A masterpiece of brotherly love

Before graphic novels became a genre and a cottage industry, comic books were the medium of choice for American adolescents whose literary appetites where satisfied by tales of misfits, superheroes and unbelievable feats.

And long before that, Federico Zuccaro (1541-1609) made a series of deliciously quick drawings about his own superhero, his older brother Taddeo Zuccaro (1529-66), whose story is so full of drama and detail, diligence and dedication, suffering and success, that it seems to have been scripted for a movie.

At the J. Paul Getty Museum, these 20 ink and chalk drawings are the heart and soul of “Taddeo and Federico Zuccaro: Artist-Brothers in Renaissance Rome.” Organized by associate curator of drawings Julian Brooks, the endearing exhibition provides heart-tugging insights into the trials, tribulations and triumphs of a young artist in the big city. At the same time, it taps into age-old myths about hard work, creativity and the ways both are supposed to be rewarded by a thriving market.

The exhibition’s approximately 80 images fall into four roughly equal groups: Along with the famous suite of drawings that the Getty purchased in 1999, recognized as the first illustrated artist’s biography in Western art, are 18 more drawings by Federico, 20 by Taddeo and 21 by their contemporaries, some well known, such as Giorgio Vasari and Pietro Francesco Alberti.

Everything starts with Federico’s accessible pictures of his brother’s struggles as a young unknown artist. In a fresh, unfussed-over style that combines swift, whiplash lines and quick, confidently brushed washes, Federico compresses loads of emotion, lots of action and an abundance of everyday detail into vivid scenes that are as easy to read as comics and as coherent as old-fashioned cartoons, their straightforward stories unfolding a frame at a time, the sequence building into a drama with all of the ups and downs of life.

The adventure begins as two tough angels, one armed with a spear, drag the 14-year-old Taddeo away from his stoic parents outside the front door of their comfortable home in a small town on the Adriatic coast. As the aspiring artist looks longingly over his shoulder, 2-year-old Federico clings to his mother’s dress, looking less saddened by his brother’s departure than scared that his turn is coming soon.

To ensure that viewers know who is who, Federico has identified the boys by neatly printing their names on the drawing, Taddeo’s on his jacket and his own on the ground by his ankle. He has also labeled the scene with the number 2 in the upper right corner.

The next image depicts Taddeo and Minerva, the Roman goddess of learning and the arts, standing on a hill outside Rome and surveying its glories, including the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Column of Antoninus and the aqueduct of Claudius. Drawing number 4 shows Taddeo at a gate to the city, carrying a yoke, a symbol of servitude. He is greeted by Toil, a haggard, grim-faced woman, and Servitude and Hardship, similarly scary characters standing behind her. All are labeled. The ox and ass are not, but they symbolize Patience and Obedience, virtues of Taddeo’s that will soon be tested.

As the story unfolds over the next four years, Taddeo is rejected by his cousin, painter Francesco il SantAngelo; inspired by the allegorical figures of Fortitude, Patience, Industry, Study and Intelligence; and hired as an assistant by painter Giovanni Piero Calabrese. Taddeo works tirelessly, grinding colors, holding lamps and running errands while doing double duty as houseboy for his master’s notoriously unpleasant wife.

In drawing number 10, Taddeo appears four times: making the bed, hauling wood and water, putting away supplies and starting the kitchen fire without having time to put away the broom that has fallen to the floor beside him. All the while, Calabrese’s wife sits heavily in the middle of the composition, her back to a large window through which Rome’s splendors are visible, most notably St. Peter’s Basilica. To make sure no one misses the point, next to her Federico has printed “wife of Calabrese, lazy and good for nothing.”

Despite these hardships, Taddeo stays up at night, drawing by moonlight. Eventually, he quits his job, works as a day laborer and dedicates every spare moment to making studies and sketches of the monuments and masterpieces that surround him, including a facade by Polidoro and frescoes by Raphael.

Overworked and poor, he falls ill, suffers hallucinations and returns home, where he is nursed back to health by his loving family. He again departs for Rome, this time led by the Three Graces.

He continues his studies, making drawings of the Laocoon and Michelangelo’s ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The narrative ends with Taddeo as an 18-year-old success, working, with a bunch of assistants, on the commission that established his reputation: the facade of the Palazzo Mattei.

In Federico’s drawing of his brother’s triumph, all of the city’s major artists, including Michelangelo and Vasari, watch in admiration from the street below, alongside a young boy on an errand who also has stopped to watch the master at work. Taddeo’s exceptional draftsmanship made him one of the most famous artists of his time.

The rest of the exhibition features drawings he made over the next 20 years, before he died, unexpectedly, at 37. Taddeo’s vigorous, energetic images of figures striding through space and twisting to show their muscular bodies are often paired with drawings of similar subjects by Federico. Many are preparatory studies for commissioned facades on which the brothers collaborated.

When Federico was only 9, his parents left him in Rome with the 21-year-old Taddeo, who taught him the tricks of the trade and the virtues of hard work.

Federico made the series that is the show’s centerpiece in 1595, when he was in his mid-50s and his brother had been dead for almost 30 years. The warmth of his brother’s memory comes through in the drawings’ unselfconscious intimacy.

In contrast, the seven paintings made from the drawings are nowhere near as charming. Painted on silver-leaf-coated leather by Federico or his studio, the rarely seen paintings are fascinating historical curiosities and a treat to see. They are also almost cheesy in their bathos and a far cry from the sweetness of Federico’s down-to-earth originals.

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‘Taddeo and Federico Zuccaro’

Where: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

Ends: Jan. 6

Price: Free

Contact: (310) 440-7300 or www.getty.edu