Giorgio Vasari

The drawing has been eaten by silverfish in a few places around the margins, clearly visible in the reproduction in the catalogue. There are four other round small holes also from silverfish on the drawn area: three on the soldier's back towards the left margin and one on the helmet of Saul. There are to the right three splashes of brown studio stains. The ink has bitten the paper here in two small areas. There are three other light grey stains along the legs of Saul and a few other small stains scattered around. Overall the pen ink and chalk and wash are strong and paper quite robust. The colour of the reproduction in the catalogue is weaker than in reality with the drawing darker in tone.
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This previously unknown and important addition to the corpus of drawings by Giorgio Vasari, is a finished study with minor differences for the fresco representing The Conversion of Saul, part of the ceiling decoration in the Compagnia di Gesú, Cortona.  Mentioned in Vasari's Ricordanze¹ the decorative scheme for the Oratorio del Gesú, today part of the Museo diocesano del Capitolo, was begun in 1554 and completed in December 1555, by Vasari with the help of Cristofano Gherardi, called il Doceno (1508-1556), his main assistant on this project.  The long space of the oratory includes frescoes on the lateral walls, with twelve separate representations of sacrifices from the Old Testament, and on the ceiling three large compartments. These include in the centre The Transfiguration, in an oval, flanked by two large horizontal scenes: The Conversion of Saul (fig. 1) and Christ in Limbo.  

The present sheet is squared for transfer and differs from its painted counterpart in a few respects: notably, the soldier to the far left does not hold a large banner, while the one far right holds a small flag instead of a shield.  Moreover, the head of a young man, visible to the right looking up towards Christ, has been substituted in the fresco with the profile of a bearded oldish man.  In the present sheet the figures in the composition are seen from a closer viewpoint, within enclosing framing lines, and although they appear more compressed in the space, the overall effect is more dramatic and more impressive than in the fresco.   A sketch related to the central compartment with The Transfiguration, first identified as the work of Vasari by Kenneth Clark, is in the British Museum.³  As the present drawing demonstrates, Vasari not only devised the overall scheme for the decoration but also designed the individual compartments.  The execution of the frescoes was, however, largely left to his assistant, Gherardi, who some scholars believe was also responsible for some of the drawings for the Sacrifices on the lateral walls, now in the Uffizi.⁴ A drawn copy of the fresco for The Conversion of Saul was sold in London, Sotheby's, 10 December 1979, lot 401 (as Follower of Vasari).

Florian Härb will include the present sheet in his forthcoming publication on the drawings of Giorgio Vasari.

1. Vasari-Frey, Ricordo 224, II, p. 872
2. Uffizi, inv. no. 33 orn; photo Gernsheim 151349
3. British Museum, inv. no. 1858-11-13-31;  N. Turner, Florentine Drawings of the Sixteenth Century, London 1986, no. 137, reproduced
4. Uffizi, inv. No. 7086F, 7084F, 7093F, 7083F; see P. Barocchi, Vasari Pittore, Milan 1964, p. 134, 49a, 49b, 50a, 50b, reproduced. Florian Härb believes the Uffizi sheets to be later copies after Vasari's original drawings