Attributed to Maturino da Firenze The Israelites in the Wilderness Pen and brown ink and wash heightened with white over traces of black chalk PROVENANCE Vasari's account of the fellowship between Maturino and Polidoro da Caravaggio has forever linked the two artists together. Maturino studied in Raphael's studio. He was working on the loggia of the Vatican palace when he met the young Polidoro, at that time a labourer on the building site of the new papal apartments being built for Leo X. Maturino effectively adopted the younger man and introduced him into the team of artists engaged on the loggia decorations. According to Vasari, two men loved each other and resolved to live and work together and to share all their worldly goods. They collaborated on many of the great façade decorations among the palaces of Rome, which subsequently had an important impact on future generations of artists. It is worth recalling the drawings of Federico Zuccaro which show his brother, Taddeo, copying these same frescos. Although few of these have survived, as late as the 1850s there were visible paintings on the façade of the palazzo Milesi, in the via Maschero d'Oro. The close collaboration between Maturino and Polidoro makes it hard to assess the former's independent talents as a painter, a problem exacerbated by his premature death. Two of his most important surviving works were those removed from the Villa Lante to the palazzo Zuccaro, which represent the Flight and Liberation of Cloelia. Subsequently Maturino worked on another Raphael project, the fresco decorations of the Palazzo Farnesina, the Farnese family palace on the south bank of the Tiber, which Maturino and Polidoro painted circa 1520. It is likely that Maturino died during or shortly after the Sack of Rome in 1527. As far as it is possible to identify his drawing style, his facial types do not seem dissimilar to those of his younger colleague, typically showing a flat, wide visage and wide-set eyes. He employed elongated figures with some eccentricity of gesture, the hands in particular distorted and clumsy. The strong similarity between this drawing and the work of Perino del Vaga should also be noted. An attempt to define Maturino's work as a painter has been made by Nicloe Dacos. Of some interest in regard to the present sheet is the inscription 'Mathurino' or 'Maturino' which appears on two studies at the Uffizi which lay claim to be by his hand. The desire to know more about this shadowy Florentine who had such an important impact on the development of the Mannerist school in Rome is understandable. |
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