Biography

Italian painter, cousin of Lorenzo Zacchia (Zacchia il Giovane). Several name variants exist: Zacchia il Vecchio, Ezechia da Vezzano; Paolo Zacchia. However, there is no documentary support for the latter.

His father, Antonio Zacchia, was a native of Vezzano and traditionally it is thought that the painter was born there. There are no records of the date at which he first became resident of Lucca or of his Christian name. His activities in Lucca are mentioned in documents from 1530, 1531 and 1556. The meagre information afforded by these references is supplemented by a dated Adoration of the Shepherds in Pietrasanta, showing Zacchia to have been active as early as 1519, and by a dated Ascension in San Salvatore a Mustolio, Lucca, proving that he was still alive in 1661. These two works are separated by three signed and dated altarpieces, an Assumption of 1527 (Sant'Agostino, Lucca), a second Assumption of 1532 (San Pietro Somaldi, Lucca), and a Madonna and Saints of 1545 (San Lorenzo della Cappella), as well as a series of undated panels. The early Pietrasanta painting indicates that he was a pupil of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.