Volumi Speciali by Bollettino d'Arte Ministero della Cultura
ATTI DEL CONVEGNO INTERNAZIONALE DI ROMA
28–30 novembre 2013
a cura di
ANGELA CIPRIANI, GIU... more ATTI DEL CONVEGNO INTERNAZIONALE DI ROMA
28–30 novembre 2013
a cura di
ANGELA CIPRIANI, GIULIA FUSCONI, CARLO GASPARRI, MARIA GRAZIA PICOZZI, LUCIA PIRZIO BIROLI STEFANELLI
a cura di Claudia Conforti & Giovanna Sapori
Issues' Summaries by Bollettino d'Arte Ministero della Cultura
Bollettino d'Arte del Minisero della cultura
LUIGI TODISCO
Additional thoughts on the Tomb of the Diver
This paper takes another look at M... more LUIGI TODISCO
Additional thoughts on the Tomb of the Diver
This paper takes another look at Mario Napoli’s 1970 illustrated reconstruction of the Tomb of the Diver in Paestum, as it probably appeared at the moment of the burial. His drawing emphasises a need to interpret the tomb’s iconographic elements as a cohesive whole. Further analysis of the scene painted on the lid provides additional elements for a symbolic interpretation of the image, particularly concerning
the deceased’s aspiration to a blissful life after death.
MARINA ANNA LAURA MENGALI
Unveiling mediaeval towns: Hidden 12th to 15th century street fronts
This paper is the conclusion of extensive research into what today we see as the the facades of mediaeval buildings in historical town centres of various regions of central Italy, including Umbria, Tuscany and northern Lazio. It looks into how Italian towns may have appeared to the eye during the Middle Ages.
CLAUDIO SECCARONI
Reconstruction of Botticelli’s altarpiece for the church of San Paolino in Florence
The August 2015 issue of The Burlington Magazine, a prestigious English monthly periodical, carried an article by Alexander Röstel on Botticelli’s Pietà. Though now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Röstel traced its original site back to the altar of the main chapel of San Paolino, in Florence. Research is based on documentary sources in Florence, describing the altarpiece as a triptych with closable side panels.
This paper puts forward an identification for the previously unidentified paintings that once adorned the doors.
BENEDETTA MATUCCI
Rediscovering ancient gilding and the possibility of a secret portrait
This paper focuses on Francesco da Sangallo’s Virgin with Child and Saint Anne, a marble sculptural group in the church of Orsanmichele. It accompanies a diagnostic analysis of traces of gilding on the work, part of a project promoted by the Bargello Museums, that involved the National Institute of Optics and the Institute of Sciences for Cultural Heritage of the National Research Council of Florence. As a
supplement to the scientific findings, the paper illustrates examples of Sangallo’s marble gilding techniques, drawn from his body of work, as well as from evidence recently discovered by Alex Röstel.
BENEDETTA CANTINI
Evidence of gilding on the works of Francesco da Sangallo: Investigation, results and future research
The paper examines the analysis of traces of gilding found on Francesco da Sangallo’s sculptural group in the church of Orsanmichele in Florence. Comparing documented artistic techniques with data from a non–invasive diagnostic analysis of the traces of gold on the marble sculptural group, Sangallo’s proved to be original. Detailed ultraviolet light observation revealed the sculptor’s use of gold in the details,
which is comparable to techniques Donatello had used in the previous century. Gilding is also evident in another of Sangallo’s works: Cardinal Leonardo Buonafede’s funeral monument in the Certosa del Galluzzo.
BARBARA SALVADORI – SILVIA INNOCENTI – SOFIA BRIZZI – JANA STRIOVA
Scientific investigations into the marble sculptural group
As part of a collaboration between the Bargello Museums and the National Research Council of Florence, traces of colour found on Francesco da Sangallo’s sculptural group have been analysed. It may be that some of the sixteenth–century gilding was removed during later cleaning. A completely non–invasive approach was used, involving complementary elemental (XRF) and molecular (Raman) spectroscopy
techniques. Traces of gold leaf came to light, applied to a preparation of materials in use during the sixteenth century, such as cinnabar, red ochre, white lead, and chalk. No evidence for the use of modern pigments was found.
FRANCESCO ZAGNONI
The portrait of Girolamo Carlo Baciocchi by Lorenzo Bartolini and its replicas
This paper traces the history of a marble bust of Girolamo Carlo Baciocchi, son of Elisa Bonaparte and Felice Baciocchi. The piece, by Lorenzo Bartolini (1777–1850), is housed in Versailles and has often been mistaken to be the bust of the King of Rome that the Monegasque sculptor François–Joseph Bosio (1768–1845) presented at the Paris Salon in 1812. This paper disputes this identification, given the discovery of a new marble replica of Bartolini’s portrait in the crypt of the Baciocchi chapel in San Petronio, Bologna, where Girolamo is buried.
DAMIANO IACOBONE
The completion of the facade of the church–ossuary of Mussoi in Belluno (1935–1949): The architect Alberto Alpago–Novello and the figurative arts
The paper focuses on the completion of the church–ossuary of Mussoi in Belluno, in particular the fresco planned for its façade. The subject of the fresco was originally conceived by the church’s designer, the architect Alberto Alpago–Novello (1889–1985). Various artists, including Aldo Carpi, Luigi Tito, Luigi Filocamo, Pino Casarini and Pietro Cortellezzi, had drawn up their own original plans for the work, prior
to its conception. Ultimately, the fresco was created by Cortellezzi, and finished in 1949, over a decade after the church’s construction. Though an apparently complicated business, it is a perfect example of the relationship between the exponents of different arts in the interwar period. Prominent architects of
the time aspired to artistic complexity in their work. The multiplicity of the stakeholders involved in such a project is also emblematic; from the church’s patronage, being the main benefactor, to the building’s
designer, each intent on having their say in the work’s completion.
PAOLA D’AGOSTINO
The renovation of the Orsanmichele Museum
This brief paper illustrates the renovation, safety measures and improved access put in place, and the redesigned layout of the Orsanmichele Complex in Florence, an emblematic landmark steeped in the city’s history of commerce, guilds, arts and religious devotion. The works were finalised in 2023, made possible thanks to an exceptional loan from the Ministry of Culture, as part of its 2017–2018 “Major Cul-
tural Heritage Projects” initiative. The winning project, by the two architectural firms Map and Natalini, was chosen by a committee of Ministry officials in 2019. Hand in hand with the building’s renovation, the pieces on display in the complex underwent maintenance and restoration.
STEFANIA BISAGLIA – LIA MONTEREALE
Compulsory purchase orders prior to export: Safeguarding artworks in case of non–acquisition
The paper examines issues concerning Article 70 of Legislative Decree No. 42 of 2004, the “Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code”. It outlines procedures that must be followed by the export offices of the Ministry of Culture in the event of an unsuccessful compulsory purchase order. The Directorate General for Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape has set out interpretative clarifications on the appropriate course of action. The paper outlines the Ministry’s stance, underlining its efforts to strengthen compul-
sory purchase procedures in the case of an item being declared of national cultural interest. Under the new guidelines, export offices can present a compulsory purchase order even if only one of the criteria specified in Ministerial Decree No. 537 of 2017 is met. Previously at least two criteria needed to be met before a free movement certificate could be withheld.
DANIELE SANGUINETI – NINO SILVESTRI
The “refound” Spinola Clock: A masterpiece of sculpted Baroque furnishing
for the National Gallery of Liguria
The grandiose clock is a rare example of late Baroque furnishings present in Genoese homes. It was first mentioned by Federigo Alizeri in his 1875 Guida illustrativa as standing in the hall of Palazzo Spinola all’Acquasola in Genoa (now the headquarters of the Prefecture on via Roma). Back then, this was the town-house of the Lerma branch of the Marquises of Spinola. Andrea, Giovanni Battista, Antonio and Stefano,
the sons of Luigi, had purchased the Palazzo in 1859 from Massimiliano Spinola, Count of Tassarolo. The four had previously resided in Palazzo Lercari Spinola. It seems probable that the furnishings, including the clock, were brought here from their former residence on via degli Orefici. This was Luigi’s family home, where their ancestor Giovanni Filippo Spinola had had some of the living rooms decorated in the very early 18th century by Domenico Parodi’s workshop. Alizeri had attributed the ornamental work to Anton Maria Maragliano, a renowned wood sculptor active in Genoa from the late 17th to early 18th centuries.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL
A ‘cold case’ at Villa Albani: The hydrophore statue near the so–called Ruin... more LUCILLA DE LACHENAL
A ‘cold case’ at Villa Albani: The hydrophore statue near the so–called Ruined Temple
The paper examines both the past and relatively recent history of the fountain graced with a bathing female hydrophore statue near the Ruined Temple in the garden of Villa Albani–Torlonia.
LUCA FABBRI
The Master of San Floriano di Valpolicella, also known as Leonardo da Verona: A previously unheralded protagonist in Veronese wooden sculpture, on the cusp between the 15th and 16th centuries
The paper sheds light on a few sculptures which were, for the most part, created in the Scaligero area during the 15th and 16th centuries.
MARIO AVAGNINA – ALESSIO CARDACI – PAOLA COGHI – LUIGI COPPOLA – GIUSEPPINA FAZIO. ALESSANDRO GRASSIA – MARITA GUCCIONE – FRANCESCA ROMANA LIGUORI – PAOLA MASTRACCI, MARIA JOÃO REVEZ – ANTONELLA VERSACI – ELISABETTA VIRDIA
MAXXI: A project for its maintenance and renovation
In 2016, the MAXXI Foundation obtained two loans from the then Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (MiBAC) today’s Ministero della cultura with different goals: one was to put in motion a first cycle of maintenance for the main building; the other aimed at completing the museum and re–purposing those buildings of the former Montello barracks still standing. t the formal characteristics of the Zaha Hadid project. The paper retraces the steps behind this complex operation, various thematic aspects and the multidisciplinary approach.
ALESSANDRA ACCONCI
The painted crucifix of San Simeone di Alvito. An hypothesis that it may have been produced in the Ornatista workshop
Conservation work on the painted crucifix housed in the Collegiate Church of San Simeone Profeta in Alvito (FR) was terminated in 2018. The process was financed by Intesa Sanpaolo as part of the XVIII edition of their Restituzioni project. The piece was first restored between 1980 and 1981, on behalf of the Superintendency, coinciding with the “rediscovery” of the until then unpublished work. This Crucifixion follows a standard typology of “triumphant crucifixes”, with Christ flanked by the Virgin
and Saint John the Evangelist. The sober colouring of the panel’s artistic horizon is enriched by an extensive layer of moulded and gilded stucco. This would seem to lodge it deep within the specificities of the late Komnenian artistic expression of central–southern Italy.
.
GIUSEPPE AMMENDOLA – CHIARA MUNZI
The condition of the Alvito Crucifix today and previous attempts to restore it
The Alvito Crucifix dates back to the first decades of the 13th century. It is an important part of an extensive collection of central Italian painted crosses from the Middle Ages. These were produced in specialised workshops by a team craftsmen made up of shipwrights, painters, sculptors and gilders, all working together. Ongoing restoration, supported by the diagnostic evidence, is providing a valuable insight
into the material composition of the piece. Analysis has revealed the meticulous approach taken in the organisation of the various stages of the crucifix’s manufacture, right from its initial design layout.
Bollettino d'Arte del Ministero della cultura
GIANLUCA AMATO
Lupo di Francesco in Empoli and Tino di Camaino in Pisa and Siena: New proposals
... more GIANLUCA AMATO
Lupo di Francesco in Empoli and Tino di Camaino in Pisa and Siena: New proposals
LORENZO BOFFADOSSI
The Lelio Orsi frescoes brought to the Galleria Estense from the Rocca di Novellara
MATTEO CERIANA
An Emperor and a Cardinal, two restored busts in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello
DAMIANO IACOBONE
Gio Ponti and Alberto Alpago–Novello (with Mario Sironi): The initial stages of the 1930 IV International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Monza
ANTONELLA CLEMENTONI
Alfonso Bartoli and the restoration of the Temple of Venus and Rome: Tension and rivalry between the Excavations Office of the Palatine and Roman Forum and the X Division for Antiquities and Fine Arts of the Governorate
BEATRICE ALAI
Unveiling Italian miniature art in Frankfurt am Main: The collection of cuttings from the Historisches Museum (13th–16th centuries)
ALESSANDRO BROGI – DAVIDE BUSSOLARI – MANUELA MATTIOLI
A ‘refound’ work by Ludovico Carracci for the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
STEFANIA DI MARCELLO
Balancing tradition and innovation in the work of the Regio Istituto Centrale del Restauro between 1939 and 1943
Bollettino d'Arte del Ministero della cultura
MARIA ANTONIETTA RIZZO
Painters in Etruscan Caere during the Orientalising period: The Pittore d... more MARIA ANTONIETTA RIZZO
Painters in Etruscan Caere during the Orientalising period: The Pittore della Sfinge con ‘grembiule’ and the Pittore delle Gru
Previously unpublished finds from long past 1980s excavations in Cerveteri have been dusted off. For the most part these are from graves excavated by Raniero Mengarelli on the Banditaccia burial ground. They provide fresh and stimulating insight into Caere’s seventh–century pottery production.
News about the Montecassino Abbey painting collection: The 1691 ‘Inventory’ (with updates to 1725)
MAURO VINCENZO FONTANA
An unpublished description of the Montecassino painting collection during the 17th century: What is present, absent and an initial identification
The San Benedetto Rooms in Montecassino have always been more than just a holy place worthy of the profoundest devotion
MARIANO DELL’OMO
The 1691–1725 edition of the ‘inventory’ and custody of the San Benedetto rooms in Montecassino between the 17th and 18th centuries
The recently uncovered Inventory of the rooms by Father San Benedetto in the Montecassino Archive is published here for the first time
MARIA BARBARA GUERRIERI BORSOI
Historical documents and Seventeenth–century drawings of Palazzo Vittori–Marcellini, later Sinibaldi, at the Arco della Ciambella in Rome
The wealthy Vittori family were related to families of standing. They had owned property in and around Arco della Ciambella since the 16th century.
ROSSELLA FOSCHI
Carlo Marchionni’s unfinished project for Sutri Cathedral
In 1743 the Congregation of Good Government gave Clemente Orlandi the task of finishing off Carlo Marchionni’s renovation of the medieval cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo in Sutri.
PIERLUIGI PANZA
Piranesi on the third centenary of his birth. Contributions on his influence on Milanese neoclassicism
2020 coincided with the 300th anniversary of Giovan Battista Piranesi’s birth (1720–1778). In spite of the Covid–19 pandemic, some exhibitions were organised to celebrate the event. These shed light on new aspects of the artist’s persona and how his works have been put to use.
MICHELE DANIELI
Gabriele Ferrantini’s «finest work» rediscovered
The paper focuses on a significant piece by Gabriele Ferrantini, which has recently come to light on the art market. The writer recognises it as the altarpiece that originally adorned the Church of San Giorgio in Poggiale, in Bologna, removed in the late 17th century.
Bollettino d'Arte del Ministero della cultura
OLIMPIA COLACICCHI ALESSANDRI, MAURIZIO CHITI, RAFFAELLA DONGHIA, ADOLFO ESPOSITO - MARCO FERRETT... more OLIMPIA COLACICCHI ALESSANDRI, MAURIZIO CHITI, RAFFAELLA DONGHIA, ADOLFO ESPOSITO - MARCO FERRETTI, ROBERTO NARDUCCI, LETIZIA RUSTICO
Two Silver Plated Bronze Feet from the Aventine Hill
During operations of rescue archaeology conducted in a private property on the Aventine Hill, a significant discovery was made. An Ancient Roman townhouse (domus) with exquisite polychrome mosaics from late Republican times came to light.
LUCA CRETI
The High Altar in the Cathedral of Civita Castellana: From the Ottonian Era to its 18th–Century Renovation
The paper presents a historical account of the construction and life of the High Altar in the Cathedral of Civita Castellana (VT). A first, primitive, rectangular altar was built from ancient marble grave slabs between 1000 and 1001, under the patronage of Bishop Crescenziano. It housed the remains of Saints Marciano and Giovanni. They were martyred during one of Diocletian’s persecutions in the early 4th century.
LETIZIA BONIZZONI, PAOLA BORGHESE, SILVIA BRUNI, ANDREA CARINI, MARCO GARGANO, EMANUELA GRIFONI, VITTORIA GUGLIELMI, NICOLA LUDWIG, JACOPO MELADA, CRISTINA QUATTRINI, ROBERTO SACCUMAN
Gaudenzio Ferrari in Milan: The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1539–1540) and its Restoration in the Laboratory of the Pinacoteca di Brera
From 2014 to 2018, the Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alessandria by Gaudenzio Ferrari (Valduggia, documented as born post 1507 – died Milan 1546) was restored, with state funds, in the laboratory of the Pinacoteca
di Brera.
ANDREA DARI
The Church and Convent of Sant’Andrea in Vineis in Faenza: Two previously unpublished 18th–Century plans and reflections on the Work of Domenico Paganelli
The recent discovery of two 18th–century plans associated with the Sant’Andrea in Vineis complex in Faenza, known today as San Domenico, served as a catalyst for exploring the remarkable life of Father Domenico Paganelli (1545–1624).
ANDREA G. DE MARCHI
Guercino, Ruffo and a Holy Family with a Young Saint John
This short contribution discusses a previously unpublished copper artwork attributed to Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, commonly known as il Guercino. It sheds light on a commission by Don Antonio Ruffo, an international art collector from far off Sicily.
SILVIA AGLIETTI
Count Tyszkiewicz’s “Cat”: Insights into an Ivory Figurine Found at Caffarella
The protagonist, at the heart of the sequence of events we attempt to piece together, is a small ivory sculpture. Following its discovery, the piece travelled illicitly backwards and forwards between Italy and France. Its movements involved prominent figures in the antiques market during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
PAOLA MARINI
The Royal Palace of Venice Rediscovered
After more than two decades of dedicated efforts led by the Fondazione Musei Civici and the Municipality of Venice, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per il Comune di Venezia e Laguna, eleven rooms in the former Royal Palace have been opened to the public.
Bollettino d'Arte del Ministero della cultura, 2021
EUGENIO POLITO
A colossal head with a laurel crown from Aquinum Marble fragments of a head with ... more EUGENIO POLITO
A colossal head with a laurel crown from Aquinum Marble fragments of a head with a laurel crown were recently found during the excavation of ancient Aquinum. They have been preliminarily studied prior to restoration. By analysing the dimensions of the
fragments it has been possible to gauge the size of the colossal statue. The appearance of what remains of the face, with its flat and uniform surfaces, and the hairstyle with its short locks cropped close to the skull, identify the statue as a male portrait from the Julio–Claudian era.
BENEDETTA CAGLIOTI
The Cathedral of San Giorgio Martire in Ferrara: Notes and observations on its Fourteenth–century phase
The construction of the Cathedral of San Giorgio Martire in Ferrara began in the 12th century. It was a symbol of the new position the city held in relation to the papacy, as opposed to the latter’s traditional links with Ravenna. Mixing written evidence with a project of surveying and drawing, focussing on the actual physical evidence, the medieval phase of the Cathedral appears to have a harmonious composition within an
overall precise scheme with a regular design and a balanced arrangement of the facades.
GIUSEPPE CASSIO
A new attribution to Cola dell’Amatrice:
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ in the Collegiate Church of Fara in Sabina
A fresco with a Lamentation over the Dead Christ, recently uncovered in the Collegiate Church of Sant’Antonino in Fara in Sabina (Rieti), is one of the earliest known paintings in that religious building. It’s an example of the close link between the town and the nearby Abbey of Santa Maria di Farfa. Between the second half of the fifteenth century and a large part of the sixteenth, the imposing Benedictine “stronghold” had been subjected to frenetic renovation, called for by the commendatory abbots. This included work by Giovanni Battista Orsini (1482–1503). From 1486 to 1514 the Sabine monastery was home to a community of Teutonic monks from the Sacro Speco in Subiaco. There, Nicola di Filotesio, known as Cola dell’Amatrice, had painted the frescoes in the Old Chapter. Documents mention the painter at work in Farfa’s Abbey
in 1508.
ENRICO NOÈ
A Saint John the Baptist by Giulio del Moro
In the parish church of Donada, in the province of Rovigo, there is a little–known marble statue of Saint John theBaptist, signed by the painter and sculptor Giulio del Moro (Verona, around 1555 – Venice, 1616). From an analysis of the piece, the paper moves on to research its possible provenance, perhaps the Church of Santa Giustina
in Venice, and above all its chronology, in the context of the artist’s extensive production. The hypothetical conclusion is that it dates to around 1590. This was the most youthful, and perhaps happiest, period of the maestro.
MARIA TERESA CANTARO
Some news about Lavinia Fontana: From her debut to about 1590
An analysis of some autographed works by Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 – Rome 1614) is presented.
They have changed hands on the antiques market over the last three decades and are now kept in private collections. They include some unpublished works, attributable to the time of the painter’s earliest period. They start with her debut between 1570 and 1575, up to around 1590 when the artist’s activity was now recognised and well known. Brief clarifications are proposed regarding a couple of paintings already linked
to Lavinia Fontana and some new attributions. Finally, some observations are put forward concerning a document transcribed in its entirety for the first time and which casts doubt on the hypothesis of the artist’s stay in Rome during the years of the pontificate of Sixtus V.
CARMELA CAPALDI
From Divus Augustus to Bonaparte:
Notes on the restoration of the colossal seated statues from the Augusteum in Herculaneum
During the first excavations of Herculaneum in what was then known as the Basilica, two colossal marble statues were found representing seated male figures, wrapped only in paludamenta. The building was later correctly identified as the Augusteum, a place for the worship of deceased and deified emperors. The statues, lacking their heads and arms, were subjected to additive restoration, first by Joseph Canart, then Filippo Tagliolini, which made it harder to identify them. Placed in the Bourbon Royal Museum collection, they are mentioned in the first inventory of the museum in 1819, as statues portraying Augustus and Claudius. Scholars have, for the most part, accepted this definition. It has been argued that the plaster head of Augustus was modelled on the portrait of the prince in the Gemma Augustea now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL – ANNA MARIA CARRUBA
Behind the scenes at the Torlonia Marbles exhibition.
New contributions to the exhibition in Milan: analysis, explanation, bibliography and restorations
The new outlay for the Torlonia Marbles exhibition in Milan, in the large and prestigious rooms of the Gallerie d’Italia, provided the opportunity to enrich the exhibition of sculptures already presented in Rome with some new pieces. The paper lists them, giving updated datasheets in terms of bibliography and explanations, recognising two busts as modern. Moreover, a marble copy of Leda and the Swan and the sarcophagus decorated with a Consular procession are accompanied by valuable observations and remarks by those who restored it.
MAURIZIO RICCI
The entrance portal to the Orange Garden: A few annotations
Savello Park, in Rome’s Ripa district, is better known as the Giardino degli Aranci. It was transformed into gardens by Raffaele de Vico in 1932. Its current, Sixteenth–century portal, originally came from Villa Balestra. It was taken apart in 1910 and laid to rest in the municipal deposits. Antonio Munõz had it rebuilt on the Aventine in 1936, partially modifying its construction. The paper, based on an analysis of the remains of Villa Balestra and an important unpublished plan, clarifies once and for all the original site of the gateway.
ALESSIO CIANNARELLA
The Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda: New documents on the restoration of the Domenichino altarpiece and a hypothetical attribution to Giovan Battista Beinaschi
The paper deepens and broadens information about the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda and the rich decorative apparatus inside. Documents held in the church archives have shed light on when and how Raffaele Vanni (1670) unfortunately attempted to restore a painting by Domenichino. His Madonna and Child with Saints Philip and James had been painted between 1626 and 1627. The paper also looks at Vanni’s realisation of an altarpiece of a similar subject to repair the damage after his work on Domenichino’s, it dates to the same year as the restoration. Working from an Eighteenth–century manuscript kept in the Casanatense Library in Rome, and some stylistic comparisons, it is thought that Giovan Battista Beinaschi painted the Crucifix adored by Saint Francis.
FRANCESCA MATTEI
Clay elements in the construction of the vaults of Palazzo Naselli Crispi in Ferrara.
History and geography on Sixteenth–century Este building sites
Palazzo Naselli (1529–1537) was restored between 2018 and 2020. During the work, clay elements came to light, immersed in the cement conglomerate of the vaults of some rooms. The paper traces the building techniques used for the construction of these ceilings, and highlights the relationship between the earliest material evidence, architectural treatises and the architectural projects of the time. Este.
LUCA LEONCINI
Giovanni Maria Mariani at the Palazzo del Quirinale: Documentation of the decoration entrusted to Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the apartments of Alexander VII
This paper presents a complete transcript of the account of the work carried out by Giovanni Maria Mariani on the main floor of the Palazzo del Quirinale, between March and August 1656. He was a perspective painter and decorator, under the supervision of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Mariani’s assignment was a few months prior to that of the group of artists chosen by Pietro da Cortona to decorate the Gran Galleria, later
known as that of Alexander VII. Mariani was involved there too. Until now Giovanni Maria’s duties had been considered «work of an artisan nature», limited to gilding the gallery’s ceiling. Careful examination of documents in Rome’s State Archive has shown instead that the gilding was not done by him, whereas the sweeping painted glossy stucco decorations were. The detailed specifications of what the painter from Ascoli
Piceno was responsible for are to be found in a document which has never previously been analysed, in its entirety, leaving important data untouched upon.
Bollettino d'Arte Ministero della cultura
ANGELO BOTTINI, Metaponto and the Italic tribes: the Garaguso marbles.
This paper presents the r... more ANGELO BOTTINI, Metaponto and the Italic tribes: the Garaguso marbles.
This paper presents the results of a detailed re–examination of the Paros marble “small temple” and “goddess” that came to light in Filera di Garaguso in 1916. Garaguso is a small hillside village built on traces of an Italic, Enotrian, settlement. The contribution is accompanied by images, and provides a few considerations as to the mid fifth century BCE date given to the pieces, as well as their attribution to a Metapontine workshop. More generally it looks into the relationship between the Achaean Polis and inland Italic tribes.
COSTANTINO CECCANTI, Giambologna the architect.
The name Giambologna (1529–1608) is the Italian version of the name, and the one with which he was known, of the Flemish artist Jean de Boulogne. He was born in Douai and went on to become the foremost Late Renaissance sculptor. On top of this, especially from the 1570s onwards, he also worked as an architect. Of this side of his work, which continued up to his death, little is known, as yet. His first architectural projects were for a Florentine nobleman, Bernardo Vecchietti (1514–1590). It was for him that he designed the Ninfeo della Fata Morgana and the Villa del Riposo, south of Florence.
BARBARA AGOSTI, On a possible sojourn of Federico Barocci in the Rome of Pope Gregory XIII.
The Burial of Christ, in the Uffizi, is believed to be a preparatory study by Federico Barocci for his painting of The burial of Christ in the Church of Santa Croce in Senigallia. Annotations on the back of the drawing imply that the maestro from Urbino had paid a visit to see the decoration of the Sala Regia in the Vatican, only just finished by Giorgio Vasari. This, along with other evidence, indicates that Barocci spent some time in Rome in the early years of Gregory XIII Boncompagni’s Pontificate.
LUCA BARONI, Barocci in Portugal (with a memoir of Rudolf Heinrich Krommes).
Juan de Silva was Count of Portalegre and Groom to the King of Portugal. In 1588 he wrote from Lisbon to the artist Federico Barocci da Urbino (c. 1533–1612). The object of the text was a commission for an altarpiece depicting The Crucifixion of Christ and mourners. The go–between in the project was Filippo Terzi. He’d been living in Portugal for years, but had always kept up his ties with his homeland, the Duchy of Urbino. Although the deal never went through, the episode shows how Barocci’s fame on the international circuit was growing. It also sheds light on the diplomatic channels that he was using, putting himself in touch with foreign markets. He provides us with a fortuitous insight into the political and artistic relationship between Urbino and Spain in the second half of the 1500s.
ANTONELLA PAMPALONE, Giovanni Lanfranco’s 1615 contract for the Leonessa altarpiece and details of a painting to attribute to Francesco Cozza.
The contract for the creation of Lanfranco’s splendid Leonessa altarpiece has only recently been uncovered by the writer. It sheds light on the chronology of the painting in 1615, the cultural context in which it was created and any possible intermediaries. With concise reasoning the paper looks into why the original requested subject of the painting was modified, and the thinking behind the iconographic layout. This focuses
on the Saints represented and their cult. The persons involved with the contract have been placed in their historical context, within the town of Leonessa, at the time an important commercial hub. Stylistic analysis sheds light on any comparisons with other, contemporary works, hints of Correggio filtered through the works of the Carracci, and the influence of Carlo Saraceni. There is also a suggestion of this artistic model being revisited by some artists, including Francesco Cozza, who is now attributed a work from Goriano Valli (L’Aquila), previously thought to be by Lanfranco.
FRANCESCO GATTA
From Rome to Europe. New findings on the landscape paintings of Domenichino and Giovanni Battista Viola during the Ludovisi pontificate, and a surprise for Carlo Maratti, painter and collector.
An important landscape painting, that has come to light, depicting the Baptism of the eunuch, in the Carracci style, is attributed to a late phase Giovanni Battista Viola. It provides a chance to look into the image of an ideal landscape during the Ludovisi pontificate (1621–1623), suggesting an answer to the attribution of several works that may be by Domenichino or Viola. It would appear that the Baptism of the eunuch was commissioned by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi. It stands out as having been painted in the same year as the conception of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide (1622). It is likely that the work benefitted from iconographic suggestions from Giovan Battista Agucchi, a scholar and secretary to the Cardinal, as well as a strong believer in the Carracci school. The fame of the painting is confirmed by the list of collections to
which it has belonged. Passing through the hands of the famous art dealer Jaques Meyers in the early 1800s, it ended up in the collection of Philip V of Spain.
GIUSEPPE PORZIO, At the origins of naturalism in Southern Italy.
A contribution for Loys Croys and the debut of Carlo Sellitto Thanks to the discovery of a legal deed dated 1601, it has been possible to attribute an impressive, and until now anonymous, altarpiece to Loys Croys. This elusive artist was one of the principal personalities in the colony of Flemish artists that had settled in Naples between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The altarpeiece depicts The Last Supper and is housed in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Albano di Lucania, province of Potenza. The work has a robust naturalism to it and incorporates the typology and
stylistic motifs that will then be picked up by two of Croys better known pupils, the Caravaggesque Carlo Sellitto and Filippo Vitale. The former is referred to in the document as a witness. The artistic language of the piece, with a strong Nordic accent, is here at its clearest.
Bollettino d'Arte Ministero della cultura
SABRINA MUTINO
From Monte Torretta to Monte Solario.
ANDREA DE MARCHI
The heritage of Duccio... more SABRINA MUTINO
From Monte Torretta to Monte Solario.
ANDREA DE MARCHI
The heritage of Duccio’s Maestà in the Pisan polyptych of Simone Martini
CATERINA BAY – MARIA FALCONE
From its dismemberment to being put together again. The polyptych for the Church
of Santa Caterina of Simone Martini, its material, museographical and critical coverage
PIERLUIGI NIERI
Restoration of the Simone Martini polyptych: confirmations and new evidence
from recent diagnosis and analysis of the technical matter on hand
GIANNI PAPI
The true ownership of the altarpiece now returned to the Church of San Severino
from the Pinacoteca di Brera collection: new thoughts on Baccio Ciarpi
DANIELA DEL PESCO
Palazzo Ardinghelli in L’Aquila: three earthquakes (1703, 1915, 2009) and a Baroque building site
CESARE CROVA
Silvio Radiconcini. From a house for restoration to an organic architecture
LUIGI TODISCO
Short notes about reused Roman lions in Muro Lucano
MARIA ANTONIETTA RIZZO
Two more Sarcophagi of the Spouses from Cerveteri:
previously unpublishe... more MARIA ANTONIETTA RIZZO
Two more Sarcophagi of the Spouses from Cerveteri:
previously unpublished fragments found among old site records and recent discoveries During rescue excavations on Caere’s (today’s Cerveteri) burial grounds, supervised by the Author in the role of inspector for what was then the Soprintendenza dell’Etruria Meridionale, some fragments of two terracotta sarcophagi were found.
NICOLA BUSINO
New considerations on the four–sided portico of Capua Cathedral on the Volturno
Recent ongoing research in Capua has brought to light several elements associated with the foundation of the town on the banks of the River Volturno. The town was set up by the Longobard élite in the mid ninth century. Some lines of research in particular sprang from the re–examination of existing documentation of the four–sided portico of Capua Cathedral. It forms part of an Episcopal complex which has been left substantially uninvestigated, given that it was entirely reconstructed after Second World War damage.
ORAZIO LOVINO
The Renaissance in “Terra di Bari”. New reflections on Maestro d’Andria and Tuccio d’Andria, at a crossroads between Naples and Liguria One of the most fitting pictorial incidents in “Terra di Bari” during the second half of the fifteenth century, if not the whole figurative panorama of what’s known as the southern Renaissance, is made up of the works of the Maestro d’Andria.
VERUSKA PICCHIARELLI
News about Perugino and his atelier: Two previously unpublished preparatory drawings for the Adoration of the Shepherds by Monteripido
The paper centres on two preparatory drawings with Shepherds related to the circle of Pietro Vannucci, known as “il Perugino”. The pieces, previously unknown to art historians, match the characters in a fresco of the Adoration of the Child. This was stripped from the convent of San Francesco al Monte in Perugia, and is now housed in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria.
BEATRICE CACCIOTTI
Copies, mutuations and diffusion of old fashioned portraits during the early Renaissance: the codex h–I–4 in the Escorial library
Codex h–I–4 in the Escorial library contains 142 drawings of mythological, biblical and historical characters. The latter range from ancient times up to the period contemporary to when they were drawn. Most are accompanied by a brief biographical description. The codex was bequeathed to the Escorial by Phillip II. It had
come into his possession in about 1541, from the Lanuza family, whose coat of arms shows up on the cover.
LORENZO PRINCIPI
More about Alessandro della Scala from Carona: his work in Portugal and new reliefs on a Marian theme
The paper systematically discusses traces of Alessandro della Scala’s work in Portugal, taking into account a copious series of reliefs, three of which from Setubal. For the first time the works that make up this group have been written about and systematically published.
ENRICO COLLE
A “table of joys” for Francis I de’ Medici
The tabletop was part of the collection of Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster. The statuary marble base is inlaid with semiprecious stones. The geometrical pattern is typical of works of the kind manufactured in the second half of the 1500s. It had belonged to the Lorraine Medici collection and to the
Royal House of Savoy: the court administration then sold it to William Blundell Spence. Recently, its original inventory numbers came to light, handwritten on the underside.Thanks to these numbers, confronting them with the contemporary archive documents, the story of the tabletop became clear. Going back through
the years it had been accurately registered in all the Lorraine Medici inventories from the time of Francesco I de’ Medici, who had it placed in the Casino di San Marco, his town house in Florence.
GIULIA CERIANI SEBREGONDI
A Doge on the scaffolding: the account books for the construction of Palazzo Donà dalle Rose in Venice. Further considerations
This paper is the second part of a contribution to this same editorial collection, published in 2019. It is devoted to the construction of Ca’ Donà dalle Rose in Venice, between 1610 and 1612. This was the palace that Doge Leonardo Donà had chosen to build as his family house. From an analysis of the building site accounts (receipts and account books) housed in the private family archives, as well as contemporary treatises from the Veneto region, and comparisons with a few other sporadic sources, it’s been possible to piece together in detail the construction techniques and materials used to build the palace. In an overall reconstruction of the evolution of the Donà building site this paper concentrates on the masonry, plastering, guttering and flooring.
PATRIZIA TOSINI
Baldassarre Croce in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome,
a gift for Pedro Fernàndez de Castro, Viceroy of Naples, and his wife Catalina de la Cerda y Sandoval
The paper presents two previously unpublished frescoes. They were painted in 1610 by the Bolognese artist Baldassarre Croce in Palazzo dei Canonici attached to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The paintings are mentioned in documents, but were thought to have been lost. They depict two canonical stories associated with the veneration of the Liberian Basilica. One was dedicated to the Procession of Pope Gregory I with the icon of Salus Populi Romani to put an end to the plague of 590. The other is the Foundation of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore by Pope Liberius.
ADRIANO AMENDOLA
Giovanni Alto is not Giovanni Grosso.
New considerations on the Swiss Ciceroni from Lucerne and Giacomo Lauro’s “Antiquae Urbis Splendor”
Starting from Francesco Villamena’s two engraved portraits, the author was able to resolve the question of the identity of two Swiss guards, Giovanni Alto and Giovanni Grosso. They were among the most famous Ciceroni of Baroque Rome, still remembered and long debated by scholars. Using heraldry it’s been possible
for the first time to distinguish Alto from Grosso, who have often been taken as the same person. An analysis of Alto’s Stammbuch, housed in the Vatican Library and the discovery of his unpublished will has made it possible to better understand the story behind Giacomo Lauro’s Antiquae Urbis Splendor.
GIANLUCA PUCCIO
In the steps of Padre Resta in the Capodimonte drawings
A series of photographs of the so called “Collezione borbonica” in the Capodimonte museum has come to light in the archives. They date to the mid 1960s and provide a chance to reconstruct the original appearance of many of the drawings, before being subjected to a radical restoration that unfortunately led to them being detached from
their original supporting sheets. The photographs show that about 250 of them were mounted inside a frame in
ANNA MARIA RICCOMINI
Two artists at the Mausoleum of Augustus: Joseph Nollekens and Pietro Ronzoni
The paper analyses a drawing thought to be by Joseph Nollekens, now housed in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London, and a painting held in a private collection, by the Bergamascan artist Pietro Ronzoni. They are both views of the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome. The pictures provide further evidence about the Soderini family collection of ancient sculpture, on display among the ruins of
the Imperial tomb. It’s Nollekens drawing that best captures the four statues that, from the middle of the 1500s, stood at the entrance to the hanging gardens and at the foot of the stairs leading up to the entrance to Palazzo Soderini.
BERTRAND DE ROYERE
A silver table service by Charles Nicolas Odiot for King Charles Albert of Savoy
In 1834 King Charles Albert of Sardinia ordered an exceptional silver service from Charles Nicolas Odiot for his palace in Turin. The wealth and beauty of this collection of silverware earned it the right to be presented the same year at the Paris Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie. The preparatory drawings for the tableware are identified here amongst those formerly in the archives of Odiot’s famous Parisian maison, subsequently scattered and lost. These have thrown light on the technical and stylistic evolution of French goldsmiths during the Restoration. This was a period of uncertainty between the very captivating neo–Baroque taste coming out of England at the time and echoes of the great neoclassical goldsmiths.
ANGELO BOTTINI – AZZURRA SCARCI
Torre di Satriano: old discoveries, new dates
This paper takes ... more ANGELO BOTTINI – AZZURRA SCARCI
Torre di Satriano: old discoveries, new dates
This paper takes a further look at a small group of graves first published in the 1960s by R. Ross Holloway. They were from two burial grounds. One lies “some 700 metres northwest of the hilltop”. The other is on the “Faraone 1” site in the Torre Satriano area, home to an important “nord-lucana” Italic community researched by M. Osanna.
The original fifth century date given to the graves has been backdated to the seventh or the first decades of the sixth century. This has followed a philological reexamination of the grave goods, in the light of recent research into the differences between offensive and defensive weapons. This now places the graves among the
earliest yet found in the area.
MARIANNA CASTIGLIONE
The Kharayeb (Tyre) models in a Mediterranean landscape:
evidence of Greek culture in Hellenistic Phoenicia?
The paper presents some terracotta Hellenistic statuettes found in the Kharayeb sanctuary in Lebanon, active between the seventh and first centuries BCE. It illustrates just how much Greek culture had seeped into such a “peripheral” context as the hinterland of ancient Tyre. The images chosen are for the most part so-called Hellenistic koinè. These can be found throughout the Mediterranean world. The debate revolves around how much these are evidence for the local culture’s servile adhesion to, or autonomous adaption to the Greek, or whether they are nothing more than local craftsmen’s adaption to market trends.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL
Giustiniani digressions: the «Fauno antico ... in atto di gridare» and its restoration.
A collector’s item
The paper discusses the bust of a satyr of the same type as a bronze example found in Herculaneum. In the first decades of the seventeenth century it was in the Giustiniani Collection. The extraordinary quality of its manufacture has made it celebrated and appreciated through the centuries. Even its careful and limited restoration in the 1600s has been considered a mark of distinction, tying it to
a very specific cultural mood, until now little noted by the critics. The brothers Benedetto and Vincenzo Giustiniani were no doubt a part of this movement, both refined collectors and the first owners of this ancient marble.
SYLVIA DIEBNER – FRANCESCA LEMBO FAZIO
A museum to house the Torlonia collection of ancient artefacts:
two of Vincenzo Fasolo’s projects in the post war years
Post 1940 the architect Vincenzo Fasolo found himself drawing up plans for a “Museum for ancient artefacts” within Villa Torlonia in Roma. The idea was to transfer the Torlonia Collection from the rooms it was housed in in Via della Lungara. The blueprints for his work are in the Fasolo Archives kept in the Archivio Storico Capitolino. Fasolo had two differing architectural approaches to the job. They illustrate the stylistic and museographic changes going on in said debate during the years after the Second World War. Neither of the two proposals ever saw the light of day.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL
From the Torlonia Museum in Via della Lungara to the exhibition in Palazzo Caffarelli.
A history of protecting archaeological patrimony in private hands
The paper, as can be seen from the subtitle above, presents the history of the Ministry’s activity in the preservation of a particularly excellent collection of antiquities, that of Prince Torlonia. This activity has run from the late 1800s up to the present day.
The various operations that the State undertook are illustrated, in its protection of one of the largest and interesting patrimonies of Rome. On top of this, following the demolition, in 1892, of the family’s palace that had stood in what is now Piazza Venezia, the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica was enriched with a
donation of paintings and sculptures. The draughting of better articulated protective legislation since the early 1900s has placed many important restrictions on the collections of antiquities housed in the Torlonia
family’s various palaces and villas. At the same time a better and more adequate arrangement is being sought for the collection of marble sculpture housed in Via della Lungara, which over the years has remained closed to the public.
DANIELE SANGUINETI
Precisions over Van Dyck and the altarpiece for Francesco Orero in the Church of San Michele di Pagana
The paper examines the only altarpiece left by Anton Van Dyck in the ancient Republic of Genoa. It was commissioned by the merchant Francesco Orero for the noble chapel in the Church of San Michele di Pagana, near Rapallo.
Until now it was believed that the parish accounts indicated that Orero, in 1627, had funded the construction of a “new chapel”. Actually, more careful reading of the accounts entry shows that it refers to a shrine dedicated to Sant’Orsola, furnished with an altarpiece in 1628 by Orazio Bisagno. From a detailed analysis of Orero’s will, drawn up in 1643, it becomes clear that the family chapel was as yet unfinished. The importance of the role of his brother Bernardo in finishing the furnishings also emerges. Just two months after the death of his brother in 1644, he drew up a contract to commission two sculptors, Francesco Falcone and Battista Barberino,
active in Genova at the time.
CRISTIAN PRATI
The Oratorio del Serraglio in San Secondo Parmense:
reflections, news and observations on the restoration
The paper pieces together the main events during the construction of the Oratorio del Serraglio in San Secondo Parmense, with its extraordinary decoration by Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (1657–1743) and Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734). It hopes to shed light on a series of as yet unpublished observations made during the recent restoration and consolidation, part of a broader and more complex operation to conserve the Oratory. Thanks to scaffolding it was possible to get a privileged close up view of the work. As a result it we could check things that had previously been left undocumented. Though there is no new archive evidence, the paper illustrates certain elements that have so far only marginally been treated in the past. These include the numerous restorations the work was subject to during the 1900s, unfortunately not always well documented.
GILDA P. MANTOVANI – FABRIZIO LOLLINI
Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, Martino da Modena and a refound codex for Ercole I d’Este
The paper focuses on a manuscript that was destroyed during the Second World War. There is, however, one photograph left and a description from an early 1900s pubblication. Until now overlooked, it was probably a dedicated copy of the anonymous Historia di Piramo et Tisbe, derived from the Ovidian tradition and staged
by Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, a celebrated humanist. His hand is clearly identifiable in the text. It documents the relationship with members of the court of Ferrara, Ercole in particular, to whom the codex is dedicated.
This was some time prior to Ercole’s rise to power following the death of his brother Borso in the summer of 1471.
RICCARDO LATTUADA
A new ‘Saint Michael’ by Cavalier d’Arpino:
the travels of a creation from Rome to Macerata, and from Macerata to Gragnano
The paper deals with the identification of a Saint Michael the Archangel by Giuseppe Cesari, Cavaliere d’Arpino (Arpino 1568 – Roma 1640). It was found in the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Gragnano, near Naples. The work is almost certainly the “cartoon” presented by the painter prior to the laying of Giovan Battista Calandra’s first micromosaic as an altarpiece in St Peter’s Basilica. The painting may have been part of the Barberini Collection in Rome. It was intended for the main altar of the church in the Franciscan monastery of Saint Michael the Archangel al Trivione in Gragnano. It’s not clear when it arrived at the monastery, but it may have been thanks to the Cardinal of Naples, Ascanio Filomarino.
FRANCESCA GIRELLI - The Arch of Sant’Agostino in Pavia: a work by Giovanni di Balduccio
The Arch... more FRANCESCA GIRELLI - The Arch of Sant’Agostino in Pavia: a work by Giovanni di Balduccio
The Arch of Sant’Agostino is to be found in the Church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, Pavia. It’s one of the most disputable monuments of fourteenth century Italy. There is debate over both its date and who created it. There are a series of argumentations that tie it to the later period of Giovanni di Balduccio. Works by this Pisan sculptor
date to between 1318 and 1349, and are to be found in Pisa, Florence, Bologna and Milan. The problem of who produced the Pavian Arch is complicated by the difficulty in giving a convincing date to the tomb. It has been variously placed between about 1350 and 1380, and occasionally even as late as the fifteenth century.
Following a new photographic project and a complete overhaul of the fonts, bibliography and other on hand data, this paper re–evaluates the monument. Its intention is to demonstrate that Giovanni di Balduccio provided the design as well as onsite direction for the project. To do this, a “broader” vision has been taken, from an entrepreneurial point of view, in which the authorship of the work is shared with, if not delegated to, the site supervisor and administrator of the artistic studio, the concept of a brain behind a project.
FEDERICA SIDDI - Additions to Lombardy’s Late Gothic: two wooden sculptures of the Madonna and Child
This paper presents two previously unpublished wooden images of the Madonna. One is housed in the Church of San Vittore in Casalzuigno (Varese), the other in the Church of San Rocco Confessore in Zeccone (Pavia). The two works came to light during a broader survey carried out by the author in Lombardy. They go to join the body of examples of early fifteenth century Lombard carvings. The two of them fit into the pattern of figurative representations that had been honed down during the construction of Milan’s Duomo, from the beginning of the fifteenth century onwards.
When taking the province as a whole, considering they were found scattered far and wide, the rediscovered Madonna’s offer a chance to reflect on the diffusion of such a fortuitous idiom also amongst the wood carvers of the time. They go to show a substantial alignment in styles with those of their better known colleagues, the painters and sculptors. This was an exchange of views that was to prove to be extremely productive and long lasting.
ELENA CERA - Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino, Bartolomeo Buon and a few questions about Venetian sculpture in the mid fifteenth century
This paper looks into the relationship between Bartolomeo Buon and Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino with the attribution of two works still under debate. One is the group including the Annunciation, housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the other a Madonna and Child in the Liebighaus Museum in Frankfurt. The attribution of these pieces to Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino suggests that he may well have already been present in the studio of Bartolomeo Buon by the late 1540s or early ‘50s. Niccolò could have collaborated with Bartolomeo in the design of the Porta della Carta in Palazzo Ducale, Venice. His may be the two Virtues in the lower niches, Temperance and Strength. The paper also covers the complicated affair of the critique aimed at the Porta della Carta over the past hundred years. The ideas of Leo Planiscig, Wolfgang Wolters, Anne Markham Schulz, Massimo Ferretti and Matteo Ceriana are taken into particular account.
MICHELA ZURLA - Sculpture in Genoa around 1450: between Maestri caronesi and Giovanni da Bissone
Some recent critiques have better pinned down the activity in Genoa, and Liguria as a whole, of Andrea da Ciona and Filippo Solari da Carona. Their work was fundamental to the development of wood carving in the mid fifteenth century. A series of works that have come down to us reveal the influence that the two Maestri caronesi had on the Genoese circle of artists. As yet, it has been impossible to attribute any one of the
homogenous group of works to one particular known artist. Andrea and Filippo’s example was fundamental to the development of Giovanni di Andrea da Bissone. His early years have been pieced together by confronting his first documented or previously attributed works.
MATTEO FACCHI
The quality and industry of Rinaldo de Staulis: the building of the Certosa di Pavia
and the Madonna with Child in Soncino Castle
The first part of this paper reveals how much research has gone into the modeller Rinaldo de Staulis to date. His activity has been documented from 1450 to 1494. His serial friezes can be found in Cremona, Milano, Pavia, Lodi, Fiorenzuola d’Arda, Zibello, Busseto, Cortemaggiore, Castelleone, Soncino and elsewhere. The writer proposes that the Madonna and Child on the outer side of the circular tower of Soncino Castle
could also be attributed to this maestro from Cremona. This work, until now overlooked by academics, plays an important part in piecing together the early activity of the sculptor, a field as yet not fully investigated by scholars. The basis for the proposed attribution lies in a comparison of styles with the reliefs in the cloister of
the Certosa in Pavia, documented as the work of the sculptor. The paper clears up the question of which parts of the Certosa complex were assigned to Rinaldo de Staulis, and which to other sculptors, amongst whom the hand of Cristoforo Mantegazza can be recognised.
MARCO SCANSANI
Ludovico Castellani, a rediscovered sculptor of the Officina Ferrarese
Ludovico Castellani was a terracotta modeller, engraver, jewel smith and painter from Ferrara. He’s one of the best documented artists in the town during the reigns of Borso and Ercole I d’Este. His influence over the sculpture of the Emilian town must have been equivalent to that of the better known Domenico di Paris and Sperandio Savelli. However, not even the most recent of studies have been able to identify with any certainty any piece as a work of his.
Thanks to a reappraisal of documents mentioning the mysterious artist, a terracotta sculpture has been recognised as his. This has led to the artist’s style being classified, and a first corpus of works pinned with his name. This forms an initial nucleus of Ludovico Castellani’s works, fitting in perfectly, and mirroring, other pictorial representations from the Officina Ferrarese at the time.
LORENZO PRINCIPI
Self portrait of Alessandro della Scala da Carona, a sculptor in Northern Italy
in the first half of the sixteenth century
LUCA ANNIBALI
Antonio Begarelli in Bologna
FERNANDO LOFFREDO
Martino Regio da Viganello and his sculptural subject matter
FRANCESCA PADOVANI
Previously unpublished information for a profile of the book lover Hans Reichle
GIULIA ROCCO
Fragments of a bas–relief from Spoleto’s Roman theatre. A possible reconstruction an... more GIULIA ROCCO
Fragments of a bas–relief from Spoleto’s Roman theatre. A possible reconstruction and interpretation. Some fragments of a marble bas–relief came to light during the excavation of Spoleto’s Roman theatre during the 1950s. They formed part of the scaenae frons. An analysis of the subject matter and iconography has suggested some possible interpretations for the scenes, ranging from mythological
representations to gods and goddesses. The reliefs date to the second quarter of the second century CE, showing that the theatre was renovated between the end of Hadrian’s reign and the beginning of Antoninus Pius’. The original structure was built during the last decades of the first century BCE.
GIOVANNI BORACCESI
Fifteenth and sixteenth century processional crosses in the diocese of Tricarico
The article focuses on the fifteenth and sixteenth century processional crosses in some of the churches of the diocese of Tricarico, in Basilicata. The protagonists of this cultural phenomenon were bishops, lay and regular ecclesiasts, non clerical guilds, as well as everyday church goers and members of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies’ wealthy landowning families. The group of crosses includes excellent examples of Late Gothic and Renaissance work, some, until now, unpublished. They reveal an unexpected dynamism present in this part of Lucania, adding another piece to the puzzle of the heritage left by the goldsmiths of this southern region, as well as the artists themselves, both home grown and from other parts.
GIACOMO MONTANARI
Tomaso Orsolino between Pavia and Certosa (1628–1635): a more accurate chronology and new clues as to the role of Ercole Ferrata Though he worked in Genova, Tomaso Orsolino was born in Ramponio in the Val d’Intelvi. From 1628
onwards he worked on some of the most important sculptural projects of early seventeenth century Lombardy. This paper hopes to sort out the order in which the sculptor produced his works for the Certosa of Pavia. It looks in greater detail into the numerous works that the artist produced for the important monastery. The focus is on the period between 1628, when we know for sure that he arrived in Lombardy, and the middle of the 1630s. The close ties to the greats of Lombardy painting are the underlying thread in the stylistic evolution that was without a doubt one of the main players of the later fashion, a “sniff” of the new Baroque language in Lombardy. This is in spite of the critical misfortunes it has witnessed even up to recent times. In
such a prolific workshop, it’s no surprise that Ercole Ferrata’s deft chisel was to emerge. This paper hopes to reveal some of those first traces of his independent work, prior to his move to Naples.
LAURA GIGLI
Bartolomeo Lupardi bares his soul in the architectural and decorative facade of his home The facade of 104 Via di Parione (today’s Via del Governo Vecchio) speaks of a man of humble origins, Bartolomeo Lupardi, who went on to become a successful publisher and printer. He was capable of innovating the spirit of his times, against which he pitted himself, unwilling to remain a bystander in a world whose script was being dictated by the powers that be, curtailing any desire for individual freedoms. This was a man who had chosen to anchor his activity in the hostile world rooted in the art of publishing. This was the right place to guarantee success in his life mission. An expression of this success was the construction of his house. After the restoration of its facade in 2015 his choice of flaunting his achievement can once again be
admired. It’s the manifestation of a man who had changed the way in which social standing could be represented. This was a specific cultural innovation not so much for himself, considering the fact that for him his accrued economic fortune was enough satisfaction in itself, but more for his descendents. He managed to give them the opportunity to stand on level ground with the dominant social structures, thanks to his invention, from scratch, of a new mythography, hinged on legal science. Evidence of this can be seen in the enormous cultural objectives followed and reached in the field by his son Andrea, recognising his studies as a means of emancipation, overturning what could have been his destiny at birth.
ANDREA G. DE MARCHI
Painted pseudo North European Roman furniture using recycled Ancient Roman marble. Traces of Francesco Allegrini and Daca Poelen The paper establishes the true cultural identity of a pair of dressers in the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini. When they were bought in 1962 it was thought they were Dutch, and later
considered a forgery. In actual fact they were manufactured in Rome. The craftsman, as yet, remains anonymous, but was probably from the Netherlands. Other pieces of furniture, made by the same hand, have been identified and are analysed here. They date to around 1640. A previously unknown international milestone in seventeenth century Roman furniture production has been revealed, in which Ancient Roman marble is reused.
FABIOLA JATTA
The refound colour scheme of the monumental complex of San Michele in Rome
The paper reports on the results of the restoration of the decoration of a small inner cloister in the monumental complex of San Michele in Rome, unveiling another aspect of the building’s long history. The complex took one and a half centuries to finish, its first stone being laid in 1686, during the reign of Pope Innocent XI. It wasn’t until 1839 that Luigi Poletti finally finished the job. Poletti also renovated the cloister in question,
which has recently been restored. The works uncovered important information as to the original colour scheme. The colour of the panels of what was known as the “Odescalchi lodge” were previously “a shade of the air”.
This was a light grey colouring obtained by adding a dash of Vine Black pigment to the slaked lime. The paper provides confirmation that the long facade giving on to the River Tiber was painted light grey up until the end of the 1700s. This can be seen in illustrative plates, oil paintings, wall and tempera paintings and printed watercolours. The pale coloured complex is seen as it was up until the end of the 1700s, not in the red brick hue that we’ve been accustomed to from the eighteenth century up to the present day.
FRANCESCA ROMANA GAJA
Notes about Jan Miel’s work in Turin’s Palazzo Reale
Italy’s cultural ministry recently acquired an overdoor by Jan Miel. It depicts Alexander the Great consulting an astrologist before embarking. The painting was originally housed in Turin’s Palazzo Reale. Jan Miel was named as court painter by Duke Charles Emmanuel II, from 1658 to his death in 1664. The acquisition provides a chance to take a brief look at what he produced for the palace in Turin, and to add
something new to the catalogue of paintings commissioned by the House of Savoy. Miel took part in the renovation of the state rooms of the piano nobile of the Royal Palace, fitting in with the complex celebratory iconography drawn up by Father Emanuele Tesauro. Tesauro also oversaw the Flemish artist’s illustrations
for the volume Regno d’Italia sotto i barbari (Turin 1664), for which Miel produced two frontispieces and forty three royal portraits.
FRANCO BOGGERO – CHIARA MASI
Nino Lamboglia and the preservation of the artistic heritage of the West Ligurian Riviera during the Second World War
Copyright by Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali e per il turismo La Rivista adotta un s... more Copyright by Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali e per il turismo La Rivista adotta un sistema di Peer Review. Spetta agli Autori dei vari articoli soddisfare eventuali oneri derivanti dai diritti di riproduzione per le immagini di cui non sia stato possibile reperire gli aventi diritto. È vietata qualsiasi forma di riproduzione non autorizzata. Per ogni controversia è competente il Foro di Roma.
1942-2020), di SIMONETTA PROSPERI VALENTI RODINÒ 1 NOVITÀ SUL RITROVAMENTO DELLA STATUA IN BRONZO... more 1942-2020), di SIMONETTA PROSPERI VALENTI RODINÒ 1 NOVITÀ SUL RITROVAMENTO DELLA STATUA IN BRONZO DELL'ARRINGATORE GIORGIO POSTRIOTI: Il contesto storico e topografico di Perugia e del suo territorio 3 LUCA PULCINELLI: Lo stato delle ricerche sull'Arringatore e le nuove acquisizioni emerse 7 ALBERTO MARIA SARTORE: L'Arringatore a Pila. La storia del ritrovamento nei nuovi 13 documenti d'archivio LUCA CRETI: Note sul portale maggiore e sulla bifora di Santa Maria di Castello a Corneto 45 FRANCESCA MARIA BACCI: Ancora per Piero de' Medici e la cappella dell'Annunziata. 65 Chiarimenti sull'ultima campagna di lavori (1461-1463) e riflessioni sulla perduta acquasantiera medicea BARBARA FABJAN: La pala della chiesa di San Nicolò a Ospitale di Cortina d'Ampezzo. 97 Santi e mercanti sulle vie delle Alpi MASSIMO DE GRASSI: Francesco Terilli «intagliador da Christi» tra Venezia e la Dalmazia 107 LIBRI SERENA ROMANO: recensione a H. FLORA, Cimabue and the Franciscans, Turnhout 2018 131 GIOVANNA CAPITELLI: recensione a R. MORSELLI, Tra Fiandre e Italia: Rubens 1600-1608. 136 Regesto biografico-critico, Roma 2018 ALEXANDER AUF DER HEYDE: recensione a L. SIMONATO, Bernini scultore: 139 il difficile dialogo con la modernità, Milano 2018 CARLO BERTELLI: recensione a Un patrimonio da ordinare: i cataloghi a stampa dei fotografi, 143 a cura di P. CAVANNA, F. MAMBELLI, Bologna 2019 42 APRILE-GIUGNO ANNO CIV 2019 SERIE VII ©Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e per il Turismo -Bollettino d'Arte LOREDANA LORIZZO: recensione a G. CALANNA, Antonio Muñoz storico dell'arte e collezionista. 145 La fotografia per la ricerca e la didattica, Bologna 2018 GIOVANNI CARBONARA: recensione a F. LA REGINA, La regola la materia la forma.Il cantiere 148 del costruito storico e la 'questione del metodo', in Pristina Servare -Collana di Restauro Architettonico/13. Sezione: Conservazione e uso del costruito, Firenze 2019 MOSTRE VALERIA ACCONCIA: recensione alla mostra Etruschi. Viaggio nelle terre dei Rasna, 151 Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico, 6 dicembre 2019 -24 maggio 2020 Abstracts 165 Per le abbreviazioni dei periodici del settore archeologico si fa riferimento a quelle dell'Istituto Archeologico Germanico, ora accessibili dal seguente link: https://www.dainst.org/documents/10180/70593/02_Abbreviations+for+Journals_quer.pdf/a82958d5-e5e9-4696-8e1b-c53b5954f52a ©Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e per il Turismo -Bollettino d'Arte Stella Rudolph, di famiglia inglese, era nata nel 1942 a Norwalk, nel Connecticut (USA). Intrapresi gli studi in storia dell'arte al Paul Smith's College di New York, con i professori Henry Russell Hitchock e Richard Jay Judson, nei primi anni Sessanta si trasferì a Firenze per perfezionare gli studi nel solco del magistero di Roberto Longhi, proseguito da Mina Gregori dopo l'ultimo corso tenuto dal maestro, nel 1961. Conseguito il prefezionamento a Bologna con Carlo Volpe, con Mina Gregori discusse quindi una seconda laurea, su Pier Francesco Mola. Un altro incontro determinante per la sua carriera e per i suoi studi fu quello con Anthony Morris Clark, lo studioso americano che alla metà del secolo passato andava riscoprendo il Settecento romano -soggetto ancora totalmente negletto dalla critica in Italia -aprendo nuovi orizzonti di ricerca alla storia dell'arte. Stimolata da questo contatto, Stella indirizzò i suoi successivi campi di studio proprio verso queste tematiche, ricostruendo personalità di committenti e artisti ai quali oggi viene riconosciuta la giusta rilevanza, proprio grazie ai suoi approfonditi affondi anticipatori. Seguendo le vie tracciate dai maestri da lei eletti, Longhi e Clark, ma con lo spirito d'indipendenza che l'ha sempre contraddistinta, Stella si è dedicata a indagare principalmente due campi della storia dell'arte: la pittura in Italia nei secoli XVII e XVIII, e il mecenatismo di quei secoli, con particolare attenzione ai centri di Roma e Firenze. Per il Seicento restano fondamentali i suoi contributi su teorici quali lo spagnolo Vincenzo Vittoria e Giovan Pietro Bellori, affrontato nel catalogo della mostra L'idea del bello a Roma nel 2000, e su artisti come Pier Francesco Mola, Girolamo Troppa e Carlo Maratti, con aperture sugli allievi Chiari e Berrettoni. Da anni ormai i suoi interessi si erano concentrati prevalentemente su Maratti, a cui aveva dedicato articoli e saggi sin dagli anni Settanta del Novecento, annunciando una monumentale monografia a lui dedicata, che non ha fatto in tempo a concludere perché mai soddisfatta degli esiti raggiunti e spinta ad approfondire e perfezionare sempre più la ricerca.
La Rivista adotta un sistema di Peer Review. Spetta agli Autori dei vari articoli soddisfare even... more La Rivista adotta un sistema di Peer Review. Spetta agli Autori dei vari articoli soddisfare eventuali oneri derivanti dai diritti di riproduzione per le immagini di cui non sia stato possibile reperire gli aventi diritto. È vietata qualsiasi forma di riproduzione non autorizzata. Per ogni controversia è competente il Foro di Roma. © In copertina: FANO (PESARO-URBINO), BASILICA DI SAN PATERNIANO -CARLO BONONI: SAN PATERNIANO RENDE LA VISTA ALLA CIECA SILVIA, PARTICOLARE (foto Archivio fotografico Ufficio Diocesano Beni Culturali © Curia Vescovile, Diocesi di Fano Fossombrone Cagli Pergola) 1 e su alcuni marmi Della Valle LUCIANO SERCHIA: Considerazioni su lontane origini di un motivo architettonico medievale: 23 i beccatelli nei castelli di Pier Maria Rossi PAOLA CONIGLIO: Dagli esordi con Bartolomé Ordoñez alla collaborazione con Polidoro 53 da Caravaggio: l'attività dello scultore Domenico Vanello a Messina nella prima metà del Cinquecento GIANNI PAPI, ENRICO GHETTI: Una pala d'altare di Carlo Bononi per Cesare d'Este 73 ritrovata in Garfagnana GABRIELE QUARANTA: Simone Cantarini: un'antiporta per Angelico Aprosio e altri disegni 85 a tema tassiano IN BREVE MAURIZIO RICCI: Un disegno inedito di Pellegrino Tibaldi per un altare bolognese 95 ALESSANDRO BROGI: Una piccola nota sul 'Paesaggio fluviale' di Annibale Carracci a Washington 101 COLLEZIONI E COLLEZIONISTI GIULIA FUSCONI: Rivedendo Cassiano dal Pozzo. A proposito di alcuni disegni dall'antico 107 e all'antica del Museo Cartaceo CONFRONTI AUGUSTO ROCA DE AMICIS: I problemi della storia dell'architettura nell'epoca della globalizzazione: 119 Rinascimento e Barocco in un nuovo Companion
In ricordo di Andrea Emiliani, di GIOVANNA ROTONDI TERMINIELLO
ELENA GHISELLINI: Sull’uso di pi... more In ricordo di Andrea Emiliani, di GIOVANNA ROTONDI TERMINIELLO
ELENA GHISELLINI: Sull’uso di pietre colorate nell’Egitto tolemaico fra tradizione e innovazione
LUCA DI FRANCO: Un rilievo neroniano in pavonazzetto da Parma a Napoli. Pier Leone Ghezzi, gli scavi Bianchini sul Palatino e la Collezione Farnese
ELVIRA CAJANO: Il sepolcro del Beato Angelico nella chiesa della Minerva in Roma. Le vicende e il restauro
GIULIA CERIANI SEBREGONDI: Un doge sui ponteggi: i libri dei conti di fabbrica del Palazzo Donà dalle Rose a Venezia
SABINA MANIELLO CARDONE: Nuovi documenti per il gruppo della ‘Annunciazione’ a Bordeaux e la bottega di Pietro e Gian Lorenzo Bernini
BENITO NAVARRETE PRIETO: Francisco de Herrera “el Mozo”, su estancia en Roma
y un conjunto de dibujos atribuidos a Pierfrancesco Cittadini
NICCOLÒ D’AGATI: «Poi a scuola di pupazzetto»: nuove evidenze su Boccioni illustratore a Roma (1899–1906)
TUTELA E VALORIZZAZIONE
MARTA NOVELLO: Il “nuovo” Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Aquileia. Primi risultati e riflessioni in corso d’opera
ARCHIVIO
TOBIAS FISCHER–HANSEN: La corrispondenza fra Saverio Landolina e Frederik Münter. Un epistolario di colti antiquari sul finire dell’Illuminismo
LORENZO ORSINI: Stefano Bardini e il distacco di soffitti rinascimentali: nuovi documenti su alcuni affreschi cremonesi di primo Cinquecento
FONDI E ARCHIVI FOTOGRAFICI STORICI
GIOVANNA BERTELLI: Una particolare raccolta di lastre negative al collodio all’interno
del Fondo Luciano Morpurgo conservato all’ICCD
LIBRI
GIOVANNI CARBONARA: recensione a La valutazione del rischio sismico nel complesso della Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze–The evaluation of seismic risk in the complex of the Galleria dell’Accademia of Florence, a cura di G. GIORGIANNI, Firenze 2017
LORENZO FINOCCHI GHERSI: recensione a Il Tempietto di Bramante nel monastero
di San Pietro in Montorio, a cura di F. CANTATORE, Roma 2017
CAMILLA MURGIA: recensione a C. LAPAIRE, Renouveau médiéval et sculpture romantique. Le retour du Moyen Age dans la sculpture européenne entre 1750 et 1900, Paris 2018
MATTEO CERIANA: recensione a “Sono Fernanda Wittgens”. Una vita per Brera, a cura di G. GINEX, Milano 2018
Uploads
Volumi Speciali by Bollettino d'Arte Ministero della Cultura
28–30 novembre 2013
a cura di
ANGELA CIPRIANI, GIULIA FUSCONI, CARLO GASPARRI, MARIA GRAZIA PICOZZI, LUCIA PIRZIO BIROLI STEFANELLI
Issues' Summaries by Bollettino d'Arte Ministero della Cultura
Additional thoughts on the Tomb of the Diver
This paper takes another look at Mario Napoli’s 1970 illustrated reconstruction of the Tomb of the Diver in Paestum, as it probably appeared at the moment of the burial. His drawing emphasises a need to interpret the tomb’s iconographic elements as a cohesive whole. Further analysis of the scene painted on the lid provides additional elements for a symbolic interpretation of the image, particularly concerning
the deceased’s aspiration to a blissful life after death.
MARINA ANNA LAURA MENGALI
Unveiling mediaeval towns: Hidden 12th to 15th century street fronts
This paper is the conclusion of extensive research into what today we see as the the facades of mediaeval buildings in historical town centres of various regions of central Italy, including Umbria, Tuscany and northern Lazio. It looks into how Italian towns may have appeared to the eye during the Middle Ages.
CLAUDIO SECCARONI
Reconstruction of Botticelli’s altarpiece for the church of San Paolino in Florence
The August 2015 issue of The Burlington Magazine, a prestigious English monthly periodical, carried an article by Alexander Röstel on Botticelli’s Pietà. Though now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Röstel traced its original site back to the altar of the main chapel of San Paolino, in Florence. Research is based on documentary sources in Florence, describing the altarpiece as a triptych with closable side panels.
This paper puts forward an identification for the previously unidentified paintings that once adorned the doors.
BENEDETTA MATUCCI
Rediscovering ancient gilding and the possibility of a secret portrait
This paper focuses on Francesco da Sangallo’s Virgin with Child and Saint Anne, a marble sculptural group in the church of Orsanmichele. It accompanies a diagnostic analysis of traces of gilding on the work, part of a project promoted by the Bargello Museums, that involved the National Institute of Optics and the Institute of Sciences for Cultural Heritage of the National Research Council of Florence. As a
supplement to the scientific findings, the paper illustrates examples of Sangallo’s marble gilding techniques, drawn from his body of work, as well as from evidence recently discovered by Alex Röstel.
BENEDETTA CANTINI
Evidence of gilding on the works of Francesco da Sangallo: Investigation, results and future research
The paper examines the analysis of traces of gilding found on Francesco da Sangallo’s sculptural group in the church of Orsanmichele in Florence. Comparing documented artistic techniques with data from a non–invasive diagnostic analysis of the traces of gold on the marble sculptural group, Sangallo’s proved to be original. Detailed ultraviolet light observation revealed the sculptor’s use of gold in the details,
which is comparable to techniques Donatello had used in the previous century. Gilding is also evident in another of Sangallo’s works: Cardinal Leonardo Buonafede’s funeral monument in the Certosa del Galluzzo.
BARBARA SALVADORI – SILVIA INNOCENTI – SOFIA BRIZZI – JANA STRIOVA
Scientific investigations into the marble sculptural group
As part of a collaboration between the Bargello Museums and the National Research Council of Florence, traces of colour found on Francesco da Sangallo’s sculptural group have been analysed. It may be that some of the sixteenth–century gilding was removed during later cleaning. A completely non–invasive approach was used, involving complementary elemental (XRF) and molecular (Raman) spectroscopy
techniques. Traces of gold leaf came to light, applied to a preparation of materials in use during the sixteenth century, such as cinnabar, red ochre, white lead, and chalk. No evidence for the use of modern pigments was found.
FRANCESCO ZAGNONI
The portrait of Girolamo Carlo Baciocchi by Lorenzo Bartolini and its replicas
This paper traces the history of a marble bust of Girolamo Carlo Baciocchi, son of Elisa Bonaparte and Felice Baciocchi. The piece, by Lorenzo Bartolini (1777–1850), is housed in Versailles and has often been mistaken to be the bust of the King of Rome that the Monegasque sculptor François–Joseph Bosio (1768–1845) presented at the Paris Salon in 1812. This paper disputes this identification, given the discovery of a new marble replica of Bartolini’s portrait in the crypt of the Baciocchi chapel in San Petronio, Bologna, where Girolamo is buried.
DAMIANO IACOBONE
The completion of the facade of the church–ossuary of Mussoi in Belluno (1935–1949): The architect Alberto Alpago–Novello and the figurative arts
The paper focuses on the completion of the church–ossuary of Mussoi in Belluno, in particular the fresco planned for its façade. The subject of the fresco was originally conceived by the church’s designer, the architect Alberto Alpago–Novello (1889–1985). Various artists, including Aldo Carpi, Luigi Tito, Luigi Filocamo, Pino Casarini and Pietro Cortellezzi, had drawn up their own original plans for the work, prior
to its conception. Ultimately, the fresco was created by Cortellezzi, and finished in 1949, over a decade after the church’s construction. Though an apparently complicated business, it is a perfect example of the relationship between the exponents of different arts in the interwar period. Prominent architects of
the time aspired to artistic complexity in their work. The multiplicity of the stakeholders involved in such a project is also emblematic; from the church’s patronage, being the main benefactor, to the building’s
designer, each intent on having their say in the work’s completion.
PAOLA D’AGOSTINO
The renovation of the Orsanmichele Museum
This brief paper illustrates the renovation, safety measures and improved access put in place, and the redesigned layout of the Orsanmichele Complex in Florence, an emblematic landmark steeped in the city’s history of commerce, guilds, arts and religious devotion. The works were finalised in 2023, made possible thanks to an exceptional loan from the Ministry of Culture, as part of its 2017–2018 “Major Cul-
tural Heritage Projects” initiative. The winning project, by the two architectural firms Map and Natalini, was chosen by a committee of Ministry officials in 2019. Hand in hand with the building’s renovation, the pieces on display in the complex underwent maintenance and restoration.
STEFANIA BISAGLIA – LIA MONTEREALE
Compulsory purchase orders prior to export: Safeguarding artworks in case of non–acquisition
The paper examines issues concerning Article 70 of Legislative Decree No. 42 of 2004, the “Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code”. It outlines procedures that must be followed by the export offices of the Ministry of Culture in the event of an unsuccessful compulsory purchase order. The Directorate General for Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape has set out interpretative clarifications on the appropriate course of action. The paper outlines the Ministry’s stance, underlining its efforts to strengthen compul-
sory purchase procedures in the case of an item being declared of national cultural interest. Under the new guidelines, export offices can present a compulsory purchase order even if only one of the criteria specified in Ministerial Decree No. 537 of 2017 is met. Previously at least two criteria needed to be met before a free movement certificate could be withheld.
DANIELE SANGUINETI – NINO SILVESTRI
The “refound” Spinola Clock: A masterpiece of sculpted Baroque furnishing
for the National Gallery of Liguria
The grandiose clock is a rare example of late Baroque furnishings present in Genoese homes. It was first mentioned by Federigo Alizeri in his 1875 Guida illustrativa as standing in the hall of Palazzo Spinola all’Acquasola in Genoa (now the headquarters of the Prefecture on via Roma). Back then, this was the town-house of the Lerma branch of the Marquises of Spinola. Andrea, Giovanni Battista, Antonio and Stefano,
the sons of Luigi, had purchased the Palazzo in 1859 from Massimiliano Spinola, Count of Tassarolo. The four had previously resided in Palazzo Lercari Spinola. It seems probable that the furnishings, including the clock, were brought here from their former residence on via degli Orefici. This was Luigi’s family home, where their ancestor Giovanni Filippo Spinola had had some of the living rooms decorated in the very early 18th century by Domenico Parodi’s workshop. Alizeri had attributed the ornamental work to Anton Maria Maragliano, a renowned wood sculptor active in Genoa from the late 17th to early 18th centuries.
A ‘cold case’ at Villa Albani: The hydrophore statue near the so–called Ruined Temple
The paper examines both the past and relatively recent history of the fountain graced with a bathing female hydrophore statue near the Ruined Temple in the garden of Villa Albani–Torlonia.
LUCA FABBRI
The Master of San Floriano di Valpolicella, also known as Leonardo da Verona: A previously unheralded protagonist in Veronese wooden sculpture, on the cusp between the 15th and 16th centuries
The paper sheds light on a few sculptures which were, for the most part, created in the Scaligero area during the 15th and 16th centuries.
MARIO AVAGNINA – ALESSIO CARDACI – PAOLA COGHI – LUIGI COPPOLA – GIUSEPPINA FAZIO. ALESSANDRO GRASSIA – MARITA GUCCIONE – FRANCESCA ROMANA LIGUORI – PAOLA MASTRACCI, MARIA JOÃO REVEZ – ANTONELLA VERSACI – ELISABETTA VIRDIA
MAXXI: A project for its maintenance and renovation
In 2016, the MAXXI Foundation obtained two loans from the then Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (MiBAC) today’s Ministero della cultura with different goals: one was to put in motion a first cycle of maintenance for the main building; the other aimed at completing the museum and re–purposing those buildings of the former Montello barracks still standing. t the formal characteristics of the Zaha Hadid project. The paper retraces the steps behind this complex operation, various thematic aspects and the multidisciplinary approach.
ALESSANDRA ACCONCI
The painted crucifix of San Simeone di Alvito. An hypothesis that it may have been produced in the Ornatista workshop
Conservation work on the painted crucifix housed in the Collegiate Church of San Simeone Profeta in Alvito (FR) was terminated in 2018. The process was financed by Intesa Sanpaolo as part of the XVIII edition of their Restituzioni project. The piece was first restored between 1980 and 1981, on behalf of the Superintendency, coinciding with the “rediscovery” of the until then unpublished work. This Crucifixion follows a standard typology of “triumphant crucifixes”, with Christ flanked by the Virgin
and Saint John the Evangelist. The sober colouring of the panel’s artistic horizon is enriched by an extensive layer of moulded and gilded stucco. This would seem to lodge it deep within the specificities of the late Komnenian artistic expression of central–southern Italy.
.
GIUSEPPE AMMENDOLA – CHIARA MUNZI
The condition of the Alvito Crucifix today and previous attempts to restore it
The Alvito Crucifix dates back to the first decades of the 13th century. It is an important part of an extensive collection of central Italian painted crosses from the Middle Ages. These were produced in specialised workshops by a team craftsmen made up of shipwrights, painters, sculptors and gilders, all working together. Ongoing restoration, supported by the diagnostic evidence, is providing a valuable insight
into the material composition of the piece. Analysis has revealed the meticulous approach taken in the organisation of the various stages of the crucifix’s manufacture, right from its initial design layout.
Lupo di Francesco in Empoli and Tino di Camaino in Pisa and Siena: New proposals
LORENZO BOFFADOSSI
The Lelio Orsi frescoes brought to the Galleria Estense from the Rocca di Novellara
MATTEO CERIANA
An Emperor and a Cardinal, two restored busts in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello
DAMIANO IACOBONE
Gio Ponti and Alberto Alpago–Novello (with Mario Sironi): The initial stages of the 1930 IV International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Monza
ANTONELLA CLEMENTONI
Alfonso Bartoli and the restoration of the Temple of Venus and Rome: Tension and rivalry between the Excavations Office of the Palatine and Roman Forum and the X Division for Antiquities and Fine Arts of the Governorate
BEATRICE ALAI
Unveiling Italian miniature art in Frankfurt am Main: The collection of cuttings from the Historisches Museum (13th–16th centuries)
ALESSANDRO BROGI – DAVIDE BUSSOLARI – MANUELA MATTIOLI
A ‘refound’ work by Ludovico Carracci for the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
STEFANIA DI MARCELLO
Balancing tradition and innovation in the work of the Regio Istituto Centrale del Restauro between 1939 and 1943
Painters in Etruscan Caere during the Orientalising period: The Pittore della Sfinge con ‘grembiule’ and the Pittore delle Gru
Previously unpublished finds from long past 1980s excavations in Cerveteri have been dusted off. For the most part these are from graves excavated by Raniero Mengarelli on the Banditaccia burial ground. They provide fresh and stimulating insight into Caere’s seventh–century pottery production.
News about the Montecassino Abbey painting collection: The 1691 ‘Inventory’ (with updates to 1725)
MAURO VINCENZO FONTANA
An unpublished description of the Montecassino painting collection during the 17th century: What is present, absent and an initial identification
The San Benedetto Rooms in Montecassino have always been more than just a holy place worthy of the profoundest devotion
MARIANO DELL’OMO
The 1691–1725 edition of the ‘inventory’ and custody of the San Benedetto rooms in Montecassino between the 17th and 18th centuries
The recently uncovered Inventory of the rooms by Father San Benedetto in the Montecassino Archive is published here for the first time
MARIA BARBARA GUERRIERI BORSOI
Historical documents and Seventeenth–century drawings of Palazzo Vittori–Marcellini, later Sinibaldi, at the Arco della Ciambella in Rome
The wealthy Vittori family were related to families of standing. They had owned property in and around Arco della Ciambella since the 16th century.
ROSSELLA FOSCHI
Carlo Marchionni’s unfinished project for Sutri Cathedral
In 1743 the Congregation of Good Government gave Clemente Orlandi the task of finishing off Carlo Marchionni’s renovation of the medieval cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo in Sutri.
PIERLUIGI PANZA
Piranesi on the third centenary of his birth. Contributions on his influence on Milanese neoclassicism
2020 coincided with the 300th anniversary of Giovan Battista Piranesi’s birth (1720–1778). In spite of the Covid–19 pandemic, some exhibitions were organised to celebrate the event. These shed light on new aspects of the artist’s persona and how his works have been put to use.
MICHELE DANIELI
Gabriele Ferrantini’s «finest work» rediscovered
The paper focuses on a significant piece by Gabriele Ferrantini, which has recently come to light on the art market. The writer recognises it as the altarpiece that originally adorned the Church of San Giorgio in Poggiale, in Bologna, removed in the late 17th century.
Two Silver Plated Bronze Feet from the Aventine Hill
During operations of rescue archaeology conducted in a private property on the Aventine Hill, a significant discovery was made. An Ancient Roman townhouse (domus) with exquisite polychrome mosaics from late Republican times came to light.
LUCA CRETI
The High Altar in the Cathedral of Civita Castellana: From the Ottonian Era to its 18th–Century Renovation
The paper presents a historical account of the construction and life of the High Altar in the Cathedral of Civita Castellana (VT). A first, primitive, rectangular altar was built from ancient marble grave slabs between 1000 and 1001, under the patronage of Bishop Crescenziano. It housed the remains of Saints Marciano and Giovanni. They were martyred during one of Diocletian’s persecutions in the early 4th century.
LETIZIA BONIZZONI, PAOLA BORGHESE, SILVIA BRUNI, ANDREA CARINI, MARCO GARGANO, EMANUELA GRIFONI, VITTORIA GUGLIELMI, NICOLA LUDWIG, JACOPO MELADA, CRISTINA QUATTRINI, ROBERTO SACCUMAN
Gaudenzio Ferrari in Milan: The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1539–1540) and its Restoration in the Laboratory of the Pinacoteca di Brera
From 2014 to 2018, the Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alessandria by Gaudenzio Ferrari (Valduggia, documented as born post 1507 – died Milan 1546) was restored, with state funds, in the laboratory of the Pinacoteca
di Brera.
ANDREA DARI
The Church and Convent of Sant’Andrea in Vineis in Faenza: Two previously unpublished 18th–Century plans and reflections on the Work of Domenico Paganelli
The recent discovery of two 18th–century plans associated with the Sant’Andrea in Vineis complex in Faenza, known today as San Domenico, served as a catalyst for exploring the remarkable life of Father Domenico Paganelli (1545–1624).
ANDREA G. DE MARCHI
Guercino, Ruffo and a Holy Family with a Young Saint John
This short contribution discusses a previously unpublished copper artwork attributed to Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, commonly known as il Guercino. It sheds light on a commission by Don Antonio Ruffo, an international art collector from far off Sicily.
SILVIA AGLIETTI
Count Tyszkiewicz’s “Cat”: Insights into an Ivory Figurine Found at Caffarella
The protagonist, at the heart of the sequence of events we attempt to piece together, is a small ivory sculpture. Following its discovery, the piece travelled illicitly backwards and forwards between Italy and France. Its movements involved prominent figures in the antiques market during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
PAOLA MARINI
The Royal Palace of Venice Rediscovered
After more than two decades of dedicated efforts led by the Fondazione Musei Civici and the Municipality of Venice, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per il Comune di Venezia e Laguna, eleven rooms in the former Royal Palace have been opened to the public.
A colossal head with a laurel crown from Aquinum Marble fragments of a head with a laurel crown were recently found during the excavation of ancient Aquinum. They have been preliminarily studied prior to restoration. By analysing the dimensions of the
fragments it has been possible to gauge the size of the colossal statue. The appearance of what remains of the face, with its flat and uniform surfaces, and the hairstyle with its short locks cropped close to the skull, identify the statue as a male portrait from the Julio–Claudian era.
BENEDETTA CAGLIOTI
The Cathedral of San Giorgio Martire in Ferrara: Notes and observations on its Fourteenth–century phase
The construction of the Cathedral of San Giorgio Martire in Ferrara began in the 12th century. It was a symbol of the new position the city held in relation to the papacy, as opposed to the latter’s traditional links with Ravenna. Mixing written evidence with a project of surveying and drawing, focussing on the actual physical evidence, the medieval phase of the Cathedral appears to have a harmonious composition within an
overall precise scheme with a regular design and a balanced arrangement of the facades.
GIUSEPPE CASSIO
A new attribution to Cola dell’Amatrice:
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ in the Collegiate Church of Fara in Sabina
A fresco with a Lamentation over the Dead Christ, recently uncovered in the Collegiate Church of Sant’Antonino in Fara in Sabina (Rieti), is one of the earliest known paintings in that religious building. It’s an example of the close link between the town and the nearby Abbey of Santa Maria di Farfa. Between the second half of the fifteenth century and a large part of the sixteenth, the imposing Benedictine “stronghold” had been subjected to frenetic renovation, called for by the commendatory abbots. This included work by Giovanni Battista Orsini (1482–1503). From 1486 to 1514 the Sabine monastery was home to a community of Teutonic monks from the Sacro Speco in Subiaco. There, Nicola di Filotesio, known as Cola dell’Amatrice, had painted the frescoes in the Old Chapter. Documents mention the painter at work in Farfa’s Abbey
in 1508.
ENRICO NOÈ
A Saint John the Baptist by Giulio del Moro
In the parish church of Donada, in the province of Rovigo, there is a little–known marble statue of Saint John theBaptist, signed by the painter and sculptor Giulio del Moro (Verona, around 1555 – Venice, 1616). From an analysis of the piece, the paper moves on to research its possible provenance, perhaps the Church of Santa Giustina
in Venice, and above all its chronology, in the context of the artist’s extensive production. The hypothetical conclusion is that it dates to around 1590. This was the most youthful, and perhaps happiest, period of the maestro.
MARIA TERESA CANTARO
Some news about Lavinia Fontana: From her debut to about 1590
An analysis of some autographed works by Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 – Rome 1614) is presented.
They have changed hands on the antiques market over the last three decades and are now kept in private collections. They include some unpublished works, attributable to the time of the painter’s earliest period. They start with her debut between 1570 and 1575, up to around 1590 when the artist’s activity was now recognised and well known. Brief clarifications are proposed regarding a couple of paintings already linked
to Lavinia Fontana and some new attributions. Finally, some observations are put forward concerning a document transcribed in its entirety for the first time and which casts doubt on the hypothesis of the artist’s stay in Rome during the years of the pontificate of Sixtus V.
CARMELA CAPALDI
From Divus Augustus to Bonaparte:
Notes on the restoration of the colossal seated statues from the Augusteum in Herculaneum
During the first excavations of Herculaneum in what was then known as the Basilica, two colossal marble statues were found representing seated male figures, wrapped only in paludamenta. The building was later correctly identified as the Augusteum, a place for the worship of deceased and deified emperors. The statues, lacking their heads and arms, were subjected to additive restoration, first by Joseph Canart, then Filippo Tagliolini, which made it harder to identify them. Placed in the Bourbon Royal Museum collection, they are mentioned in the first inventory of the museum in 1819, as statues portraying Augustus and Claudius. Scholars have, for the most part, accepted this definition. It has been argued that the plaster head of Augustus was modelled on the portrait of the prince in the Gemma Augustea now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL – ANNA MARIA CARRUBA
Behind the scenes at the Torlonia Marbles exhibition.
New contributions to the exhibition in Milan: analysis, explanation, bibliography and restorations
The new outlay for the Torlonia Marbles exhibition in Milan, in the large and prestigious rooms of the Gallerie d’Italia, provided the opportunity to enrich the exhibition of sculptures already presented in Rome with some new pieces. The paper lists them, giving updated datasheets in terms of bibliography and explanations, recognising two busts as modern. Moreover, a marble copy of Leda and the Swan and the sarcophagus decorated with a Consular procession are accompanied by valuable observations and remarks by those who restored it.
MAURIZIO RICCI
The entrance portal to the Orange Garden: A few annotations
Savello Park, in Rome’s Ripa district, is better known as the Giardino degli Aranci. It was transformed into gardens by Raffaele de Vico in 1932. Its current, Sixteenth–century portal, originally came from Villa Balestra. It was taken apart in 1910 and laid to rest in the municipal deposits. Antonio Munõz had it rebuilt on the Aventine in 1936, partially modifying its construction. The paper, based on an analysis of the remains of Villa Balestra and an important unpublished plan, clarifies once and for all the original site of the gateway.
ALESSIO CIANNARELLA
The Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda: New documents on the restoration of the Domenichino altarpiece and a hypothetical attribution to Giovan Battista Beinaschi
The paper deepens and broadens information about the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda and the rich decorative apparatus inside. Documents held in the church archives have shed light on when and how Raffaele Vanni (1670) unfortunately attempted to restore a painting by Domenichino. His Madonna and Child with Saints Philip and James had been painted between 1626 and 1627. The paper also looks at Vanni’s realisation of an altarpiece of a similar subject to repair the damage after his work on Domenichino’s, it dates to the same year as the restoration. Working from an Eighteenth–century manuscript kept in the Casanatense Library in Rome, and some stylistic comparisons, it is thought that Giovan Battista Beinaschi painted the Crucifix adored by Saint Francis.
FRANCESCA MATTEI
Clay elements in the construction of the vaults of Palazzo Naselli Crispi in Ferrara.
History and geography on Sixteenth–century Este building sites
Palazzo Naselli (1529–1537) was restored between 2018 and 2020. During the work, clay elements came to light, immersed in the cement conglomerate of the vaults of some rooms. The paper traces the building techniques used for the construction of these ceilings, and highlights the relationship between the earliest material evidence, architectural treatises and the architectural projects of the time. Este.
LUCA LEONCINI
Giovanni Maria Mariani at the Palazzo del Quirinale: Documentation of the decoration entrusted to Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the apartments of Alexander VII
This paper presents a complete transcript of the account of the work carried out by Giovanni Maria Mariani on the main floor of the Palazzo del Quirinale, between March and August 1656. He was a perspective painter and decorator, under the supervision of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Mariani’s assignment was a few months prior to that of the group of artists chosen by Pietro da Cortona to decorate the Gran Galleria, later
known as that of Alexander VII. Mariani was involved there too. Until now Giovanni Maria’s duties had been considered «work of an artisan nature», limited to gilding the gallery’s ceiling. Careful examination of documents in Rome’s State Archive has shown instead that the gilding was not done by him, whereas the sweeping painted glossy stucco decorations were. The detailed specifications of what the painter from Ascoli
Piceno was responsible for are to be found in a document which has never previously been analysed, in its entirety, leaving important data untouched upon.
This paper presents the results of a detailed re–examination of the Paros marble “small temple” and “goddess” that came to light in Filera di Garaguso in 1916. Garaguso is a small hillside village built on traces of an Italic, Enotrian, settlement. The contribution is accompanied by images, and provides a few considerations as to the mid fifth century BCE date given to the pieces, as well as their attribution to a Metapontine workshop. More generally it looks into the relationship between the Achaean Polis and inland Italic tribes.
COSTANTINO CECCANTI, Giambologna the architect.
The name Giambologna (1529–1608) is the Italian version of the name, and the one with which he was known, of the Flemish artist Jean de Boulogne. He was born in Douai and went on to become the foremost Late Renaissance sculptor. On top of this, especially from the 1570s onwards, he also worked as an architect. Of this side of his work, which continued up to his death, little is known, as yet. His first architectural projects were for a Florentine nobleman, Bernardo Vecchietti (1514–1590). It was for him that he designed the Ninfeo della Fata Morgana and the Villa del Riposo, south of Florence.
BARBARA AGOSTI, On a possible sojourn of Federico Barocci in the Rome of Pope Gregory XIII.
The Burial of Christ, in the Uffizi, is believed to be a preparatory study by Federico Barocci for his painting of The burial of Christ in the Church of Santa Croce in Senigallia. Annotations on the back of the drawing imply that the maestro from Urbino had paid a visit to see the decoration of the Sala Regia in the Vatican, only just finished by Giorgio Vasari. This, along with other evidence, indicates that Barocci spent some time in Rome in the early years of Gregory XIII Boncompagni’s Pontificate.
LUCA BARONI, Barocci in Portugal (with a memoir of Rudolf Heinrich Krommes).
Juan de Silva was Count of Portalegre and Groom to the King of Portugal. In 1588 he wrote from Lisbon to the artist Federico Barocci da Urbino (c. 1533–1612). The object of the text was a commission for an altarpiece depicting The Crucifixion of Christ and mourners. The go–between in the project was Filippo Terzi. He’d been living in Portugal for years, but had always kept up his ties with his homeland, the Duchy of Urbino. Although the deal never went through, the episode shows how Barocci’s fame on the international circuit was growing. It also sheds light on the diplomatic channels that he was using, putting himself in touch with foreign markets. He provides us with a fortuitous insight into the political and artistic relationship between Urbino and Spain in the second half of the 1500s.
ANTONELLA PAMPALONE, Giovanni Lanfranco’s 1615 contract for the Leonessa altarpiece and details of a painting to attribute to Francesco Cozza.
The contract for the creation of Lanfranco’s splendid Leonessa altarpiece has only recently been uncovered by the writer. It sheds light on the chronology of the painting in 1615, the cultural context in which it was created and any possible intermediaries. With concise reasoning the paper looks into why the original requested subject of the painting was modified, and the thinking behind the iconographic layout. This focuses
on the Saints represented and their cult. The persons involved with the contract have been placed in their historical context, within the town of Leonessa, at the time an important commercial hub. Stylistic analysis sheds light on any comparisons with other, contemporary works, hints of Correggio filtered through the works of the Carracci, and the influence of Carlo Saraceni. There is also a suggestion of this artistic model being revisited by some artists, including Francesco Cozza, who is now attributed a work from Goriano Valli (L’Aquila), previously thought to be by Lanfranco.
FRANCESCO GATTA
From Rome to Europe. New findings on the landscape paintings of Domenichino and Giovanni Battista Viola during the Ludovisi pontificate, and a surprise for Carlo Maratti, painter and collector.
An important landscape painting, that has come to light, depicting the Baptism of the eunuch, in the Carracci style, is attributed to a late phase Giovanni Battista Viola. It provides a chance to look into the image of an ideal landscape during the Ludovisi pontificate (1621–1623), suggesting an answer to the attribution of several works that may be by Domenichino or Viola. It would appear that the Baptism of the eunuch was commissioned by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi. It stands out as having been painted in the same year as the conception of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide (1622). It is likely that the work benefitted from iconographic suggestions from Giovan Battista Agucchi, a scholar and secretary to the Cardinal, as well as a strong believer in the Carracci school. The fame of the painting is confirmed by the list of collections to
which it has belonged. Passing through the hands of the famous art dealer Jaques Meyers in the early 1800s, it ended up in the collection of Philip V of Spain.
GIUSEPPE PORZIO, At the origins of naturalism in Southern Italy.
A contribution for Loys Croys and the debut of Carlo Sellitto Thanks to the discovery of a legal deed dated 1601, it has been possible to attribute an impressive, and until now anonymous, altarpiece to Loys Croys. This elusive artist was one of the principal personalities in the colony of Flemish artists that had settled in Naples between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The altarpeiece depicts The Last Supper and is housed in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Albano di Lucania, province of Potenza. The work has a robust naturalism to it and incorporates the typology and
stylistic motifs that will then be picked up by two of Croys better known pupils, the Caravaggesque Carlo Sellitto and Filippo Vitale. The former is referred to in the document as a witness. The artistic language of the piece, with a strong Nordic accent, is here at its clearest.
From Monte Torretta to Monte Solario.
ANDREA DE MARCHI
The heritage of Duccio’s Maestà in the Pisan polyptych of Simone Martini
CATERINA BAY – MARIA FALCONE
From its dismemberment to being put together again. The polyptych for the Church
of Santa Caterina of Simone Martini, its material, museographical and critical coverage
PIERLUIGI NIERI
Restoration of the Simone Martini polyptych: confirmations and new evidence
from recent diagnosis and analysis of the technical matter on hand
GIANNI PAPI
The true ownership of the altarpiece now returned to the Church of San Severino
from the Pinacoteca di Brera collection: new thoughts on Baccio Ciarpi
DANIELA DEL PESCO
Palazzo Ardinghelli in L’Aquila: three earthquakes (1703, 1915, 2009) and a Baroque building site
CESARE CROVA
Silvio Radiconcini. From a house for restoration to an organic architecture
LUIGI TODISCO
Short notes about reused Roman lions in Muro Lucano
Two more Sarcophagi of the Spouses from Cerveteri:
previously unpublished fragments found among old site records and recent discoveries During rescue excavations on Caere’s (today’s Cerveteri) burial grounds, supervised by the Author in the role of inspector for what was then the Soprintendenza dell’Etruria Meridionale, some fragments of two terracotta sarcophagi were found.
NICOLA BUSINO
New considerations on the four–sided portico of Capua Cathedral on the Volturno
Recent ongoing research in Capua has brought to light several elements associated with the foundation of the town on the banks of the River Volturno. The town was set up by the Longobard élite in the mid ninth century. Some lines of research in particular sprang from the re–examination of existing documentation of the four–sided portico of Capua Cathedral. It forms part of an Episcopal complex which has been left substantially uninvestigated, given that it was entirely reconstructed after Second World War damage.
ORAZIO LOVINO
The Renaissance in “Terra di Bari”. New reflections on Maestro d’Andria and Tuccio d’Andria, at a crossroads between Naples and Liguria One of the most fitting pictorial incidents in “Terra di Bari” during the second half of the fifteenth century, if not the whole figurative panorama of what’s known as the southern Renaissance, is made up of the works of the Maestro d’Andria.
VERUSKA PICCHIARELLI
News about Perugino and his atelier: Two previously unpublished preparatory drawings for the Adoration of the Shepherds by Monteripido
The paper centres on two preparatory drawings with Shepherds related to the circle of Pietro Vannucci, known as “il Perugino”. The pieces, previously unknown to art historians, match the characters in a fresco of the Adoration of the Child. This was stripped from the convent of San Francesco al Monte in Perugia, and is now housed in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria.
BEATRICE CACCIOTTI
Copies, mutuations and diffusion of old fashioned portraits during the early Renaissance: the codex h–I–4 in the Escorial library
Codex h–I–4 in the Escorial library contains 142 drawings of mythological, biblical and historical characters. The latter range from ancient times up to the period contemporary to when they were drawn. Most are accompanied by a brief biographical description. The codex was bequeathed to the Escorial by Phillip II. It had
come into his possession in about 1541, from the Lanuza family, whose coat of arms shows up on the cover.
LORENZO PRINCIPI
More about Alessandro della Scala from Carona: his work in Portugal and new reliefs on a Marian theme
The paper systematically discusses traces of Alessandro della Scala’s work in Portugal, taking into account a copious series of reliefs, three of which from Setubal. For the first time the works that make up this group have been written about and systematically published.
ENRICO COLLE
A “table of joys” for Francis I de’ Medici
The tabletop was part of the collection of Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster. The statuary marble base is inlaid with semiprecious stones. The geometrical pattern is typical of works of the kind manufactured in the second half of the 1500s. It had belonged to the Lorraine Medici collection and to the
Royal House of Savoy: the court administration then sold it to William Blundell Spence. Recently, its original inventory numbers came to light, handwritten on the underside.Thanks to these numbers, confronting them with the contemporary archive documents, the story of the tabletop became clear. Going back through
the years it had been accurately registered in all the Lorraine Medici inventories from the time of Francesco I de’ Medici, who had it placed in the Casino di San Marco, his town house in Florence.
GIULIA CERIANI SEBREGONDI
A Doge on the scaffolding: the account books for the construction of Palazzo Donà dalle Rose in Venice. Further considerations
This paper is the second part of a contribution to this same editorial collection, published in 2019. It is devoted to the construction of Ca’ Donà dalle Rose in Venice, between 1610 and 1612. This was the palace that Doge Leonardo Donà had chosen to build as his family house. From an analysis of the building site accounts (receipts and account books) housed in the private family archives, as well as contemporary treatises from the Veneto region, and comparisons with a few other sporadic sources, it’s been possible to piece together in detail the construction techniques and materials used to build the palace. In an overall reconstruction of the evolution of the Donà building site this paper concentrates on the masonry, plastering, guttering and flooring.
PATRIZIA TOSINI
Baldassarre Croce in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome,
a gift for Pedro Fernàndez de Castro, Viceroy of Naples, and his wife Catalina de la Cerda y Sandoval
The paper presents two previously unpublished frescoes. They were painted in 1610 by the Bolognese artist Baldassarre Croce in Palazzo dei Canonici attached to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The paintings are mentioned in documents, but were thought to have been lost. They depict two canonical stories associated with the veneration of the Liberian Basilica. One was dedicated to the Procession of Pope Gregory I with the icon of Salus Populi Romani to put an end to the plague of 590. The other is the Foundation of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore by Pope Liberius.
ADRIANO AMENDOLA
Giovanni Alto is not Giovanni Grosso.
New considerations on the Swiss Ciceroni from Lucerne and Giacomo Lauro’s “Antiquae Urbis Splendor”
Starting from Francesco Villamena’s two engraved portraits, the author was able to resolve the question of the identity of two Swiss guards, Giovanni Alto and Giovanni Grosso. They were among the most famous Ciceroni of Baroque Rome, still remembered and long debated by scholars. Using heraldry it’s been possible
for the first time to distinguish Alto from Grosso, who have often been taken as the same person. An analysis of Alto’s Stammbuch, housed in the Vatican Library and the discovery of his unpublished will has made it possible to better understand the story behind Giacomo Lauro’s Antiquae Urbis Splendor.
GIANLUCA PUCCIO
In the steps of Padre Resta in the Capodimonte drawings
A series of photographs of the so called “Collezione borbonica” in the Capodimonte museum has come to light in the archives. They date to the mid 1960s and provide a chance to reconstruct the original appearance of many of the drawings, before being subjected to a radical restoration that unfortunately led to them being detached from
their original supporting sheets. The photographs show that about 250 of them were mounted inside a frame in
ANNA MARIA RICCOMINI
Two artists at the Mausoleum of Augustus: Joseph Nollekens and Pietro Ronzoni
The paper analyses a drawing thought to be by Joseph Nollekens, now housed in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London, and a painting held in a private collection, by the Bergamascan artist Pietro Ronzoni. They are both views of the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome. The pictures provide further evidence about the Soderini family collection of ancient sculpture, on display among the ruins of
the Imperial tomb. It’s Nollekens drawing that best captures the four statues that, from the middle of the 1500s, stood at the entrance to the hanging gardens and at the foot of the stairs leading up to the entrance to Palazzo Soderini.
BERTRAND DE ROYERE
A silver table service by Charles Nicolas Odiot for King Charles Albert of Savoy
In 1834 King Charles Albert of Sardinia ordered an exceptional silver service from Charles Nicolas Odiot for his palace in Turin. The wealth and beauty of this collection of silverware earned it the right to be presented the same year at the Paris Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie. The preparatory drawings for the tableware are identified here amongst those formerly in the archives of Odiot’s famous Parisian maison, subsequently scattered and lost. These have thrown light on the technical and stylistic evolution of French goldsmiths during the Restoration. This was a period of uncertainty between the very captivating neo–Baroque taste coming out of England at the time and echoes of the great neoclassical goldsmiths.
Torre di Satriano: old discoveries, new dates
This paper takes a further look at a small group of graves first published in the 1960s by R. Ross Holloway. They were from two burial grounds. One lies “some 700 metres northwest of the hilltop”. The other is on the “Faraone 1” site in the Torre Satriano area, home to an important “nord-lucana” Italic community researched by M. Osanna.
The original fifth century date given to the graves has been backdated to the seventh or the first decades of the sixth century. This has followed a philological reexamination of the grave goods, in the light of recent research into the differences between offensive and defensive weapons. This now places the graves among the
earliest yet found in the area.
MARIANNA CASTIGLIONE
The Kharayeb (Tyre) models in a Mediterranean landscape:
evidence of Greek culture in Hellenistic Phoenicia?
The paper presents some terracotta Hellenistic statuettes found in the Kharayeb sanctuary in Lebanon, active between the seventh and first centuries BCE. It illustrates just how much Greek culture had seeped into such a “peripheral” context as the hinterland of ancient Tyre. The images chosen are for the most part so-called Hellenistic koinè. These can be found throughout the Mediterranean world. The debate revolves around how much these are evidence for the local culture’s servile adhesion to, or autonomous adaption to the Greek, or whether they are nothing more than local craftsmen’s adaption to market trends.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL
Giustiniani digressions: the «Fauno antico ... in atto di gridare» and its restoration.
A collector’s item
The paper discusses the bust of a satyr of the same type as a bronze example found in Herculaneum. In the first decades of the seventeenth century it was in the Giustiniani Collection. The extraordinary quality of its manufacture has made it celebrated and appreciated through the centuries. Even its careful and limited restoration in the 1600s has been considered a mark of distinction, tying it to
a very specific cultural mood, until now little noted by the critics. The brothers Benedetto and Vincenzo Giustiniani were no doubt a part of this movement, both refined collectors and the first owners of this ancient marble.
SYLVIA DIEBNER – FRANCESCA LEMBO FAZIO
A museum to house the Torlonia collection of ancient artefacts:
two of Vincenzo Fasolo’s projects in the post war years
Post 1940 the architect Vincenzo Fasolo found himself drawing up plans for a “Museum for ancient artefacts” within Villa Torlonia in Roma. The idea was to transfer the Torlonia Collection from the rooms it was housed in in Via della Lungara. The blueprints for his work are in the Fasolo Archives kept in the Archivio Storico Capitolino. Fasolo had two differing architectural approaches to the job. They illustrate the stylistic and museographic changes going on in said debate during the years after the Second World War. Neither of the two proposals ever saw the light of day.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL
From the Torlonia Museum in Via della Lungara to the exhibition in Palazzo Caffarelli.
A history of protecting archaeological patrimony in private hands
The paper, as can be seen from the subtitle above, presents the history of the Ministry’s activity in the preservation of a particularly excellent collection of antiquities, that of Prince Torlonia. This activity has run from the late 1800s up to the present day.
The various operations that the State undertook are illustrated, in its protection of one of the largest and interesting patrimonies of Rome. On top of this, following the demolition, in 1892, of the family’s palace that had stood in what is now Piazza Venezia, the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica was enriched with a
donation of paintings and sculptures. The draughting of better articulated protective legislation since the early 1900s has placed many important restrictions on the collections of antiquities housed in the Torlonia
family’s various palaces and villas. At the same time a better and more adequate arrangement is being sought for the collection of marble sculpture housed in Via della Lungara, which over the years has remained closed to the public.
DANIELE SANGUINETI
Precisions over Van Dyck and the altarpiece for Francesco Orero in the Church of San Michele di Pagana
The paper examines the only altarpiece left by Anton Van Dyck in the ancient Republic of Genoa. It was commissioned by the merchant Francesco Orero for the noble chapel in the Church of San Michele di Pagana, near Rapallo.
Until now it was believed that the parish accounts indicated that Orero, in 1627, had funded the construction of a “new chapel”. Actually, more careful reading of the accounts entry shows that it refers to a shrine dedicated to Sant’Orsola, furnished with an altarpiece in 1628 by Orazio Bisagno. From a detailed analysis of Orero’s will, drawn up in 1643, it becomes clear that the family chapel was as yet unfinished. The importance of the role of his brother Bernardo in finishing the furnishings also emerges. Just two months after the death of his brother in 1644, he drew up a contract to commission two sculptors, Francesco Falcone and Battista Barberino,
active in Genova at the time.
CRISTIAN PRATI
The Oratorio del Serraglio in San Secondo Parmense:
reflections, news and observations on the restoration
The paper pieces together the main events during the construction of the Oratorio del Serraglio in San Secondo Parmense, with its extraordinary decoration by Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (1657–1743) and Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734). It hopes to shed light on a series of as yet unpublished observations made during the recent restoration and consolidation, part of a broader and more complex operation to conserve the Oratory. Thanks to scaffolding it was possible to get a privileged close up view of the work. As a result it we could check things that had previously been left undocumented. Though there is no new archive evidence, the paper illustrates certain elements that have so far only marginally been treated in the past. These include the numerous restorations the work was subject to during the 1900s, unfortunately not always well documented.
GILDA P. MANTOVANI – FABRIZIO LOLLINI
Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, Martino da Modena and a refound codex for Ercole I d’Este
The paper focuses on a manuscript that was destroyed during the Second World War. There is, however, one photograph left and a description from an early 1900s pubblication. Until now overlooked, it was probably a dedicated copy of the anonymous Historia di Piramo et Tisbe, derived from the Ovidian tradition and staged
by Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, a celebrated humanist. His hand is clearly identifiable in the text. It documents the relationship with members of the court of Ferrara, Ercole in particular, to whom the codex is dedicated.
This was some time prior to Ercole’s rise to power following the death of his brother Borso in the summer of 1471.
RICCARDO LATTUADA
A new ‘Saint Michael’ by Cavalier d’Arpino:
the travels of a creation from Rome to Macerata, and from Macerata to Gragnano
The paper deals with the identification of a Saint Michael the Archangel by Giuseppe Cesari, Cavaliere d’Arpino (Arpino 1568 – Roma 1640). It was found in the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Gragnano, near Naples. The work is almost certainly the “cartoon” presented by the painter prior to the laying of Giovan Battista Calandra’s first micromosaic as an altarpiece in St Peter’s Basilica. The painting may have been part of the Barberini Collection in Rome. It was intended for the main altar of the church in the Franciscan monastery of Saint Michael the Archangel al Trivione in Gragnano. It’s not clear when it arrived at the monastery, but it may have been thanks to the Cardinal of Naples, Ascanio Filomarino.
The Arch of Sant’Agostino is to be found in the Church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, Pavia. It’s one of the most disputable monuments of fourteenth century Italy. There is debate over both its date and who created it. There are a series of argumentations that tie it to the later period of Giovanni di Balduccio. Works by this Pisan sculptor
date to between 1318 and 1349, and are to be found in Pisa, Florence, Bologna and Milan. The problem of who produced the Pavian Arch is complicated by the difficulty in giving a convincing date to the tomb. It has been variously placed between about 1350 and 1380, and occasionally even as late as the fifteenth century.
Following a new photographic project and a complete overhaul of the fonts, bibliography and other on hand data, this paper re–evaluates the monument. Its intention is to demonstrate that Giovanni di Balduccio provided the design as well as onsite direction for the project. To do this, a “broader” vision has been taken, from an entrepreneurial point of view, in which the authorship of the work is shared with, if not delegated to, the site supervisor and administrator of the artistic studio, the concept of a brain behind a project.
FEDERICA SIDDI - Additions to Lombardy’s Late Gothic: two wooden sculptures of the Madonna and Child
This paper presents two previously unpublished wooden images of the Madonna. One is housed in the Church of San Vittore in Casalzuigno (Varese), the other in the Church of San Rocco Confessore in Zeccone (Pavia). The two works came to light during a broader survey carried out by the author in Lombardy. They go to join the body of examples of early fifteenth century Lombard carvings. The two of them fit into the pattern of figurative representations that had been honed down during the construction of Milan’s Duomo, from the beginning of the fifteenth century onwards.
When taking the province as a whole, considering they were found scattered far and wide, the rediscovered Madonna’s offer a chance to reflect on the diffusion of such a fortuitous idiom also amongst the wood carvers of the time. They go to show a substantial alignment in styles with those of their better known colleagues, the painters and sculptors. This was an exchange of views that was to prove to be extremely productive and long lasting.
ELENA CERA - Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino, Bartolomeo Buon and a few questions about Venetian sculpture in the mid fifteenth century
This paper looks into the relationship between Bartolomeo Buon and Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino with the attribution of two works still under debate. One is the group including the Annunciation, housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the other a Madonna and Child in the Liebighaus Museum in Frankfurt. The attribution of these pieces to Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino suggests that he may well have already been present in the studio of Bartolomeo Buon by the late 1540s or early ‘50s. Niccolò could have collaborated with Bartolomeo in the design of the Porta della Carta in Palazzo Ducale, Venice. His may be the two Virtues in the lower niches, Temperance and Strength. The paper also covers the complicated affair of the critique aimed at the Porta della Carta over the past hundred years. The ideas of Leo Planiscig, Wolfgang Wolters, Anne Markham Schulz, Massimo Ferretti and Matteo Ceriana are taken into particular account.
MICHELA ZURLA - Sculpture in Genoa around 1450: between Maestri caronesi and Giovanni da Bissone
Some recent critiques have better pinned down the activity in Genoa, and Liguria as a whole, of Andrea da Ciona and Filippo Solari da Carona. Their work was fundamental to the development of wood carving in the mid fifteenth century. A series of works that have come down to us reveal the influence that the two Maestri caronesi had on the Genoese circle of artists. As yet, it has been impossible to attribute any one of the
homogenous group of works to one particular known artist. Andrea and Filippo’s example was fundamental to the development of Giovanni di Andrea da Bissone. His early years have been pieced together by confronting his first documented or previously attributed works.
MATTEO FACCHI
The quality and industry of Rinaldo de Staulis: the building of the Certosa di Pavia
and the Madonna with Child in Soncino Castle
The first part of this paper reveals how much research has gone into the modeller Rinaldo de Staulis to date. His activity has been documented from 1450 to 1494. His serial friezes can be found in Cremona, Milano, Pavia, Lodi, Fiorenzuola d’Arda, Zibello, Busseto, Cortemaggiore, Castelleone, Soncino and elsewhere. The writer proposes that the Madonna and Child on the outer side of the circular tower of Soncino Castle
could also be attributed to this maestro from Cremona. This work, until now overlooked by academics, plays an important part in piecing together the early activity of the sculptor, a field as yet not fully investigated by scholars. The basis for the proposed attribution lies in a comparison of styles with the reliefs in the cloister of
the Certosa in Pavia, documented as the work of the sculptor. The paper clears up the question of which parts of the Certosa complex were assigned to Rinaldo de Staulis, and which to other sculptors, amongst whom the hand of Cristoforo Mantegazza can be recognised.
MARCO SCANSANI
Ludovico Castellani, a rediscovered sculptor of the Officina Ferrarese
Ludovico Castellani was a terracotta modeller, engraver, jewel smith and painter from Ferrara. He’s one of the best documented artists in the town during the reigns of Borso and Ercole I d’Este. His influence over the sculpture of the Emilian town must have been equivalent to that of the better known Domenico di Paris and Sperandio Savelli. However, not even the most recent of studies have been able to identify with any certainty any piece as a work of his.
Thanks to a reappraisal of documents mentioning the mysterious artist, a terracotta sculpture has been recognised as his. This has led to the artist’s style being classified, and a first corpus of works pinned with his name. This forms an initial nucleus of Ludovico Castellani’s works, fitting in perfectly, and mirroring, other pictorial representations from the Officina Ferrarese at the time.
LORENZO PRINCIPI
Self portrait of Alessandro della Scala da Carona, a sculptor in Northern Italy
in the first half of the sixteenth century
LUCA ANNIBALI
Antonio Begarelli in Bologna
FERNANDO LOFFREDO
Martino Regio da Viganello and his sculptural subject matter
FRANCESCA PADOVANI
Previously unpublished information for a profile of the book lover Hans Reichle
Fragments of a bas–relief from Spoleto’s Roman theatre. A possible reconstruction and interpretation. Some fragments of a marble bas–relief came to light during the excavation of Spoleto’s Roman theatre during the 1950s. They formed part of the scaenae frons. An analysis of the subject matter and iconography has suggested some possible interpretations for the scenes, ranging from mythological
representations to gods and goddesses. The reliefs date to the second quarter of the second century CE, showing that the theatre was renovated between the end of Hadrian’s reign and the beginning of Antoninus Pius’. The original structure was built during the last decades of the first century BCE.
GIOVANNI BORACCESI
Fifteenth and sixteenth century processional crosses in the diocese of Tricarico
The article focuses on the fifteenth and sixteenth century processional crosses in some of the churches of the diocese of Tricarico, in Basilicata. The protagonists of this cultural phenomenon were bishops, lay and regular ecclesiasts, non clerical guilds, as well as everyday church goers and members of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies’ wealthy landowning families. The group of crosses includes excellent examples of Late Gothic and Renaissance work, some, until now, unpublished. They reveal an unexpected dynamism present in this part of Lucania, adding another piece to the puzzle of the heritage left by the goldsmiths of this southern region, as well as the artists themselves, both home grown and from other parts.
GIACOMO MONTANARI
Tomaso Orsolino between Pavia and Certosa (1628–1635): a more accurate chronology and new clues as to the role of Ercole Ferrata Though he worked in Genova, Tomaso Orsolino was born in Ramponio in the Val d’Intelvi. From 1628
onwards he worked on some of the most important sculptural projects of early seventeenth century Lombardy. This paper hopes to sort out the order in which the sculptor produced his works for the Certosa of Pavia. It looks in greater detail into the numerous works that the artist produced for the important monastery. The focus is on the period between 1628, when we know for sure that he arrived in Lombardy, and the middle of the 1630s. The close ties to the greats of Lombardy painting are the underlying thread in the stylistic evolution that was without a doubt one of the main players of the later fashion, a “sniff” of the new Baroque language in Lombardy. This is in spite of the critical misfortunes it has witnessed even up to recent times. In
such a prolific workshop, it’s no surprise that Ercole Ferrata’s deft chisel was to emerge. This paper hopes to reveal some of those first traces of his independent work, prior to his move to Naples.
LAURA GIGLI
Bartolomeo Lupardi bares his soul in the architectural and decorative facade of his home The facade of 104 Via di Parione (today’s Via del Governo Vecchio) speaks of a man of humble origins, Bartolomeo Lupardi, who went on to become a successful publisher and printer. He was capable of innovating the spirit of his times, against which he pitted himself, unwilling to remain a bystander in a world whose script was being dictated by the powers that be, curtailing any desire for individual freedoms. This was a man who had chosen to anchor his activity in the hostile world rooted in the art of publishing. This was the right place to guarantee success in his life mission. An expression of this success was the construction of his house. After the restoration of its facade in 2015 his choice of flaunting his achievement can once again be
admired. It’s the manifestation of a man who had changed the way in which social standing could be represented. This was a specific cultural innovation not so much for himself, considering the fact that for him his accrued economic fortune was enough satisfaction in itself, but more for his descendents. He managed to give them the opportunity to stand on level ground with the dominant social structures, thanks to his invention, from scratch, of a new mythography, hinged on legal science. Evidence of this can be seen in the enormous cultural objectives followed and reached in the field by his son Andrea, recognising his studies as a means of emancipation, overturning what could have been his destiny at birth.
ANDREA G. DE MARCHI
Painted pseudo North European Roman furniture using recycled Ancient Roman marble. Traces of Francesco Allegrini and Daca Poelen The paper establishes the true cultural identity of a pair of dressers in the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini. When they were bought in 1962 it was thought they were Dutch, and later
considered a forgery. In actual fact they were manufactured in Rome. The craftsman, as yet, remains anonymous, but was probably from the Netherlands. Other pieces of furniture, made by the same hand, have been identified and are analysed here. They date to around 1640. A previously unknown international milestone in seventeenth century Roman furniture production has been revealed, in which Ancient Roman marble is reused.
FABIOLA JATTA
The refound colour scheme of the monumental complex of San Michele in Rome
The paper reports on the results of the restoration of the decoration of a small inner cloister in the monumental complex of San Michele in Rome, unveiling another aspect of the building’s long history. The complex took one and a half centuries to finish, its first stone being laid in 1686, during the reign of Pope Innocent XI. It wasn’t until 1839 that Luigi Poletti finally finished the job. Poletti also renovated the cloister in question,
which has recently been restored. The works uncovered important information as to the original colour scheme. The colour of the panels of what was known as the “Odescalchi lodge” were previously “a shade of the air”.
This was a light grey colouring obtained by adding a dash of Vine Black pigment to the slaked lime. The paper provides confirmation that the long facade giving on to the River Tiber was painted light grey up until the end of the 1700s. This can be seen in illustrative plates, oil paintings, wall and tempera paintings and printed watercolours. The pale coloured complex is seen as it was up until the end of the 1700s, not in the red brick hue that we’ve been accustomed to from the eighteenth century up to the present day.
FRANCESCA ROMANA GAJA
Notes about Jan Miel’s work in Turin’s Palazzo Reale
Italy’s cultural ministry recently acquired an overdoor by Jan Miel. It depicts Alexander the Great consulting an astrologist before embarking. The painting was originally housed in Turin’s Palazzo Reale. Jan Miel was named as court painter by Duke Charles Emmanuel II, from 1658 to his death in 1664. The acquisition provides a chance to take a brief look at what he produced for the palace in Turin, and to add
something new to the catalogue of paintings commissioned by the House of Savoy. Miel took part in the renovation of the state rooms of the piano nobile of the Royal Palace, fitting in with the complex celebratory iconography drawn up by Father Emanuele Tesauro. Tesauro also oversaw the Flemish artist’s illustrations
for the volume Regno d’Italia sotto i barbari (Turin 1664), for which Miel produced two frontispieces and forty three royal portraits.
FRANCO BOGGERO – CHIARA MASI
Nino Lamboglia and the preservation of the artistic heritage of the West Ligurian Riviera during the Second World War
ELENA GHISELLINI: Sull’uso di pietre colorate nell’Egitto tolemaico fra tradizione e innovazione
LUCA DI FRANCO: Un rilievo neroniano in pavonazzetto da Parma a Napoli. Pier Leone Ghezzi, gli scavi Bianchini sul Palatino e la Collezione Farnese
ELVIRA CAJANO: Il sepolcro del Beato Angelico nella chiesa della Minerva in Roma. Le vicende e il restauro
GIULIA CERIANI SEBREGONDI: Un doge sui ponteggi: i libri dei conti di fabbrica del Palazzo Donà dalle Rose a Venezia
SABINA MANIELLO CARDONE: Nuovi documenti per il gruppo della ‘Annunciazione’ a Bordeaux e la bottega di Pietro e Gian Lorenzo Bernini
BENITO NAVARRETE PRIETO: Francisco de Herrera “el Mozo”, su estancia en Roma
y un conjunto de dibujos atribuidos a Pierfrancesco Cittadini
NICCOLÒ D’AGATI: «Poi a scuola di pupazzetto»: nuove evidenze su Boccioni illustratore a Roma (1899–1906)
TUTELA E VALORIZZAZIONE
MARTA NOVELLO: Il “nuovo” Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Aquileia. Primi risultati e riflessioni in corso d’opera
ARCHIVIO
TOBIAS FISCHER–HANSEN: La corrispondenza fra Saverio Landolina e Frederik Münter. Un epistolario di colti antiquari sul finire dell’Illuminismo
LORENZO ORSINI: Stefano Bardini e il distacco di soffitti rinascimentali: nuovi documenti su alcuni affreschi cremonesi di primo Cinquecento
FONDI E ARCHIVI FOTOGRAFICI STORICI
GIOVANNA BERTELLI: Una particolare raccolta di lastre negative al collodio all’interno
del Fondo Luciano Morpurgo conservato all’ICCD
LIBRI
GIOVANNI CARBONARA: recensione a La valutazione del rischio sismico nel complesso della Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze–The evaluation of seismic risk in the complex of the Galleria dell’Accademia of Florence, a cura di G. GIORGIANNI, Firenze 2017
LORENZO FINOCCHI GHERSI: recensione a Il Tempietto di Bramante nel monastero
di San Pietro in Montorio, a cura di F. CANTATORE, Roma 2017
CAMILLA MURGIA: recensione a C. LAPAIRE, Renouveau médiéval et sculpture romantique. Le retour du Moyen Age dans la sculpture européenne entre 1750 et 1900, Paris 2018
MATTEO CERIANA: recensione a “Sono Fernanda Wittgens”. Una vita per Brera, a cura di G. GINEX, Milano 2018
28–30 novembre 2013
a cura di
ANGELA CIPRIANI, GIULIA FUSCONI, CARLO GASPARRI, MARIA GRAZIA PICOZZI, LUCIA PIRZIO BIROLI STEFANELLI
Additional thoughts on the Tomb of the Diver
This paper takes another look at Mario Napoli’s 1970 illustrated reconstruction of the Tomb of the Diver in Paestum, as it probably appeared at the moment of the burial. His drawing emphasises a need to interpret the tomb’s iconographic elements as a cohesive whole. Further analysis of the scene painted on the lid provides additional elements for a symbolic interpretation of the image, particularly concerning
the deceased’s aspiration to a blissful life after death.
MARINA ANNA LAURA MENGALI
Unveiling mediaeval towns: Hidden 12th to 15th century street fronts
This paper is the conclusion of extensive research into what today we see as the the facades of mediaeval buildings in historical town centres of various regions of central Italy, including Umbria, Tuscany and northern Lazio. It looks into how Italian towns may have appeared to the eye during the Middle Ages.
CLAUDIO SECCARONI
Reconstruction of Botticelli’s altarpiece for the church of San Paolino in Florence
The August 2015 issue of The Burlington Magazine, a prestigious English monthly periodical, carried an article by Alexander Röstel on Botticelli’s Pietà. Though now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Röstel traced its original site back to the altar of the main chapel of San Paolino, in Florence. Research is based on documentary sources in Florence, describing the altarpiece as a triptych with closable side panels.
This paper puts forward an identification for the previously unidentified paintings that once adorned the doors.
BENEDETTA MATUCCI
Rediscovering ancient gilding and the possibility of a secret portrait
This paper focuses on Francesco da Sangallo’s Virgin with Child and Saint Anne, a marble sculptural group in the church of Orsanmichele. It accompanies a diagnostic analysis of traces of gilding on the work, part of a project promoted by the Bargello Museums, that involved the National Institute of Optics and the Institute of Sciences for Cultural Heritage of the National Research Council of Florence. As a
supplement to the scientific findings, the paper illustrates examples of Sangallo’s marble gilding techniques, drawn from his body of work, as well as from evidence recently discovered by Alex Röstel.
BENEDETTA CANTINI
Evidence of gilding on the works of Francesco da Sangallo: Investigation, results and future research
The paper examines the analysis of traces of gilding found on Francesco da Sangallo’s sculptural group in the church of Orsanmichele in Florence. Comparing documented artistic techniques with data from a non–invasive diagnostic analysis of the traces of gold on the marble sculptural group, Sangallo’s proved to be original. Detailed ultraviolet light observation revealed the sculptor’s use of gold in the details,
which is comparable to techniques Donatello had used in the previous century. Gilding is also evident in another of Sangallo’s works: Cardinal Leonardo Buonafede’s funeral monument in the Certosa del Galluzzo.
BARBARA SALVADORI – SILVIA INNOCENTI – SOFIA BRIZZI – JANA STRIOVA
Scientific investigations into the marble sculptural group
As part of a collaboration between the Bargello Museums and the National Research Council of Florence, traces of colour found on Francesco da Sangallo’s sculptural group have been analysed. It may be that some of the sixteenth–century gilding was removed during later cleaning. A completely non–invasive approach was used, involving complementary elemental (XRF) and molecular (Raman) spectroscopy
techniques. Traces of gold leaf came to light, applied to a preparation of materials in use during the sixteenth century, such as cinnabar, red ochre, white lead, and chalk. No evidence for the use of modern pigments was found.
FRANCESCO ZAGNONI
The portrait of Girolamo Carlo Baciocchi by Lorenzo Bartolini and its replicas
This paper traces the history of a marble bust of Girolamo Carlo Baciocchi, son of Elisa Bonaparte and Felice Baciocchi. The piece, by Lorenzo Bartolini (1777–1850), is housed in Versailles and has often been mistaken to be the bust of the King of Rome that the Monegasque sculptor François–Joseph Bosio (1768–1845) presented at the Paris Salon in 1812. This paper disputes this identification, given the discovery of a new marble replica of Bartolini’s portrait in the crypt of the Baciocchi chapel in San Petronio, Bologna, where Girolamo is buried.
DAMIANO IACOBONE
The completion of the facade of the church–ossuary of Mussoi in Belluno (1935–1949): The architect Alberto Alpago–Novello and the figurative arts
The paper focuses on the completion of the church–ossuary of Mussoi in Belluno, in particular the fresco planned for its façade. The subject of the fresco was originally conceived by the church’s designer, the architect Alberto Alpago–Novello (1889–1985). Various artists, including Aldo Carpi, Luigi Tito, Luigi Filocamo, Pino Casarini and Pietro Cortellezzi, had drawn up their own original plans for the work, prior
to its conception. Ultimately, the fresco was created by Cortellezzi, and finished in 1949, over a decade after the church’s construction. Though an apparently complicated business, it is a perfect example of the relationship between the exponents of different arts in the interwar period. Prominent architects of
the time aspired to artistic complexity in their work. The multiplicity of the stakeholders involved in such a project is also emblematic; from the church’s patronage, being the main benefactor, to the building’s
designer, each intent on having their say in the work’s completion.
PAOLA D’AGOSTINO
The renovation of the Orsanmichele Museum
This brief paper illustrates the renovation, safety measures and improved access put in place, and the redesigned layout of the Orsanmichele Complex in Florence, an emblematic landmark steeped in the city’s history of commerce, guilds, arts and religious devotion. The works were finalised in 2023, made possible thanks to an exceptional loan from the Ministry of Culture, as part of its 2017–2018 “Major Cul-
tural Heritage Projects” initiative. The winning project, by the two architectural firms Map and Natalini, was chosen by a committee of Ministry officials in 2019. Hand in hand with the building’s renovation, the pieces on display in the complex underwent maintenance and restoration.
STEFANIA BISAGLIA – LIA MONTEREALE
Compulsory purchase orders prior to export: Safeguarding artworks in case of non–acquisition
The paper examines issues concerning Article 70 of Legislative Decree No. 42 of 2004, the “Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code”. It outlines procedures that must be followed by the export offices of the Ministry of Culture in the event of an unsuccessful compulsory purchase order. The Directorate General for Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape has set out interpretative clarifications on the appropriate course of action. The paper outlines the Ministry’s stance, underlining its efforts to strengthen compul-
sory purchase procedures in the case of an item being declared of national cultural interest. Under the new guidelines, export offices can present a compulsory purchase order even if only one of the criteria specified in Ministerial Decree No. 537 of 2017 is met. Previously at least two criteria needed to be met before a free movement certificate could be withheld.
DANIELE SANGUINETI – NINO SILVESTRI
The “refound” Spinola Clock: A masterpiece of sculpted Baroque furnishing
for the National Gallery of Liguria
The grandiose clock is a rare example of late Baroque furnishings present in Genoese homes. It was first mentioned by Federigo Alizeri in his 1875 Guida illustrativa as standing in the hall of Palazzo Spinola all’Acquasola in Genoa (now the headquarters of the Prefecture on via Roma). Back then, this was the town-house of the Lerma branch of the Marquises of Spinola. Andrea, Giovanni Battista, Antonio and Stefano,
the sons of Luigi, had purchased the Palazzo in 1859 from Massimiliano Spinola, Count of Tassarolo. The four had previously resided in Palazzo Lercari Spinola. It seems probable that the furnishings, including the clock, were brought here from their former residence on via degli Orefici. This was Luigi’s family home, where their ancestor Giovanni Filippo Spinola had had some of the living rooms decorated in the very early 18th century by Domenico Parodi’s workshop. Alizeri had attributed the ornamental work to Anton Maria Maragliano, a renowned wood sculptor active in Genoa from the late 17th to early 18th centuries.
A ‘cold case’ at Villa Albani: The hydrophore statue near the so–called Ruined Temple
The paper examines both the past and relatively recent history of the fountain graced with a bathing female hydrophore statue near the Ruined Temple in the garden of Villa Albani–Torlonia.
LUCA FABBRI
The Master of San Floriano di Valpolicella, also known as Leonardo da Verona: A previously unheralded protagonist in Veronese wooden sculpture, on the cusp between the 15th and 16th centuries
The paper sheds light on a few sculptures which were, for the most part, created in the Scaligero area during the 15th and 16th centuries.
MARIO AVAGNINA – ALESSIO CARDACI – PAOLA COGHI – LUIGI COPPOLA – GIUSEPPINA FAZIO. ALESSANDRO GRASSIA – MARITA GUCCIONE – FRANCESCA ROMANA LIGUORI – PAOLA MASTRACCI, MARIA JOÃO REVEZ – ANTONELLA VERSACI – ELISABETTA VIRDIA
MAXXI: A project for its maintenance and renovation
In 2016, the MAXXI Foundation obtained two loans from the then Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (MiBAC) today’s Ministero della cultura with different goals: one was to put in motion a first cycle of maintenance for the main building; the other aimed at completing the museum and re–purposing those buildings of the former Montello barracks still standing. t the formal characteristics of the Zaha Hadid project. The paper retraces the steps behind this complex operation, various thematic aspects and the multidisciplinary approach.
ALESSANDRA ACCONCI
The painted crucifix of San Simeone di Alvito. An hypothesis that it may have been produced in the Ornatista workshop
Conservation work on the painted crucifix housed in the Collegiate Church of San Simeone Profeta in Alvito (FR) was terminated in 2018. The process was financed by Intesa Sanpaolo as part of the XVIII edition of their Restituzioni project. The piece was first restored between 1980 and 1981, on behalf of the Superintendency, coinciding with the “rediscovery” of the until then unpublished work. This Crucifixion follows a standard typology of “triumphant crucifixes”, with Christ flanked by the Virgin
and Saint John the Evangelist. The sober colouring of the panel’s artistic horizon is enriched by an extensive layer of moulded and gilded stucco. This would seem to lodge it deep within the specificities of the late Komnenian artistic expression of central–southern Italy.
.
GIUSEPPE AMMENDOLA – CHIARA MUNZI
The condition of the Alvito Crucifix today and previous attempts to restore it
The Alvito Crucifix dates back to the first decades of the 13th century. It is an important part of an extensive collection of central Italian painted crosses from the Middle Ages. These were produced in specialised workshops by a team craftsmen made up of shipwrights, painters, sculptors and gilders, all working together. Ongoing restoration, supported by the diagnostic evidence, is providing a valuable insight
into the material composition of the piece. Analysis has revealed the meticulous approach taken in the organisation of the various stages of the crucifix’s manufacture, right from its initial design layout.
Lupo di Francesco in Empoli and Tino di Camaino in Pisa and Siena: New proposals
LORENZO BOFFADOSSI
The Lelio Orsi frescoes brought to the Galleria Estense from the Rocca di Novellara
MATTEO CERIANA
An Emperor and a Cardinal, two restored busts in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello
DAMIANO IACOBONE
Gio Ponti and Alberto Alpago–Novello (with Mario Sironi): The initial stages of the 1930 IV International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Monza
ANTONELLA CLEMENTONI
Alfonso Bartoli and the restoration of the Temple of Venus and Rome: Tension and rivalry between the Excavations Office of the Palatine and Roman Forum and the X Division for Antiquities and Fine Arts of the Governorate
BEATRICE ALAI
Unveiling Italian miniature art in Frankfurt am Main: The collection of cuttings from the Historisches Museum (13th–16th centuries)
ALESSANDRO BROGI – DAVIDE BUSSOLARI – MANUELA MATTIOLI
A ‘refound’ work by Ludovico Carracci for the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
STEFANIA DI MARCELLO
Balancing tradition and innovation in the work of the Regio Istituto Centrale del Restauro between 1939 and 1943
Painters in Etruscan Caere during the Orientalising period: The Pittore della Sfinge con ‘grembiule’ and the Pittore delle Gru
Previously unpublished finds from long past 1980s excavations in Cerveteri have been dusted off. For the most part these are from graves excavated by Raniero Mengarelli on the Banditaccia burial ground. They provide fresh and stimulating insight into Caere’s seventh–century pottery production.
News about the Montecassino Abbey painting collection: The 1691 ‘Inventory’ (with updates to 1725)
MAURO VINCENZO FONTANA
An unpublished description of the Montecassino painting collection during the 17th century: What is present, absent and an initial identification
The San Benedetto Rooms in Montecassino have always been more than just a holy place worthy of the profoundest devotion
MARIANO DELL’OMO
The 1691–1725 edition of the ‘inventory’ and custody of the San Benedetto rooms in Montecassino between the 17th and 18th centuries
The recently uncovered Inventory of the rooms by Father San Benedetto in the Montecassino Archive is published here for the first time
MARIA BARBARA GUERRIERI BORSOI
Historical documents and Seventeenth–century drawings of Palazzo Vittori–Marcellini, later Sinibaldi, at the Arco della Ciambella in Rome
The wealthy Vittori family were related to families of standing. They had owned property in and around Arco della Ciambella since the 16th century.
ROSSELLA FOSCHI
Carlo Marchionni’s unfinished project for Sutri Cathedral
In 1743 the Congregation of Good Government gave Clemente Orlandi the task of finishing off Carlo Marchionni’s renovation of the medieval cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo in Sutri.
PIERLUIGI PANZA
Piranesi on the third centenary of his birth. Contributions on his influence on Milanese neoclassicism
2020 coincided with the 300th anniversary of Giovan Battista Piranesi’s birth (1720–1778). In spite of the Covid–19 pandemic, some exhibitions were organised to celebrate the event. These shed light on new aspects of the artist’s persona and how his works have been put to use.
MICHELE DANIELI
Gabriele Ferrantini’s «finest work» rediscovered
The paper focuses on a significant piece by Gabriele Ferrantini, which has recently come to light on the art market. The writer recognises it as the altarpiece that originally adorned the Church of San Giorgio in Poggiale, in Bologna, removed in the late 17th century.
Two Silver Plated Bronze Feet from the Aventine Hill
During operations of rescue archaeology conducted in a private property on the Aventine Hill, a significant discovery was made. An Ancient Roman townhouse (domus) with exquisite polychrome mosaics from late Republican times came to light.
LUCA CRETI
The High Altar in the Cathedral of Civita Castellana: From the Ottonian Era to its 18th–Century Renovation
The paper presents a historical account of the construction and life of the High Altar in the Cathedral of Civita Castellana (VT). A first, primitive, rectangular altar was built from ancient marble grave slabs between 1000 and 1001, under the patronage of Bishop Crescenziano. It housed the remains of Saints Marciano and Giovanni. They were martyred during one of Diocletian’s persecutions in the early 4th century.
LETIZIA BONIZZONI, PAOLA BORGHESE, SILVIA BRUNI, ANDREA CARINI, MARCO GARGANO, EMANUELA GRIFONI, VITTORIA GUGLIELMI, NICOLA LUDWIG, JACOPO MELADA, CRISTINA QUATTRINI, ROBERTO SACCUMAN
Gaudenzio Ferrari in Milan: The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1539–1540) and its Restoration in the Laboratory of the Pinacoteca di Brera
From 2014 to 2018, the Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alessandria by Gaudenzio Ferrari (Valduggia, documented as born post 1507 – died Milan 1546) was restored, with state funds, in the laboratory of the Pinacoteca
di Brera.
ANDREA DARI
The Church and Convent of Sant’Andrea in Vineis in Faenza: Two previously unpublished 18th–Century plans and reflections on the Work of Domenico Paganelli
The recent discovery of two 18th–century plans associated with the Sant’Andrea in Vineis complex in Faenza, known today as San Domenico, served as a catalyst for exploring the remarkable life of Father Domenico Paganelli (1545–1624).
ANDREA G. DE MARCHI
Guercino, Ruffo and a Holy Family with a Young Saint John
This short contribution discusses a previously unpublished copper artwork attributed to Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, commonly known as il Guercino. It sheds light on a commission by Don Antonio Ruffo, an international art collector from far off Sicily.
SILVIA AGLIETTI
Count Tyszkiewicz’s “Cat”: Insights into an Ivory Figurine Found at Caffarella
The protagonist, at the heart of the sequence of events we attempt to piece together, is a small ivory sculpture. Following its discovery, the piece travelled illicitly backwards and forwards between Italy and France. Its movements involved prominent figures in the antiques market during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
PAOLA MARINI
The Royal Palace of Venice Rediscovered
After more than two decades of dedicated efforts led by the Fondazione Musei Civici and the Municipality of Venice, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per il Comune di Venezia e Laguna, eleven rooms in the former Royal Palace have been opened to the public.
A colossal head with a laurel crown from Aquinum Marble fragments of a head with a laurel crown were recently found during the excavation of ancient Aquinum. They have been preliminarily studied prior to restoration. By analysing the dimensions of the
fragments it has been possible to gauge the size of the colossal statue. The appearance of what remains of the face, with its flat and uniform surfaces, and the hairstyle with its short locks cropped close to the skull, identify the statue as a male portrait from the Julio–Claudian era.
BENEDETTA CAGLIOTI
The Cathedral of San Giorgio Martire in Ferrara: Notes and observations on its Fourteenth–century phase
The construction of the Cathedral of San Giorgio Martire in Ferrara began in the 12th century. It was a symbol of the new position the city held in relation to the papacy, as opposed to the latter’s traditional links with Ravenna. Mixing written evidence with a project of surveying and drawing, focussing on the actual physical evidence, the medieval phase of the Cathedral appears to have a harmonious composition within an
overall precise scheme with a regular design and a balanced arrangement of the facades.
GIUSEPPE CASSIO
A new attribution to Cola dell’Amatrice:
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ in the Collegiate Church of Fara in Sabina
A fresco with a Lamentation over the Dead Christ, recently uncovered in the Collegiate Church of Sant’Antonino in Fara in Sabina (Rieti), is one of the earliest known paintings in that religious building. It’s an example of the close link between the town and the nearby Abbey of Santa Maria di Farfa. Between the second half of the fifteenth century and a large part of the sixteenth, the imposing Benedictine “stronghold” had been subjected to frenetic renovation, called for by the commendatory abbots. This included work by Giovanni Battista Orsini (1482–1503). From 1486 to 1514 the Sabine monastery was home to a community of Teutonic monks from the Sacro Speco in Subiaco. There, Nicola di Filotesio, known as Cola dell’Amatrice, had painted the frescoes in the Old Chapter. Documents mention the painter at work in Farfa’s Abbey
in 1508.
ENRICO NOÈ
A Saint John the Baptist by Giulio del Moro
In the parish church of Donada, in the province of Rovigo, there is a little–known marble statue of Saint John theBaptist, signed by the painter and sculptor Giulio del Moro (Verona, around 1555 – Venice, 1616). From an analysis of the piece, the paper moves on to research its possible provenance, perhaps the Church of Santa Giustina
in Venice, and above all its chronology, in the context of the artist’s extensive production. The hypothetical conclusion is that it dates to around 1590. This was the most youthful, and perhaps happiest, period of the maestro.
MARIA TERESA CANTARO
Some news about Lavinia Fontana: From her debut to about 1590
An analysis of some autographed works by Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 – Rome 1614) is presented.
They have changed hands on the antiques market over the last three decades and are now kept in private collections. They include some unpublished works, attributable to the time of the painter’s earliest period. They start with her debut between 1570 and 1575, up to around 1590 when the artist’s activity was now recognised and well known. Brief clarifications are proposed regarding a couple of paintings already linked
to Lavinia Fontana and some new attributions. Finally, some observations are put forward concerning a document transcribed in its entirety for the first time and which casts doubt on the hypothesis of the artist’s stay in Rome during the years of the pontificate of Sixtus V.
CARMELA CAPALDI
From Divus Augustus to Bonaparte:
Notes on the restoration of the colossal seated statues from the Augusteum in Herculaneum
During the first excavations of Herculaneum in what was then known as the Basilica, two colossal marble statues were found representing seated male figures, wrapped only in paludamenta. The building was later correctly identified as the Augusteum, a place for the worship of deceased and deified emperors. The statues, lacking their heads and arms, were subjected to additive restoration, first by Joseph Canart, then Filippo Tagliolini, which made it harder to identify them. Placed in the Bourbon Royal Museum collection, they are mentioned in the first inventory of the museum in 1819, as statues portraying Augustus and Claudius. Scholars have, for the most part, accepted this definition. It has been argued that the plaster head of Augustus was modelled on the portrait of the prince in the Gemma Augustea now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL – ANNA MARIA CARRUBA
Behind the scenes at the Torlonia Marbles exhibition.
New contributions to the exhibition in Milan: analysis, explanation, bibliography and restorations
The new outlay for the Torlonia Marbles exhibition in Milan, in the large and prestigious rooms of the Gallerie d’Italia, provided the opportunity to enrich the exhibition of sculptures already presented in Rome with some new pieces. The paper lists them, giving updated datasheets in terms of bibliography and explanations, recognising two busts as modern. Moreover, a marble copy of Leda and the Swan and the sarcophagus decorated with a Consular procession are accompanied by valuable observations and remarks by those who restored it.
MAURIZIO RICCI
The entrance portal to the Orange Garden: A few annotations
Savello Park, in Rome’s Ripa district, is better known as the Giardino degli Aranci. It was transformed into gardens by Raffaele de Vico in 1932. Its current, Sixteenth–century portal, originally came from Villa Balestra. It was taken apart in 1910 and laid to rest in the municipal deposits. Antonio Munõz had it rebuilt on the Aventine in 1936, partially modifying its construction. The paper, based on an analysis of the remains of Villa Balestra and an important unpublished plan, clarifies once and for all the original site of the gateway.
ALESSIO CIANNARELLA
The Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda: New documents on the restoration of the Domenichino altarpiece and a hypothetical attribution to Giovan Battista Beinaschi
The paper deepens and broadens information about the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda and the rich decorative apparatus inside. Documents held in the church archives have shed light on when and how Raffaele Vanni (1670) unfortunately attempted to restore a painting by Domenichino. His Madonna and Child with Saints Philip and James had been painted between 1626 and 1627. The paper also looks at Vanni’s realisation of an altarpiece of a similar subject to repair the damage after his work on Domenichino’s, it dates to the same year as the restoration. Working from an Eighteenth–century manuscript kept in the Casanatense Library in Rome, and some stylistic comparisons, it is thought that Giovan Battista Beinaschi painted the Crucifix adored by Saint Francis.
FRANCESCA MATTEI
Clay elements in the construction of the vaults of Palazzo Naselli Crispi in Ferrara.
History and geography on Sixteenth–century Este building sites
Palazzo Naselli (1529–1537) was restored between 2018 and 2020. During the work, clay elements came to light, immersed in the cement conglomerate of the vaults of some rooms. The paper traces the building techniques used for the construction of these ceilings, and highlights the relationship between the earliest material evidence, architectural treatises and the architectural projects of the time. Este.
LUCA LEONCINI
Giovanni Maria Mariani at the Palazzo del Quirinale: Documentation of the decoration entrusted to Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the apartments of Alexander VII
This paper presents a complete transcript of the account of the work carried out by Giovanni Maria Mariani on the main floor of the Palazzo del Quirinale, between March and August 1656. He was a perspective painter and decorator, under the supervision of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Mariani’s assignment was a few months prior to that of the group of artists chosen by Pietro da Cortona to decorate the Gran Galleria, later
known as that of Alexander VII. Mariani was involved there too. Until now Giovanni Maria’s duties had been considered «work of an artisan nature», limited to gilding the gallery’s ceiling. Careful examination of documents in Rome’s State Archive has shown instead that the gilding was not done by him, whereas the sweeping painted glossy stucco decorations were. The detailed specifications of what the painter from Ascoli
Piceno was responsible for are to be found in a document which has never previously been analysed, in its entirety, leaving important data untouched upon.
This paper presents the results of a detailed re–examination of the Paros marble “small temple” and “goddess” that came to light in Filera di Garaguso in 1916. Garaguso is a small hillside village built on traces of an Italic, Enotrian, settlement. The contribution is accompanied by images, and provides a few considerations as to the mid fifth century BCE date given to the pieces, as well as their attribution to a Metapontine workshop. More generally it looks into the relationship between the Achaean Polis and inland Italic tribes.
COSTANTINO CECCANTI, Giambologna the architect.
The name Giambologna (1529–1608) is the Italian version of the name, and the one with which he was known, of the Flemish artist Jean de Boulogne. He was born in Douai and went on to become the foremost Late Renaissance sculptor. On top of this, especially from the 1570s onwards, he also worked as an architect. Of this side of his work, which continued up to his death, little is known, as yet. His first architectural projects were for a Florentine nobleman, Bernardo Vecchietti (1514–1590). It was for him that he designed the Ninfeo della Fata Morgana and the Villa del Riposo, south of Florence.
BARBARA AGOSTI, On a possible sojourn of Federico Barocci in the Rome of Pope Gregory XIII.
The Burial of Christ, in the Uffizi, is believed to be a preparatory study by Federico Barocci for his painting of The burial of Christ in the Church of Santa Croce in Senigallia. Annotations on the back of the drawing imply that the maestro from Urbino had paid a visit to see the decoration of the Sala Regia in the Vatican, only just finished by Giorgio Vasari. This, along with other evidence, indicates that Barocci spent some time in Rome in the early years of Gregory XIII Boncompagni’s Pontificate.
LUCA BARONI, Barocci in Portugal (with a memoir of Rudolf Heinrich Krommes).
Juan de Silva was Count of Portalegre and Groom to the King of Portugal. In 1588 he wrote from Lisbon to the artist Federico Barocci da Urbino (c. 1533–1612). The object of the text was a commission for an altarpiece depicting The Crucifixion of Christ and mourners. The go–between in the project was Filippo Terzi. He’d been living in Portugal for years, but had always kept up his ties with his homeland, the Duchy of Urbino. Although the deal never went through, the episode shows how Barocci’s fame on the international circuit was growing. It also sheds light on the diplomatic channels that he was using, putting himself in touch with foreign markets. He provides us with a fortuitous insight into the political and artistic relationship between Urbino and Spain in the second half of the 1500s.
ANTONELLA PAMPALONE, Giovanni Lanfranco’s 1615 contract for the Leonessa altarpiece and details of a painting to attribute to Francesco Cozza.
The contract for the creation of Lanfranco’s splendid Leonessa altarpiece has only recently been uncovered by the writer. It sheds light on the chronology of the painting in 1615, the cultural context in which it was created and any possible intermediaries. With concise reasoning the paper looks into why the original requested subject of the painting was modified, and the thinking behind the iconographic layout. This focuses
on the Saints represented and their cult. The persons involved with the contract have been placed in their historical context, within the town of Leonessa, at the time an important commercial hub. Stylistic analysis sheds light on any comparisons with other, contemporary works, hints of Correggio filtered through the works of the Carracci, and the influence of Carlo Saraceni. There is also a suggestion of this artistic model being revisited by some artists, including Francesco Cozza, who is now attributed a work from Goriano Valli (L’Aquila), previously thought to be by Lanfranco.
FRANCESCO GATTA
From Rome to Europe. New findings on the landscape paintings of Domenichino and Giovanni Battista Viola during the Ludovisi pontificate, and a surprise for Carlo Maratti, painter and collector.
An important landscape painting, that has come to light, depicting the Baptism of the eunuch, in the Carracci style, is attributed to a late phase Giovanni Battista Viola. It provides a chance to look into the image of an ideal landscape during the Ludovisi pontificate (1621–1623), suggesting an answer to the attribution of several works that may be by Domenichino or Viola. It would appear that the Baptism of the eunuch was commissioned by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi. It stands out as having been painted in the same year as the conception of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide (1622). It is likely that the work benefitted from iconographic suggestions from Giovan Battista Agucchi, a scholar and secretary to the Cardinal, as well as a strong believer in the Carracci school. The fame of the painting is confirmed by the list of collections to
which it has belonged. Passing through the hands of the famous art dealer Jaques Meyers in the early 1800s, it ended up in the collection of Philip V of Spain.
GIUSEPPE PORZIO, At the origins of naturalism in Southern Italy.
A contribution for Loys Croys and the debut of Carlo Sellitto Thanks to the discovery of a legal deed dated 1601, it has been possible to attribute an impressive, and until now anonymous, altarpiece to Loys Croys. This elusive artist was one of the principal personalities in the colony of Flemish artists that had settled in Naples between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The altarpeiece depicts The Last Supper and is housed in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Albano di Lucania, province of Potenza. The work has a robust naturalism to it and incorporates the typology and
stylistic motifs that will then be picked up by two of Croys better known pupils, the Caravaggesque Carlo Sellitto and Filippo Vitale. The former is referred to in the document as a witness. The artistic language of the piece, with a strong Nordic accent, is here at its clearest.
From Monte Torretta to Monte Solario.
ANDREA DE MARCHI
The heritage of Duccio’s Maestà in the Pisan polyptych of Simone Martini
CATERINA BAY – MARIA FALCONE
From its dismemberment to being put together again. The polyptych for the Church
of Santa Caterina of Simone Martini, its material, museographical and critical coverage
PIERLUIGI NIERI
Restoration of the Simone Martini polyptych: confirmations and new evidence
from recent diagnosis and analysis of the technical matter on hand
GIANNI PAPI
The true ownership of the altarpiece now returned to the Church of San Severino
from the Pinacoteca di Brera collection: new thoughts on Baccio Ciarpi
DANIELA DEL PESCO
Palazzo Ardinghelli in L’Aquila: three earthquakes (1703, 1915, 2009) and a Baroque building site
CESARE CROVA
Silvio Radiconcini. From a house for restoration to an organic architecture
LUIGI TODISCO
Short notes about reused Roman lions in Muro Lucano
Two more Sarcophagi of the Spouses from Cerveteri:
previously unpublished fragments found among old site records and recent discoveries During rescue excavations on Caere’s (today’s Cerveteri) burial grounds, supervised by the Author in the role of inspector for what was then the Soprintendenza dell’Etruria Meridionale, some fragments of two terracotta sarcophagi were found.
NICOLA BUSINO
New considerations on the four–sided portico of Capua Cathedral on the Volturno
Recent ongoing research in Capua has brought to light several elements associated with the foundation of the town on the banks of the River Volturno. The town was set up by the Longobard élite in the mid ninth century. Some lines of research in particular sprang from the re–examination of existing documentation of the four–sided portico of Capua Cathedral. It forms part of an Episcopal complex which has been left substantially uninvestigated, given that it was entirely reconstructed after Second World War damage.
ORAZIO LOVINO
The Renaissance in “Terra di Bari”. New reflections on Maestro d’Andria and Tuccio d’Andria, at a crossroads between Naples and Liguria One of the most fitting pictorial incidents in “Terra di Bari” during the second half of the fifteenth century, if not the whole figurative panorama of what’s known as the southern Renaissance, is made up of the works of the Maestro d’Andria.
VERUSKA PICCHIARELLI
News about Perugino and his atelier: Two previously unpublished preparatory drawings for the Adoration of the Shepherds by Monteripido
The paper centres on two preparatory drawings with Shepherds related to the circle of Pietro Vannucci, known as “il Perugino”. The pieces, previously unknown to art historians, match the characters in a fresco of the Adoration of the Child. This was stripped from the convent of San Francesco al Monte in Perugia, and is now housed in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria.
BEATRICE CACCIOTTI
Copies, mutuations and diffusion of old fashioned portraits during the early Renaissance: the codex h–I–4 in the Escorial library
Codex h–I–4 in the Escorial library contains 142 drawings of mythological, biblical and historical characters. The latter range from ancient times up to the period contemporary to when they were drawn. Most are accompanied by a brief biographical description. The codex was bequeathed to the Escorial by Phillip II. It had
come into his possession in about 1541, from the Lanuza family, whose coat of arms shows up on the cover.
LORENZO PRINCIPI
More about Alessandro della Scala from Carona: his work in Portugal and new reliefs on a Marian theme
The paper systematically discusses traces of Alessandro della Scala’s work in Portugal, taking into account a copious series of reliefs, three of which from Setubal. For the first time the works that make up this group have been written about and systematically published.
ENRICO COLLE
A “table of joys” for Francis I de’ Medici
The tabletop was part of the collection of Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster. The statuary marble base is inlaid with semiprecious stones. The geometrical pattern is typical of works of the kind manufactured in the second half of the 1500s. It had belonged to the Lorraine Medici collection and to the
Royal House of Savoy: the court administration then sold it to William Blundell Spence. Recently, its original inventory numbers came to light, handwritten on the underside.Thanks to these numbers, confronting them with the contemporary archive documents, the story of the tabletop became clear. Going back through
the years it had been accurately registered in all the Lorraine Medici inventories from the time of Francesco I de’ Medici, who had it placed in the Casino di San Marco, his town house in Florence.
GIULIA CERIANI SEBREGONDI
A Doge on the scaffolding: the account books for the construction of Palazzo Donà dalle Rose in Venice. Further considerations
This paper is the second part of a contribution to this same editorial collection, published in 2019. It is devoted to the construction of Ca’ Donà dalle Rose in Venice, between 1610 and 1612. This was the palace that Doge Leonardo Donà had chosen to build as his family house. From an analysis of the building site accounts (receipts and account books) housed in the private family archives, as well as contemporary treatises from the Veneto region, and comparisons with a few other sporadic sources, it’s been possible to piece together in detail the construction techniques and materials used to build the palace. In an overall reconstruction of the evolution of the Donà building site this paper concentrates on the masonry, plastering, guttering and flooring.
PATRIZIA TOSINI
Baldassarre Croce in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome,
a gift for Pedro Fernàndez de Castro, Viceroy of Naples, and his wife Catalina de la Cerda y Sandoval
The paper presents two previously unpublished frescoes. They were painted in 1610 by the Bolognese artist Baldassarre Croce in Palazzo dei Canonici attached to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The paintings are mentioned in documents, but were thought to have been lost. They depict two canonical stories associated with the veneration of the Liberian Basilica. One was dedicated to the Procession of Pope Gregory I with the icon of Salus Populi Romani to put an end to the plague of 590. The other is the Foundation of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore by Pope Liberius.
ADRIANO AMENDOLA
Giovanni Alto is not Giovanni Grosso.
New considerations on the Swiss Ciceroni from Lucerne and Giacomo Lauro’s “Antiquae Urbis Splendor”
Starting from Francesco Villamena’s two engraved portraits, the author was able to resolve the question of the identity of two Swiss guards, Giovanni Alto and Giovanni Grosso. They were among the most famous Ciceroni of Baroque Rome, still remembered and long debated by scholars. Using heraldry it’s been possible
for the first time to distinguish Alto from Grosso, who have often been taken as the same person. An analysis of Alto’s Stammbuch, housed in the Vatican Library and the discovery of his unpublished will has made it possible to better understand the story behind Giacomo Lauro’s Antiquae Urbis Splendor.
GIANLUCA PUCCIO
In the steps of Padre Resta in the Capodimonte drawings
A series of photographs of the so called “Collezione borbonica” in the Capodimonte museum has come to light in the archives. They date to the mid 1960s and provide a chance to reconstruct the original appearance of many of the drawings, before being subjected to a radical restoration that unfortunately led to them being detached from
their original supporting sheets. The photographs show that about 250 of them were mounted inside a frame in
ANNA MARIA RICCOMINI
Two artists at the Mausoleum of Augustus: Joseph Nollekens and Pietro Ronzoni
The paper analyses a drawing thought to be by Joseph Nollekens, now housed in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London, and a painting held in a private collection, by the Bergamascan artist Pietro Ronzoni. They are both views of the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome. The pictures provide further evidence about the Soderini family collection of ancient sculpture, on display among the ruins of
the Imperial tomb. It’s Nollekens drawing that best captures the four statues that, from the middle of the 1500s, stood at the entrance to the hanging gardens and at the foot of the stairs leading up to the entrance to Palazzo Soderini.
BERTRAND DE ROYERE
A silver table service by Charles Nicolas Odiot for King Charles Albert of Savoy
In 1834 King Charles Albert of Sardinia ordered an exceptional silver service from Charles Nicolas Odiot for his palace in Turin. The wealth and beauty of this collection of silverware earned it the right to be presented the same year at the Paris Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie. The preparatory drawings for the tableware are identified here amongst those formerly in the archives of Odiot’s famous Parisian maison, subsequently scattered and lost. These have thrown light on the technical and stylistic evolution of French goldsmiths during the Restoration. This was a period of uncertainty between the very captivating neo–Baroque taste coming out of England at the time and echoes of the great neoclassical goldsmiths.
Torre di Satriano: old discoveries, new dates
This paper takes a further look at a small group of graves first published in the 1960s by R. Ross Holloway. They were from two burial grounds. One lies “some 700 metres northwest of the hilltop”. The other is on the “Faraone 1” site in the Torre Satriano area, home to an important “nord-lucana” Italic community researched by M. Osanna.
The original fifth century date given to the graves has been backdated to the seventh or the first decades of the sixth century. This has followed a philological reexamination of the grave goods, in the light of recent research into the differences between offensive and defensive weapons. This now places the graves among the
earliest yet found in the area.
MARIANNA CASTIGLIONE
The Kharayeb (Tyre) models in a Mediterranean landscape:
evidence of Greek culture in Hellenistic Phoenicia?
The paper presents some terracotta Hellenistic statuettes found in the Kharayeb sanctuary in Lebanon, active between the seventh and first centuries BCE. It illustrates just how much Greek culture had seeped into such a “peripheral” context as the hinterland of ancient Tyre. The images chosen are for the most part so-called Hellenistic koinè. These can be found throughout the Mediterranean world. The debate revolves around how much these are evidence for the local culture’s servile adhesion to, or autonomous adaption to the Greek, or whether they are nothing more than local craftsmen’s adaption to market trends.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL
Giustiniani digressions: the «Fauno antico ... in atto di gridare» and its restoration.
A collector’s item
The paper discusses the bust of a satyr of the same type as a bronze example found in Herculaneum. In the first decades of the seventeenth century it was in the Giustiniani Collection. The extraordinary quality of its manufacture has made it celebrated and appreciated through the centuries. Even its careful and limited restoration in the 1600s has been considered a mark of distinction, tying it to
a very specific cultural mood, until now little noted by the critics. The brothers Benedetto and Vincenzo Giustiniani were no doubt a part of this movement, both refined collectors and the first owners of this ancient marble.
SYLVIA DIEBNER – FRANCESCA LEMBO FAZIO
A museum to house the Torlonia collection of ancient artefacts:
two of Vincenzo Fasolo’s projects in the post war years
Post 1940 the architect Vincenzo Fasolo found himself drawing up plans for a “Museum for ancient artefacts” within Villa Torlonia in Roma. The idea was to transfer the Torlonia Collection from the rooms it was housed in in Via della Lungara. The blueprints for his work are in the Fasolo Archives kept in the Archivio Storico Capitolino. Fasolo had two differing architectural approaches to the job. They illustrate the stylistic and museographic changes going on in said debate during the years after the Second World War. Neither of the two proposals ever saw the light of day.
LUCILLA DE LACHENAL
From the Torlonia Museum in Via della Lungara to the exhibition in Palazzo Caffarelli.
A history of protecting archaeological patrimony in private hands
The paper, as can be seen from the subtitle above, presents the history of the Ministry’s activity in the preservation of a particularly excellent collection of antiquities, that of Prince Torlonia. This activity has run from the late 1800s up to the present day.
The various operations that the State undertook are illustrated, in its protection of one of the largest and interesting patrimonies of Rome. On top of this, following the demolition, in 1892, of the family’s palace that had stood in what is now Piazza Venezia, the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica was enriched with a
donation of paintings and sculptures. The draughting of better articulated protective legislation since the early 1900s has placed many important restrictions on the collections of antiquities housed in the Torlonia
family’s various palaces and villas. At the same time a better and more adequate arrangement is being sought for the collection of marble sculpture housed in Via della Lungara, which over the years has remained closed to the public.
DANIELE SANGUINETI
Precisions over Van Dyck and the altarpiece for Francesco Orero in the Church of San Michele di Pagana
The paper examines the only altarpiece left by Anton Van Dyck in the ancient Republic of Genoa. It was commissioned by the merchant Francesco Orero for the noble chapel in the Church of San Michele di Pagana, near Rapallo.
Until now it was believed that the parish accounts indicated that Orero, in 1627, had funded the construction of a “new chapel”. Actually, more careful reading of the accounts entry shows that it refers to a shrine dedicated to Sant’Orsola, furnished with an altarpiece in 1628 by Orazio Bisagno. From a detailed analysis of Orero’s will, drawn up in 1643, it becomes clear that the family chapel was as yet unfinished. The importance of the role of his brother Bernardo in finishing the furnishings also emerges. Just two months after the death of his brother in 1644, he drew up a contract to commission two sculptors, Francesco Falcone and Battista Barberino,
active in Genova at the time.
CRISTIAN PRATI
The Oratorio del Serraglio in San Secondo Parmense:
reflections, news and observations on the restoration
The paper pieces together the main events during the construction of the Oratorio del Serraglio in San Secondo Parmense, with its extraordinary decoration by Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (1657–1743) and Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734). It hopes to shed light on a series of as yet unpublished observations made during the recent restoration and consolidation, part of a broader and more complex operation to conserve the Oratory. Thanks to scaffolding it was possible to get a privileged close up view of the work. As a result it we could check things that had previously been left undocumented. Though there is no new archive evidence, the paper illustrates certain elements that have so far only marginally been treated in the past. These include the numerous restorations the work was subject to during the 1900s, unfortunately not always well documented.
GILDA P. MANTOVANI – FABRIZIO LOLLINI
Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, Martino da Modena and a refound codex for Ercole I d’Este
The paper focuses on a manuscript that was destroyed during the Second World War. There is, however, one photograph left and a description from an early 1900s pubblication. Until now overlooked, it was probably a dedicated copy of the anonymous Historia di Piramo et Tisbe, derived from the Ovidian tradition and staged
by Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, a celebrated humanist. His hand is clearly identifiable in the text. It documents the relationship with members of the court of Ferrara, Ercole in particular, to whom the codex is dedicated.
This was some time prior to Ercole’s rise to power following the death of his brother Borso in the summer of 1471.
RICCARDO LATTUADA
A new ‘Saint Michael’ by Cavalier d’Arpino:
the travels of a creation from Rome to Macerata, and from Macerata to Gragnano
The paper deals with the identification of a Saint Michael the Archangel by Giuseppe Cesari, Cavaliere d’Arpino (Arpino 1568 – Roma 1640). It was found in the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Gragnano, near Naples. The work is almost certainly the “cartoon” presented by the painter prior to the laying of Giovan Battista Calandra’s first micromosaic as an altarpiece in St Peter’s Basilica. The painting may have been part of the Barberini Collection in Rome. It was intended for the main altar of the church in the Franciscan monastery of Saint Michael the Archangel al Trivione in Gragnano. It’s not clear when it arrived at the monastery, but it may have been thanks to the Cardinal of Naples, Ascanio Filomarino.
The Arch of Sant’Agostino is to be found in the Church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, Pavia. It’s one of the most disputable monuments of fourteenth century Italy. There is debate over both its date and who created it. There are a series of argumentations that tie it to the later period of Giovanni di Balduccio. Works by this Pisan sculptor
date to between 1318 and 1349, and are to be found in Pisa, Florence, Bologna and Milan. The problem of who produced the Pavian Arch is complicated by the difficulty in giving a convincing date to the tomb. It has been variously placed between about 1350 and 1380, and occasionally even as late as the fifteenth century.
Following a new photographic project and a complete overhaul of the fonts, bibliography and other on hand data, this paper re–evaluates the monument. Its intention is to demonstrate that Giovanni di Balduccio provided the design as well as onsite direction for the project. To do this, a “broader” vision has been taken, from an entrepreneurial point of view, in which the authorship of the work is shared with, if not delegated to, the site supervisor and administrator of the artistic studio, the concept of a brain behind a project.
FEDERICA SIDDI - Additions to Lombardy’s Late Gothic: two wooden sculptures of the Madonna and Child
This paper presents two previously unpublished wooden images of the Madonna. One is housed in the Church of San Vittore in Casalzuigno (Varese), the other in the Church of San Rocco Confessore in Zeccone (Pavia). The two works came to light during a broader survey carried out by the author in Lombardy. They go to join the body of examples of early fifteenth century Lombard carvings. The two of them fit into the pattern of figurative representations that had been honed down during the construction of Milan’s Duomo, from the beginning of the fifteenth century onwards.
When taking the province as a whole, considering they were found scattered far and wide, the rediscovered Madonna’s offer a chance to reflect on the diffusion of such a fortuitous idiom also amongst the wood carvers of the time. They go to show a substantial alignment in styles with those of their better known colleagues, the painters and sculptors. This was an exchange of views that was to prove to be extremely productive and long lasting.
ELENA CERA - Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino, Bartolomeo Buon and a few questions about Venetian sculpture in the mid fifteenth century
This paper looks into the relationship between Bartolomeo Buon and Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino with the attribution of two works still under debate. One is the group including the Annunciation, housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the other a Madonna and Child in the Liebighaus Museum in Frankfurt. The attribution of these pieces to Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino suggests that he may well have already been present in the studio of Bartolomeo Buon by the late 1540s or early ‘50s. Niccolò could have collaborated with Bartolomeo in the design of the Porta della Carta in Palazzo Ducale, Venice. His may be the two Virtues in the lower niches, Temperance and Strength. The paper also covers the complicated affair of the critique aimed at the Porta della Carta over the past hundred years. The ideas of Leo Planiscig, Wolfgang Wolters, Anne Markham Schulz, Massimo Ferretti and Matteo Ceriana are taken into particular account.
MICHELA ZURLA - Sculpture in Genoa around 1450: between Maestri caronesi and Giovanni da Bissone
Some recent critiques have better pinned down the activity in Genoa, and Liguria as a whole, of Andrea da Ciona and Filippo Solari da Carona. Their work was fundamental to the development of wood carving in the mid fifteenth century. A series of works that have come down to us reveal the influence that the two Maestri caronesi had on the Genoese circle of artists. As yet, it has been impossible to attribute any one of the
homogenous group of works to one particular known artist. Andrea and Filippo’s example was fundamental to the development of Giovanni di Andrea da Bissone. His early years have been pieced together by confronting his first documented or previously attributed works.
MATTEO FACCHI
The quality and industry of Rinaldo de Staulis: the building of the Certosa di Pavia
and the Madonna with Child in Soncino Castle
The first part of this paper reveals how much research has gone into the modeller Rinaldo de Staulis to date. His activity has been documented from 1450 to 1494. His serial friezes can be found in Cremona, Milano, Pavia, Lodi, Fiorenzuola d’Arda, Zibello, Busseto, Cortemaggiore, Castelleone, Soncino and elsewhere. The writer proposes that the Madonna and Child on the outer side of the circular tower of Soncino Castle
could also be attributed to this maestro from Cremona. This work, until now overlooked by academics, plays an important part in piecing together the early activity of the sculptor, a field as yet not fully investigated by scholars. The basis for the proposed attribution lies in a comparison of styles with the reliefs in the cloister of
the Certosa in Pavia, documented as the work of the sculptor. The paper clears up the question of which parts of the Certosa complex were assigned to Rinaldo de Staulis, and which to other sculptors, amongst whom the hand of Cristoforo Mantegazza can be recognised.
MARCO SCANSANI
Ludovico Castellani, a rediscovered sculptor of the Officina Ferrarese
Ludovico Castellani was a terracotta modeller, engraver, jewel smith and painter from Ferrara. He’s one of the best documented artists in the town during the reigns of Borso and Ercole I d’Este. His influence over the sculpture of the Emilian town must have been equivalent to that of the better known Domenico di Paris and Sperandio Savelli. However, not even the most recent of studies have been able to identify with any certainty any piece as a work of his.
Thanks to a reappraisal of documents mentioning the mysterious artist, a terracotta sculpture has been recognised as his. This has led to the artist’s style being classified, and a first corpus of works pinned with his name. This forms an initial nucleus of Ludovico Castellani’s works, fitting in perfectly, and mirroring, other pictorial representations from the Officina Ferrarese at the time.
LORENZO PRINCIPI
Self portrait of Alessandro della Scala da Carona, a sculptor in Northern Italy
in the first half of the sixteenth century
LUCA ANNIBALI
Antonio Begarelli in Bologna
FERNANDO LOFFREDO
Martino Regio da Viganello and his sculptural subject matter
FRANCESCA PADOVANI
Previously unpublished information for a profile of the book lover Hans Reichle
Fragments of a bas–relief from Spoleto’s Roman theatre. A possible reconstruction and interpretation. Some fragments of a marble bas–relief came to light during the excavation of Spoleto’s Roman theatre during the 1950s. They formed part of the scaenae frons. An analysis of the subject matter and iconography has suggested some possible interpretations for the scenes, ranging from mythological
representations to gods and goddesses. The reliefs date to the second quarter of the second century CE, showing that the theatre was renovated between the end of Hadrian’s reign and the beginning of Antoninus Pius’. The original structure was built during the last decades of the first century BCE.
GIOVANNI BORACCESI
Fifteenth and sixteenth century processional crosses in the diocese of Tricarico
The article focuses on the fifteenth and sixteenth century processional crosses in some of the churches of the diocese of Tricarico, in Basilicata. The protagonists of this cultural phenomenon were bishops, lay and regular ecclesiasts, non clerical guilds, as well as everyday church goers and members of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies’ wealthy landowning families. The group of crosses includes excellent examples of Late Gothic and Renaissance work, some, until now, unpublished. They reveal an unexpected dynamism present in this part of Lucania, adding another piece to the puzzle of the heritage left by the goldsmiths of this southern region, as well as the artists themselves, both home grown and from other parts.
GIACOMO MONTANARI
Tomaso Orsolino between Pavia and Certosa (1628–1635): a more accurate chronology and new clues as to the role of Ercole Ferrata Though he worked in Genova, Tomaso Orsolino was born in Ramponio in the Val d’Intelvi. From 1628
onwards he worked on some of the most important sculptural projects of early seventeenth century Lombardy. This paper hopes to sort out the order in which the sculptor produced his works for the Certosa of Pavia. It looks in greater detail into the numerous works that the artist produced for the important monastery. The focus is on the period between 1628, when we know for sure that he arrived in Lombardy, and the middle of the 1630s. The close ties to the greats of Lombardy painting are the underlying thread in the stylistic evolution that was without a doubt one of the main players of the later fashion, a “sniff” of the new Baroque language in Lombardy. This is in spite of the critical misfortunes it has witnessed even up to recent times. In
such a prolific workshop, it’s no surprise that Ercole Ferrata’s deft chisel was to emerge. This paper hopes to reveal some of those first traces of his independent work, prior to his move to Naples.
LAURA GIGLI
Bartolomeo Lupardi bares his soul in the architectural and decorative facade of his home The facade of 104 Via di Parione (today’s Via del Governo Vecchio) speaks of a man of humble origins, Bartolomeo Lupardi, who went on to become a successful publisher and printer. He was capable of innovating the spirit of his times, against which he pitted himself, unwilling to remain a bystander in a world whose script was being dictated by the powers that be, curtailing any desire for individual freedoms. This was a man who had chosen to anchor his activity in the hostile world rooted in the art of publishing. This was the right place to guarantee success in his life mission. An expression of this success was the construction of his house. After the restoration of its facade in 2015 his choice of flaunting his achievement can once again be
admired. It’s the manifestation of a man who had changed the way in which social standing could be represented. This was a specific cultural innovation not so much for himself, considering the fact that for him his accrued economic fortune was enough satisfaction in itself, but more for his descendents. He managed to give them the opportunity to stand on level ground with the dominant social structures, thanks to his invention, from scratch, of a new mythography, hinged on legal science. Evidence of this can be seen in the enormous cultural objectives followed and reached in the field by his son Andrea, recognising his studies as a means of emancipation, overturning what could have been his destiny at birth.
ANDREA G. DE MARCHI
Painted pseudo North European Roman furniture using recycled Ancient Roman marble. Traces of Francesco Allegrini and Daca Poelen The paper establishes the true cultural identity of a pair of dressers in the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini. When they were bought in 1962 it was thought they were Dutch, and later
considered a forgery. In actual fact they were manufactured in Rome. The craftsman, as yet, remains anonymous, but was probably from the Netherlands. Other pieces of furniture, made by the same hand, have been identified and are analysed here. They date to around 1640. A previously unknown international milestone in seventeenth century Roman furniture production has been revealed, in which Ancient Roman marble is reused.
FABIOLA JATTA
The refound colour scheme of the monumental complex of San Michele in Rome
The paper reports on the results of the restoration of the decoration of a small inner cloister in the monumental complex of San Michele in Rome, unveiling another aspect of the building’s long history. The complex took one and a half centuries to finish, its first stone being laid in 1686, during the reign of Pope Innocent XI. It wasn’t until 1839 that Luigi Poletti finally finished the job. Poletti also renovated the cloister in question,
which has recently been restored. The works uncovered important information as to the original colour scheme. The colour of the panels of what was known as the “Odescalchi lodge” were previously “a shade of the air”.
This was a light grey colouring obtained by adding a dash of Vine Black pigment to the slaked lime. The paper provides confirmation that the long facade giving on to the River Tiber was painted light grey up until the end of the 1700s. This can be seen in illustrative plates, oil paintings, wall and tempera paintings and printed watercolours. The pale coloured complex is seen as it was up until the end of the 1700s, not in the red brick hue that we’ve been accustomed to from the eighteenth century up to the present day.
FRANCESCA ROMANA GAJA
Notes about Jan Miel’s work in Turin’s Palazzo Reale
Italy’s cultural ministry recently acquired an overdoor by Jan Miel. It depicts Alexander the Great consulting an astrologist before embarking. The painting was originally housed in Turin’s Palazzo Reale. Jan Miel was named as court painter by Duke Charles Emmanuel II, from 1658 to his death in 1664. The acquisition provides a chance to take a brief look at what he produced for the palace in Turin, and to add
something new to the catalogue of paintings commissioned by the House of Savoy. Miel took part in the renovation of the state rooms of the piano nobile of the Royal Palace, fitting in with the complex celebratory iconography drawn up by Father Emanuele Tesauro. Tesauro also oversaw the Flemish artist’s illustrations
for the volume Regno d’Italia sotto i barbari (Turin 1664), for which Miel produced two frontispieces and forty three royal portraits.
FRANCO BOGGERO – CHIARA MASI
Nino Lamboglia and the preservation of the artistic heritage of the West Ligurian Riviera during the Second World War
ELENA GHISELLINI: Sull’uso di pietre colorate nell’Egitto tolemaico fra tradizione e innovazione
LUCA DI FRANCO: Un rilievo neroniano in pavonazzetto da Parma a Napoli. Pier Leone Ghezzi, gli scavi Bianchini sul Palatino e la Collezione Farnese
ELVIRA CAJANO: Il sepolcro del Beato Angelico nella chiesa della Minerva in Roma. Le vicende e il restauro
GIULIA CERIANI SEBREGONDI: Un doge sui ponteggi: i libri dei conti di fabbrica del Palazzo Donà dalle Rose a Venezia
SABINA MANIELLO CARDONE: Nuovi documenti per il gruppo della ‘Annunciazione’ a Bordeaux e la bottega di Pietro e Gian Lorenzo Bernini
BENITO NAVARRETE PRIETO: Francisco de Herrera “el Mozo”, su estancia en Roma
y un conjunto de dibujos atribuidos a Pierfrancesco Cittadini
NICCOLÒ D’AGATI: «Poi a scuola di pupazzetto»: nuove evidenze su Boccioni illustratore a Roma (1899–1906)
TUTELA E VALORIZZAZIONE
MARTA NOVELLO: Il “nuovo” Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Aquileia. Primi risultati e riflessioni in corso d’opera
ARCHIVIO
TOBIAS FISCHER–HANSEN: La corrispondenza fra Saverio Landolina e Frederik Münter. Un epistolario di colti antiquari sul finire dell’Illuminismo
LORENZO ORSINI: Stefano Bardini e il distacco di soffitti rinascimentali: nuovi documenti su alcuni affreschi cremonesi di primo Cinquecento
FONDI E ARCHIVI FOTOGRAFICI STORICI
GIOVANNA BERTELLI: Una particolare raccolta di lastre negative al collodio all’interno
del Fondo Luciano Morpurgo conservato all’ICCD
LIBRI
GIOVANNI CARBONARA: recensione a La valutazione del rischio sismico nel complesso della Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze–The evaluation of seismic risk in the complex of the Galleria dell’Accademia of Florence, a cura di G. GIORGIANNI, Firenze 2017
LORENZO FINOCCHI GHERSI: recensione a Il Tempietto di Bramante nel monastero
di San Pietro in Montorio, a cura di F. CANTATORE, Roma 2017
CAMILLA MURGIA: recensione a C. LAPAIRE, Renouveau médiéval et sculpture romantique. Le retour du Moyen Age dans la sculpture européenne entre 1750 et 1900, Paris 2018
MATTEO CERIANA: recensione a “Sono Fernanda Wittgens”. Una vita per Brera, a cura di G. GINEX, Milano 2018