I primi frutti della terra offerti a Saturno (1555-1556)

Vasari, Giorgio (1511-1574)

I primi frutti della terra offerti a Saturno (The First Fruits of the Earth Offered to Saturn)
15551556
Pen, ink and chalk, 17.2 x 39.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

The drawing, surely from the hand of Vasari himself, is a study for an Allegory of Earth painted by his assistant Cristofano Gherardi in the Sala degli Elementi, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. There are a number of differences between the preparatory drawing and the finished fresco. Vasari supplied a full description of the complex symbolism of this allegorical composition that is dominated by the figure of Saturn holding up a serpent that bites its own tail. This circular symbol is said to be an Egyptian hieroglyph, symbolic of the rotundity of the heavens among other things. (MET)