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The First Fruits of the Earth Offered to Saturn

1555–56
Not on view
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The First Fruits of the Earth Offered to Saturn
  • Artist: Giorgio Vasari (Italian, Arezzo 1511–1574 Florence)
  • Date: 1555–56
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over traces of red chalk
  • Dimensions: 6 3/4 x 15 7/16in. (17.2 x 39.2cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1971
  • Object Number: 1971.273
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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