Casa Zuccari

An artist's house in Florence

In 1833, Alfred de Musset staged a drama in Andrea del Sarto’s house in Florence, which ended with the suicide of a painter who was in despair about both the infidelity of his wife and the end of the renaissance period in art. In the second half of the 16th century, the house of the “pittore senza errori” was not yet the scene of similar romantic-pessimistic feelings – quite the contrary: Federico Zuccari acquired the building in 1578 with the direct aim of establishing an ideal genealogical line with Andrea del Sarto, who was revered by many. The house was intended not only to glorify Zuccari’s artistic talents, but also to manifest his position within Florentine society. With his houses in Arezzo and Florence, Giorgio Vasari had set a turning point in the social emancipation process for the artist. And it was certainly these autoreferential cycles in Vasari’s houses that inspired Zuccari when painting his fresco decorations – both in Florence and much later in even more ambitious style in his Rome palazzo. Just like his important clients, the artist turned his own house into an instrument of self-portrayal using the paintings of mythological and allegorical themes, which are the expression of an elaborate iconographical programme.

The Casa Zuccari was handed over to the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence in 1987. Since 2005, the building provides space for some of the institute’s offices and numerous institute events. The online exhibition presented here is another way to open the doors to a larger audience over and above the large number of international users of the institute.

go to Online Exhibition