Taddeo Zuccaro and the Pucci Chapel in Santissima Trinità dei Monti, Rome

In his 1966 article on the fresco decoration of the Pucci chapel in the church of Santissima Trinità dei Monti in Rome (fig. 1), John Gere set out to distinguish the contribution of Taddeo Zuccaro (1529–66) from that of his younger brother, collaborator, and heir to the family business, Federico (1540/41–1609). This, however, proved to be a challenging task. Not only is the decoration of the Pucci chapel one of Taddeo’s commissions that were left unfinished with his death in 1566, but Federico, who had a stylistic dependence on his brother, completed the scheme in 1589. Giorgio Vasari, who included a biography of Taddeo in the second edition of the Vitae in 1568, recorded that the artist died while busying himself with a cartoon for the chapel’s altarpiece.