Zuccaro was born in
Sant'Angelo in Vado, near Urbino, the son of Ottaviano Zuccaro, an almost unknown painter. His brother
Federico, born around 1540, was also a painter and architect. As a young man Taddeo was to be encouraged by
Pompeo da Fano. of Emperor Charles V, Francis I of France, and Alessandro Cardinal Farnese into Paris'',
Villa Farnese (1559). Zuccaro moved to
Rome by age 14, and mainly trained himself by copying earlier masters. He succeeded at an early age in gaining a knowledge of
painting and in finding patrons to employ him. The principal formative influences on him were the façade decorations of
Polidoro da Caravaggio. When he was seventeen a pupil of
Correggio, named
Daniele da Parma, engaged him to assist in painting a series of
frescoes in a chapel at Vitto near
Sora, on the borders of the Abruzzi (not corroborated by Freedberg). Zuccaro returned to Rome in 1548, and began his career as a fresco painter, by executing a series of scenes in monochrome from the life of
Marcus Furius Camillus on the front of the palace of a wealthy Roman named Jacopo Mattei. From that time his success was assured, and he was largely employed by the popes
Julius III and
Paul IV, by the della Rovere duke of Urbino, and by other rich patrons. He is documented to have worked alongside
Prospero Fontana in decorating the
Villa Giulia. In 1556, he painted frescoed
Scenes of the Passion in the "Cappella Mattei" of
Santa Maria della Consolazione. His best frescoes were a historical series in
quadro riportato painted on the walls and ceiling of
Villa Farnese at
Caprarola, built for Cardinal
Alessandro Farnese, for which Zuccaro also designed a great quantity of rich decorations in stucco relief after the style of
Giulio Romano and other pupils of
Raphael. Zuccaro's easel pictures are less common than his decorative frescoes. A small painting on copper of the
Adoration of the Shepherds, formerly in the collection of
James II, is now at
Hampton Court Palace. The Caprarola frescoes were engraved and published by Prenner,
Illustri Fatti Farnesiani Coloriti nel Real Palazzo di Caprarola (Rome, 1748–50). He died in Rome in 1566, and was buried in the
Pantheon, not far from Raphael. ==References==