Saint Marc

Dated to around 1550 and now in the Department of Paintings of the Louvre, this canvas depicting Saint Mark by Federico Zuccari again presents a dating challenge given the artist's birth around 1541. The Louvre attribution and date may represent a workshop work, an early date in a career that began exceptionally early, or a cataloguing revision needed. Saint Mark the Evangelist — patron saint of Venice and one of the four Evangelists — was one of the most frequently depicted saints in Italian religious art. His attribute, the lion, and his Gospel would distinguish him from other Evangelists. The Louvre's Italian painting collections include works from the full range of the school, and the institutional holding of a Zuccari in this major French museum reflects the artist's European reputation during his lifetime.

Canvas support for a saint's image in the Italian tradition allows the full-figure or half-figure treatment typical of Evangelist images. Zuccari's figure style, even in works attributed to his very early career, shows the influence of Roman Mannerist elongation and gesture. The lion attribute beside Saint Mark and the Gospel book would be rendered with the iconographic precision expected of a devotional image.