1528 and 1529<\/p>\n
On this project and its documentation, see the Preface to D.31-34<\/a> and the related entries.\u00a0 Both in the 1550 and 1568 editions of the Vite<\/i>, Vasari wrote that Rosso completed four cartoons for this series of frescoes, but he described only three.\u00a0 Visual evidence survives for only three scenes, but from another source (see below) four cartoons seem to have been made.\u00a0 The cartoons were executed in a room that was assigned to Rosso by S. Maria delle Lagrime at a place called Murello in the vicinity of the church (see the Piaggia di Murello of present day Arezzo).<\/p>\n In the \u201cLife\u201d of Rosso, Vasari indicated that Rosso left the cartoons locked up in the Cittadella<\/i> when he fled Arezzo, probably in September 1529, about ten months after he had begun the Lagrime project.\u00a0 The inventory of 12 March 1532 of items that Rosso left behind (DOC.13<\/a>) includes \u201cUndici pezzi de cartoni in quattro guluppi.\u201d\u00a0 This entry could refer to eleven pieces of large and\/or heavy paper in four bundles but then one might have expected the use of the word fogli<\/i> to indicate unused sheets of paper, as Vasari employed this word in his \u201cDella Pittura\u201d (see Vasari, 1568, I, 46-47; Vasari-Milanesi, I, 174-177, for uses of the words foglio<\/i> and cartone<\/i>).\u00a0 No other blank paper is recorded in the inventory.\u00a0 It is very likely that what is meant here is eleven sections of cartoons that were made for the S. Maria delle Lagrime project.\u00a0 As the commission of this project took place on 24 November 1528, the cartoons could not have been executed until 1529 after the preliminary designs had been made.\u00a0 According to the inventory in 1532, these cartoons were held by the church that employed Rosso.\u00a0 It is most probable that they are the same ones that Vasari said had been placed by Rosso in the Aretine citadel, which surrendered on 27 March 1530, and that by 12 March 1532 had been moved to S. Maria delle Lagrime (Compagnia della SS. Annunziata), to which they rightfully belonged.\u00a0 It seems reasonable to assume that the estimate of them and of Rosso\u2019s drawings for the project made by Vasari and others and mentioned in the \u201cLife\u201d of Lappoli took place only after the inventory was made.<\/p>\n From the books of the Compagnia, Silvano Pieri has recently given a history of these cartoons.1<\/sup><\/a> The Compagnia had \u201cuno catino e quattro cartoni,\u201d the \u201ccatino\u201d specified in an inventory of 1547 as \u201cuno catino del disegno de la volta su la Madonna.\u201d\u00a0 The cartoons were several times restored, once around 17 November 1566 when the painter Antonio Pontenani was paid to \u201chaver incollato li cartoni di desegni lasciatoci gi\u00e0 dal Rosso,\u201d2<\/sup><\/a> suggesting that the \u201cUndici pezzi di cartoni\u201d of the 1532 inventory were in fact pieces of the cartoons for Rosso\u2019s frescoes.\u00a0 The \u201ccatino\u201d may have been the \u201cmodello,\u201d mentioned by Vasari, of Rosso\u2019s entire project, made of wood and plaster, and painted (see L.23<\/a>).\u00a0 In 1582 Cardinal Giovanni de\u2019Medici, the illegitimate son of Grand Duke Cosimo I, asked for the cartoons, a request that was discussed by the Compagnia on 13 March 1583, and at other times.3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 A letter indicates that the \u201cCartoni\u201d and the \u201cCatino\u201d were sent to Don Giovanni on 29 March 1583 as a gift from the Compagnia della Annunziata; another letter of 14 April 1583 expresses his appreciation for having received them so soon after his request, which followed his having so much enjoyed seeing them.4<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 On 23 June 1583 the Compagnia agreed to accept Giovanni de\u2019Medici\u2019s offer to send a painter to paint the frescoes \u201csecondo il disegno che lass\u00f2 il Rosso Fiorentino pittori nelli cartoni et catino\u201d in exchange for the cartoons, which had already been sent to Florence.5<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 However, nothing came of the Cardinal\u2019s promise and on 30 May 1587 expenses are recorded for the return of the cartoons \u2013 \u201cpro vectura pro conducendis cartonis ab urbe Florentinae ad urbem Aretii.\u201d6<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Bottari, in Vasari-Bottari, II, 1759, 298, n. 2, stated that the cartoons remained in the rooms of the Compagnia della Madonna delle Lagrime, meaning, apparently, after Rosso\u2019s departure, and that at the time of his writing \u201cparte son pariti, e parte sono quasi svaniti,\u201d that is, some were still visible but some were badly faded or deteriorated.\u00a0 Nothing is known of them today.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>1<\/sup> Silvano Pieri, \u201cLa Compagnia della SS. Annunziata del XIV al XVIII Secolo,\u201d in Annunziata Arezzo<\/i>, 1990 (1993), 39-40, from which all subsequent citations from Pieri are taken.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a>2<\/sup> A.S.F. 42, c. 2 and 6 s.n. (from Pieri).\u00a0 Pieri also states that on 17 March 1567 (ivi<\/i>, 6, s.n.), the Compagnia allowed for the sale of \u201cli colori gi\u00e0 lassati ne la nostra Compagnia dal Rosso pittore et la tavoletta di bosso.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a>3<\/sup> A.S.F. 8, c. 191, for the 13 March discussion (from Pieri).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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