A red chalk drawing for the fresco of the Blinding of Elymas in the Frangipani Chapel, San Marcello al Corso, Rome.

This drawing is a small preparatory cartoon drawn in red chalk and squared in black chalk for the fresco decoration of the chapel vault with scenes from the life of St Paul, commissioned from Taddeo Zuccaro between 1556 and 1558. After Taddeo’s death in 1566, the vault was completed by his brother Federico.

As recounted in the Acts of the Apostles (13: 6-12), Paul punished the magician Elymas for trying to prevent his preaching in the presence of the Proconsul of Paphos. Elymas was temporarily blinded and the Proconsul was converted.  

Taddeo studied the composition and the individual figures in a number of drawings before reaching the final result in the painting. A drawing in the Royal Collection (RCIN 906016), with the Proconsul at the centre and the figures of Saint Paul and Elymas at each side of the throne, shows a first idea for the composition, probably inspired by Raphael’s cartoon for a tapestry of the same subject for the Sistine Chapel (RCIN 912948). A black chalk drawing in the Uffizi (Inv. 11007 F, as Federico Zuccari) shows the figure of St Paul seen from behind. In another drawing in the British Museum, in red chalk, the artist depicts the saint standing turned to the left. In this finished and accomplished drawing, Taddeo distanced himself from the symmetric composition of Raphael, by moving the figure of Paul to the right and Elymas to the centre, enhancing the dramatic gestures and effects of the miracle.