invitation, but certain episode - recorded here from the unpublished documents of the Archivo General de Simancas, within the scope of a full reconstruction of the negotiations which ultimately were to bring Zuccari to Spain - is of great interest, for it allows us to learn about the preferences and artistic taste at the Spanish court in the last decades of the Cinquecento, after the death of Titian.
