Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/875

Rh z u c z u c 825 to make him a full professor, Zschokke in 1795, after some time spent in travel, settled in the Grisons, where, in asso ciation with the burgomaster Tscharner, he conducted an educational institution in the castle of Reichenau. In recognition of his services the authorities of the Grisons gave him the rights of a citizen, and in 1798 he associated his name permanently with the country by the publica tion of his Geschichte des Freistaats der drei Biinde in Rkatien. The political disturbances of this year compelled him to close his institution ; but, being a man of great resource and energy, he was able, during the revolutionary period which now began in Switzerland, to enter upon a new and more important career. He was sent as a deputy to Aarau, where he was made head of the educational de partment. Afterwards he was sent as Government com missioner to Unterwalden, and his authority was ultimately extended over the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Zug. In this high office Zschokke distinguished himself by the vigour of his administration and by the enthusiasm with which he devoted himself to the promotion of the interests of the poorer classes of the community. In 1800 he re organized the institutions of the Italian cantons, and then he became lieutenant-governor of the canton of Basel. Zschokke retired for a while from public life when the central Government at Bern proposed to re-establish the federal system, but after the changes effected by Bonaparte he entered the service of the canton of Aargau, with which he remained connected. In 1801 he attracted attention by his Geschichte vom Kampfe und Untergange der schiveiz- erischen Berg- und Wald-Cantone. Through his Schiveizer- lote, the publication of which began in 1804, he exercised a wholesome influence on public affairs ; and the like may be said of his Miscellen der neuesten Weltkunde, issued from 1807 to 1813. In 1811 he also started a monthly peri odical, the Erheiterungen. He wrote various historical works, the most important of which is Des Sckweizerlandes Geschichte fur das Schiveizervolk, published in 1822. He was also the author of Bilder aus der Schweiz, and of a series of popular tales which greatly extended his reputa tion, Der Creole, Alamontade, Jonathan Frock, Das Gold- macherdorf, and Meister Jordan. In Stunden der Andacht, which was widely read, he expounded in a rationalistic spirit what seemed to him the fundamental principles of religion and morality. Selbstschau is a kind of autobio graphy. Zschokke was not a great original writer, but he secured for himself an eminent place in the literature of his time by his enthusiasm for modern ideas in politics and religion, by the sound, practical judgment displayed in his works, and by the energy and lucidity of his style. He died on 27th June 1848. An edition of his selected works, in forty volumes, was issued in 1824-28. In 1851-54 an edition in thirty-five volumes was published. There are biographies of /schokke by Munch and by Emil Zschokke. ZUCCARO, or ZucciiERO, 1 the name of two Italian painters. I. TADDEO ZUCCAEO (1529-1566), one of the most popular painters of the so-called Roman mannerist school, was the son of an almost unknown painter at St Angelo in Vado, called Ottaviano Zuccaro, where he was born in 1529. While yet a boy Taddeo found his way to Rome ; and, though suffering great hardships from poverty and want of friends, he succeeded at an early age in gaining a knowledge of painting and in finding patrons to employ him. His first start in life, while only seventeen years old, was due to a pupil of Correggio, named Daniele da Parma, who engaged him to assist in painting a series of frescos in a chapel at Vitto near Sora, on the borders of the Abruzzi. After that Taddeo returned to Rome in 1548, and began his career as a fresco painter, by execut- 1 So spelt by Vasari, ing a series of scenes in monochrome from the life of Furius Camillus on the front of the palace of a wealthy Roman named Jacopo Mattei. From that time his success was assured, and for the rest of his short life he was largely employed by the popes Julius III. and Paul IV., by Delia Rovere, duke of Urbino, and by other rich patrons of art in Rome and elsewhere. His best frescos were an historical series painted on the walls of a new palace at Caprarola, built for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, for which Taddeo also designed a great quantity of rich decorations in stucco relief after the style of Giulio Romano and other pupils of Raphael. Nearly all his paintings were in fresco, very large in scale, and often in chiaroscuro or monochrome ; they were more remarkable for rapidity of execution and a certain boldness of style than for any higher qualities. The very great estimation in which Taddeo s frescos were held is a striking proof of the very rapid degradation of taste which took place during the second half of the 16th century. His work is mannered in style, artificial and pompous in conception, and lacks any close or accurate knowledge of the human form and its movements. The long chapter which Vasari devotes to this painter and his brother Federigo is only one of many examples of the writer s habit of giving undue prominence to the artists of his own time and school. Taddeo Zuccaro died in Rome in 1566 ; he is buried in the Pantheon, not far from Raphael. Taddeo s easel pictures are less common than his decorative frescos. A small painting on copper of the Adoration of the Shepherds, formerly in the collection of James II., is now at Hampton Court ; it is a work of very small merit. The Caprarola frescos were engraved and published by Premier, Illustri Fatti Farnesiani Coloriti nel Real Palazzo di Caprarola, Rome, 1748-50. II. FEDERIGO ZUCCARO (1543-1609), the younger brother and pupil of Taddeo, was born in 1543. In 1550 he was placed under his brother s charge in Rome, and during his lifetime worked as his assistant ; he completed the Capra rola frescos, which were unfinished when Taddeo died in 1566. In a short time Federigo attained to an eminence far beyond his very limited merits as a painter, and was perhaps the most popular artist of his generation. Prob ably no other painter has ever produced so many enormous frescos crowded with figures on the most colossal scale, all executed under the unfortunate delusion, common in his time, that grandeur of effect could be attained merely by great size combined with extravagance of attitude and ex aggeration of every kind. Federigo s first work of this sort was the completion of the painting of the dome of the cathedral at Florence, under the patronage of the grand-duke Francesco I. ; the work had been begun by the art-historian Vasari, who wrote in the most generous lan guage about his more successful rival. The inner surface of this beautiful cupola was disfigured by Federigo in the most tasteless way. Regardless of the injury to the appar ent scale of the interior of the church, he painted about 300 figures, each nearly 50 feet high, sprawling with violent contortions all over the surface. Happily age has so dimmed these pictures that their presence is now almost harmless. After this achievement Federigo was recalled to Rome by Gregory XIII. to continue in the Pauline chapel of the Vatican the scheme of decoration which, had been begun by Michelangelo during his failing years. A quarrel which arose between the painter and some members of the papal court led to his departure from Italy. He first visited Brussels, and there made a series of cartoons for the tapestry-weavers. Thence, in 1574, Federigo passed over to England, where his fame was already known, so that he at once received a large number of commissions to paint the portraits of various distinguished persons, among them Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, 1 Sir Nicholas 1 Engraved by Vertue. XXIV. 104