Federico Zuccaro (Born 1540) was an Italian art theorist and painter who became the central figure of the Roman Mannerist School and possibly the best known painter in Europe after the death of Titian. From 1555 to 1563, he was the pupil and helper of the painter Taddeo Zuccaro, his older brother. Because his older brother closely supervised his work, the two had an intense rivalry for a time. Zuccaro was offended, especially when his brother retouched some of his work. Zuccaro was already working in the Vatican by the time he was 18. He used to paint various rooms for Pius IV. He traveled to Venice in 1564 to decorate the Grimani Chapel in San Francesco della Vigna with various paintings, including Conversion of Mary Magdalene and Adoration of the Magi.
In 1565, he moved to Florence, where he worked under Giorgio Vasari, the architect, painter, and biographer, and codified the theory of Mannerism. After Taddeo’s death, Zuccaro completed some of his brother’s unfinished commissions, including in the Villa Farnese at San Lorenzo and at Caprarola, in the Sala Regia. In 1574, he traveled through England, Spain, and the Netherlands. In 1575 while he was in England Zuccaro painted portraits of the earl of Leicester and of Queen Elizabeth I. His later commissions included the painting of a large work in the Palazzo Ducale at Venice, the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican, and the dome of Florence Cathedral. In 1585 he was commissioned to decorate El Escorial by Philip II in Madrid. Many considered his Mannerist style to be too formal, though, and much of his work was later replaced.
