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This paper draws from the latest volume on the drawings housed in Cassiano dal Pozzo's Museo Cartaceo (Paper Museum) (series A, part VIII). It was published in 2018. It lists some of the works that caught the eye of scholars of antiquity in the first half of the seventeenth century. This may have been for their importance, or for the curiosity or interest they aroused from a historic or scientific point of view. This interest was generated in part thanks to a series of already pu blished illustrations. The major collections of the time were filled with pieces from excavations in Rome's Iseum Campense. These were of Egyptian manufacture, or had an Egyptian influence. They were also to be found on a thriving antiques market, alongside everyday objects, jewellery and decorated pottery. This paper doesn't only look at the major pieces, it also takes into account all the variety of minor items to be found in the lesser collections. These smaller objects found were easy to come by and went to satisfy a very different selection of requirements. They were used to shed light on everyday life in ancient times. This had been a previously untouched upon argument that began to be observed and delved into in this period. In some cases this new way of looking at things led to unusual or bizarre explanations for what some objects might be. Some were restored, altering their original appearance. They were swapped and passed about in academic and collectors' circles. All of this highlights a growing fever pitch and desire to own antiquities amongst both collectors and scholars alike. The type of object, the quality of its manufacture or its possible value made no difference. A decidedly vivid and interesting panorama emerges from various viewpoints. In some ways this can be taken as a prelude to the attempts to put in order and classify various aspects of the ancient world that was to come in the following century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sculptor and architect Pasquale Simone played a prominent role amongst the professional figures active in Puglia in the 1700s. Some monumental Lecce stone altars are known to have been designed and constructed by him in Salento and the province of Bari. He is also known to have built religious buildings in Lecce (1724) and Monopoli (1742). These had been designed by Mauro Manieri, an architect from Salento. This paper uses as yet unpublished archive fonts to attribute other works to him in Terra di Bari and Lucanian Matera. Here Pasquale Simone collaborated for the last time with Manieri before the relationship came to an abrupt end. Apart from piecing together all of his previously known activity, this paper also provides previously unpublished data. This reveals the professional (and human) decline of Simone, given a reduction in his work contracts, in both quantity and their importance. In the words of his wife this led to a situation of necessity "for food, clothing and any other need". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is pail of a research doctorate for Rome's "Tor Vergata" University. Research into the sanctuary site outside of Tusculum's town walls concentrates, for the most part, on an analysis of the architecture. A series of elements has emerged that better illustrates the development of the complex over the years. Obviously, input was drawn from the examination of the written and drawn record. This paper intends to provide as clear a picture as possible of the documentation. The work focuses for the most part on the earliest and/or lesser known works and documents. These are still rich in information, providing interesting leads for new conclusions and interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fine starting point when trying to piece together of building techniques in Venice between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are the treatises of those working in the area at the time. These include Sebastiano Serlio, Daniele Barbaro, Andrea Palladio, Giovanni Antonio Rusconi, Vincenzo Scamozzi, Giuseppe Viola Zanini and Francesco Sansovino. Some nineteenth century manuals, from the same area, are also useful. Their authors include Francesco Milizia, Daniele Danieletti, Nicola Cavalien-San Bertolo, Francesco Lazzari and Antonio Clementini. However, to be able to reconstruct in greater depth the building techniques used during a set period or geographical area, particularly documented case studies need to be found in the archives. On top of the written record, these case studies mustn't have been subjected to much alteration over time. This paper focuses on Palazzo Dom dalle Rose in Venice's Fondamenta Nuove (1610-1612). There is a particularly rich and complete selection of archive material for the building in question. This includes the account books from, during its construction, kept by man who commissioned the building, the Doge Leonardo Donà (r. 1606-1612). These documents, still housed in the family archives, have made it possible to piece together in detail the Donà building site. This paper focuses in particular on the use of timber, with special reference to the foundations, floors and roofing, the use of iron and the workforce, with constructs, salaries and labour costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a core of unpublished documents from the State Central Archives. These were housed in the collection of the Ministry for Public Education. They concern the position held by Pietro Toesca in the Consiglio Superiore per le Antichità e Belle Arti. The papers included the minutes of reunions and memoranda from preliminary encounters. These records of discussions in advisory councils help piece together part of the debate over safeguarding Italy's artistic heritage during those years. This didn't limit itself to works of art, gardens and historic buildings, but also the protection of the landscape and regidation of historical town centres. Among others Corrado Ricci, Roberto Paribeni and Marcello Piacentini were a part of this debate. In addition, topics under discussion included the restoration and reconstruction of derelict monuments and buildings, objects put on the open market, and the question of them going to foreign buyers, as well as ministry constraints on works of art, sometimes parts of important national collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is dedicated to the black figure lekythos catalogued as inv. 7163 found in Grave 809. The grave dates to the Archaic Period on the Rifriscolaro area of the Camarina burial site. It is thought to be of Calcidean production, falling within the Phineus Cup Group. It is unique for both its form and decoration. A form that was previously unclassified in the field of Calcidean pottery production. It stands out for technically being well made and its singularly rare decoration. The contrasting polychromatic motif touches on rare and unusual themes, depicted in a distinct, eclectic and highly decorative style. The lekythos is discussed within the context in which it was found. Both the archaeological record from Grave 809 by itself, and the 1975 excavation of the site as a whole is taken into account. Some as yet unpublished documents from the site directed by Paola Pelagatti is presented. The paper rounds off with an updated plan of all the archaeological excavations of the Rifriscolaro Archaic Period burial ground. There is also a list of all published articles on Camarina (including its important finds) that have appeared in the Bollettino d'Arte in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper pieces together where three marble lunettes had originally been displayed, and their subsequent odyssey through various collections. Documents and pictures have been gathered and analysed. The lunettes date to between the Flavian Period and the time of Trajan. The one in the Munich Glyptothek was badly damaged during WWII. It was only published recently following restoration. Two others, now to be seen in Villa Albani, would originally definitely have been part of the same ancient monument. During the seventeenth century all three were on display in Villa Aldobrandini in Rome. They went by the name of "Triumphs of Hannibal the Carthaginian". This first time that they had been exhibited in 'modern times should be seen in the light of the early Baroque in Rome. The paper also includes the first detailed antique collectors description of the Munich lunette. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to a series of paintings that are predominantly Roman landscapes in the style of the Carracci studio the author of this paper refers to Palazzetto Farnese as a "temple to the sacred and prophane" for Rome's nature artists. Only a very small number of these have survived. Of them there's a group with prophane subjects in the Musée Condé in Chantilly. There are others, including two by Giovanni Lanfranco with sacred subjects, in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte. A landscape painting with Scherzi di amorini has come to light on the antiques market. It had been attributed to Francesco Albani, but the author recognises it as a rare masterpiece by a young Guido Reni. It would have been the painting commissioned by Odoardo Farnese to be hung in the secreted chambers of Palazzetto Farnese. It's the same case with two landscape paintings with putti wrestling. They too ended up on the art collectors' market. In this paper they are attributed to a young Domenichino, whereas previously they were only marginally believed to be late, products of the Carracci wo rksh op. This paper adds adds new insights into what we know of the origins of early 1600s landscape painting in Rome. They confirm that Cardinal Odoardo Farnese had a refined, choice in artists on to whom confer commissions, In the paper there is also an interesting as yet unpublished portrait of the Cardinal attributed to Innocenzo Tacconi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By researching documents and first hand fonts two major exhibitions between 1937 and 1938 have been analysed. Both exalted Ancient Rome and all of its trappings: Mostra Augustea della Romanità (Roman Life in the Age of Augustus) and Mostra del Restauro dei Monumenti nell'Era Fascista (The Restoration of Ancient Monuments during the Fascist Era). While the first was a major event, fairly well known about by today's scholars, the second has been pretty much ignored and forgotten to this day, as it was in part at the time. This paper has used the few archive documents that still exist. It has been possible to accurately piece together the exhibition's organisation, highlighting its scientific aspect. The two events apparently differ one from the other, but they have a common goal: to communicate a new way of looking at the cult of ancient history. Here "art" is transmitted as a fundamental part of everybody's everyday life. They take the form of a redemption for Italian scholars when compared to their colleagues abroad, so critical of Roman architecture, while Italian mastery in the field of restoration is put on display. This project has also uncovered new documents. These include unpublished drawings by Luigi Piccinato and Pasquale Carbonara of the arrangements for the Mostra Augustea. There are also photographs and newspaper articles about the Mostra del Restauro which were previously unknown to many scholars. The piece also highlights the role of architects who, with the birth of the Scuola Superiore di Architettura and new laws aimed at safeguarding this new professional figure, saw new rights acquired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe in Venice's Museo Correr houses a collection of some 360 unbound illuminated cuttings and single leaves. Most of them date to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and are of Venetian, Lombard and Bolognese design. The collection offers a fine chance to gauge the fortunes that befell the production of miniatures in the years following the fall of the Serenissima. Of the important names of the time that contributed to the collection, the leading light was Teodoro Correr (1750-1830), founder of the institute that carries his name. His was a key role amongst Venetian collectors at the turn of the eighteenth century. His cuttings are listed in an inventory of the illustrations that he owned. Several of them belong to an album put together in the first half of the 1800s. In 1865 about 200 cuttings and single leaves went to join Correr s collection of miniatures. They were gifted by the Venetian scholar Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna (1789-1868). This paper gives a first insight into the collection, picking out some of the more interesting pieces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper covers the recovery of an illuminated leaf attributed to the Master of the San Marco Epistolary. It had been stolen in 1949 from a fourteenth century volume of illuminated leaves housed in Venice's State Archive. The illuminated leaf was recently handed over to the Italian ambassador in London by Christie's Auction House. From there it was placed in the care of the Carabinieri's Nucleo per la Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (the Cultural Heritage Division) and will soon make its way back to the Venetian archive where it belongs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ercole Orfeo was the last in the family line of painters from Fano. Though only a minor figure, his story provides an interesting insight into the world of late 1500s and early 1600s art in the Papal States. He is sometimes confused with his father Orfeo, occasionally known as «Ercole Orfei». After working in Leonessa and Cascia he wound up in Rome in the 1580s. In 1584 he produced an altar piece for the Church of Saints Romualdo and Leonardo alia Lungara, since lost. He probably came to Rome thanks to his brother, Luca Orfei da Fano, a calligrapher, copyist and Sistine Chapel cantor, during the reign of Sixtus V (1585-1590). It's possible that it was actually Luca that introduced his brother to Rome's artistic circles. There is evidence that Ercole Orfei was in contact with Romano Alberti known as il Nero and the sculptor Tommaso Della Porta the Younger. In 1596 he was admitted to the Compagnia dei Virtuosi del Pantheon. He also entered the circle of Girolamo Muziano. In 1593 he produced Adoration of the Shepherds for the Church of Sant'Agostino in Fermo, commissioned by the Oratorian Flaminio Ricci. It is a perfect copy of the master artist from Acquafredda's painting of the same name in the Church of Santa Maria ai Monti in Rome. Ercole Orfeo's work in The Marches continued for decades. His Saint Francis, in the Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio in Fano, probably dates to around 1619. This paper proposes that the Adoration of the Shepherds in Brera's Pinacoteca is by the same artist. Currently in storage in the parish church of Biassono, it originally hung in the Camaldolese heremitage of San Pietro on Mount Conero. The painting is a mix of the decorative styles of Muziano, Durante and Cherubino Alberti. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The art collection of the longstanding noble family of Sternberg is one of the^ most important in the Czech Republic. It is yet to be studied by experts. The collection is now housed in Castolovice Castle. It includes Joseph and Potiphar's wife, which for the first time, this paper attributes to Michele Desubleo (Maubeuge 1602 - Parma 1676). The origins of this painting are unknown. It was presumably added to the collection by Frantisek Christian Sternberg or his elder son. It would have been painted during the first years of the Franco-Flemish artist's residence in Guido Reni's studio in Bologna. The piece goes tofill a vacuum in the list of known works from the artist's early period. Michele Desubleo mirrors the inspiration drawn from Leonello Spada's painting of the same subject, and even more sofrom the work by his great maestro Guido Reni, which hangs in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Eos Angeles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground breaking work by Sylvia Pressouyre and the academic papers of Paola Di Giammaria and Marcella Laverò have gone a long ivay to piecing together the life and works of Giovanni Antonio Paracca. Paracca is known as II Valsoldino to distinguish him from an elder colleague of the same name. In depth analysis of certain documents, in part already studied by the aforementioned scholars, has helped to better pin down II Valsoldino's first known commission in Rome. This was for two sculpted reliefs for the monumental tomb of Sixtus V in the Sistine Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore. As part of the same analysis, the documents were used to establish just how important the production of these works was to Nicola Pippi and Giovanni Antonio Paracca, II Valsoldino. An interpretation of the documentary evidence on hand, as well as stylistic analysis, have revealed every aspect of the elaboration of the monument. In spite of their importance, the Papal tombs in Santa Maria Maggiore s Sistine Chapel have not been subject to much critical interest. The first (and last) in depth analysis of the works goes back to the early 1990s. On that occasion Enzo Borsellino and Pietro Petraroia managed to shed light on who had produced the tomb of Pius V, but the lack of reliable documentation meant they fell short of doing the same for its opposite partner, that of Sixtus V [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is fruit of recent archaeological excavation in Pompeii. It focuses on the wall paintings of Room 13 in an Insula 6 house in Regio V Of particular interest is a mythological scene, with a sleeping Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus on the Island of Nassus. The examination of the iconographical motif concentrates on identifying the elements that go to make up the decorative scheme. The earliest depictions of the scene date back to the late fifth and early fourth century BCE. The intention is to identify the unchanging and inevitable elements, and those more likely to mutate or migrate. A preliminary comparison with other paintings in Pompeii has brought to light certain iconographical and stylistic similarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correspondence between the Danish theologian Frederik (Friederich) Munter and Sicilian antiquarian Saverio Landolina Nava spanned the years 1786-1804. The letters are a remarkable example of learned cross border intercourse. Frederik Miinter's contribution has been treated on earlier occasions by the author. This paper covers the letters from Saverio Landolina in Syracuse to the Danish theologian in Copenhagen. Saverio Landolina's letters deal with various fields of his antiquarian research at the time. At the forefront is his analysis of the topography of the ancient Greek city. Sometimes he includes sketches to clarify his thoughts. When their interpretations contrast with his, he doesn't hold back from criticising his contemporary Syracusan academics. There are also explanations and interpretations of the architecture of Syracuse's ancient theatre and amphitheatre. The analysis of all the epigraphical evidence is meticulously laid out. Frederik Mimter's Nachrichten von Neapel und Sicilien was first published in 1790. Its interpretation of Syracuse's ancient ruins and remains gave Saverio Landolina a chance to expound his own insights and to offer suggestions to improve the other's views. The letters are the reflections of learned communities of the period, from Palermo to Napoli, Gottingen to Hamburg. They span ancient history, numismatics, anthropology and topography. Landolina writes of his hope for a museum to house the pieces of Greek and Roman art he has studied. Today some of these are the main exhibits in the Museo Nazionale di Siracusa. The museum in Syracuse and the Prince Ignazio di Biscari Museum in Catania undoubtedly played a role in Frederik Miinter's ambitions to create his own museum of Egyptian, Greek and Roman art. This was to be accessible to the general public, in his official residence, the bishopric in Copenhagen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some new information about Boccioni's illustration work in Rome. For one his maestro, Stolz, has been identified. The latter's name and physical appearance were unknown up till now. The research aims to better date when and how the painter started in the world of illustration. Any available fonts and documents were looked over again. A previously unpublished deposit of editorials was found in the Archivio Centrale dello Stato. For the first time it was possible to document the work relationship between Boccioni and the Roman editor Cesare Racah. This dated with certainty a series of twelve Ciociara cartoons to 1905. It also unveiled in greater detail the type of work that the illustrator provided for the art retailer. The discovery of the unpublished Ciociara postal series along with previously unknown prints means that the number of known works in the artist's catalogue has grown. This, along with an analysis of the technique he used to produce some pieces, has better revealed how the artist worked. Here it would appear to have been associated with the elaboration of plates for lithographic prints on the European circuit, given the examples at hand and the choice of style and subject matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Francisco de Herrera "el Mozo" (Sevilleiviglia, 1627 - Madrid, 1685) is one of the most singular artists of Spain's late Baroque period. His spell in Italy has always been seen as a fundamental period for his development. Critics have tried to unravel the time the Sevillian painter spent in Rome. We know that during his apprenticeship he made himself a name with still life drawings of fish. He came to be known as "il spagnolo degli pexe" (the Spaniard of the fish). This paper presents a collection of drawings believed to have been produced by him in Rome between 1648 and 1653. Until now they were thought to have been drawn by one of Pier Francesco Cittadini's circle. For this reason they're to be found in bibliographies under the name "Le groupe Cittadini". Most of the drawings are now in the Louvre collection. Others are in the National Museum in Stockholm and the Albertina Museum in Vienna. Two versions of the Assumption of the Vergin are known to be housed in the Getty Museum and in a private collection. In this way it's been possible to piece together a catalogue of drawings produced by the artist during his time in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two newly found drawings by Pier Leone Ghezzi have come to light in a Florentine auction house. They identify further sculptures as once decorating the imperial residence on the Palatine. This paper focuses on a pavonazzetto marble relief depicting a Dionysian thiasos. It was found during Francesco Bianchini's 1722 excavation on the Palatine. First taken to Parma, it was then moved to its present home in Naples. Stylistically the relief is similar to another in what was the Cavaceppi and then Albani collection. It is thought that both come from the triclinium of the Domus Transitoria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the tormented sequence of events concerning the tomb of Fra Angelico. He is buried in what was the chapel of the Rustici family in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The chapel, dedicated to Saint Thomas Aquinas, is now the vestibule of the church's rear exit leading to the Church of Sant'Ignazio. The earliest record of the tomb being tampered with was during the 1600jubilee year. The lid of the tomb was detached from the vault containing the mortal remains of Fra Angelico. The grave has been restored various times. In both 1915 and 1958 it was opened to look for the remains of the artist. Between 1959 and 1975 the tomb was renovated. After an act of vandalism in 2018 the monument was restored by the author of this piece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper covers the use of coloured stone in Ptolemaic Egypt. The different types of monuments it is used for are listed. These include written descriptions of buildings or on inscriptions, funeral monuments and architectural elements, personal effigies, images of gods, idealised sculpture, reliefs, glyptics and statues of kings and queens. The latter have been classified by their iconography and style. A complex and articulated reality emerged. This mirrors the multicultural nature of Egypt at the time, with the country's ongoing process of integration between its two main ethnic components, Egyptian and Macedonian Greek. Especially in Upper Egypt the Pharaonic tradition maintained its dynamism. On the whole it remained true to its monographic and set canons. These had been laid down over thousands of years. Official and private portraits, however, did absorb some motifs and characteristics from the Hellenistic world. On the other hand the number of imitation Greek objects in coloured stone is very low, and would appear to be more like a kind of experimentation with the new style. In spite of this, though there are some fairly slapdash objects made from the new raw material, the Greek artists were soon turning out excellently refined pieces. This is the case with the sculpture, but especially true of the glyptic manufacture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Renaissance church was very much desired by Federico da Montefeltro. The spot chosen was where earlier buildings, such as the church of San Donato and the monastery of the Conventual Friars had already stood. Originally Duke Frederick had intended to be buried in a round temple shaped mausoleum within the Ducal Palace. Having abandoned this idea, the church of San Bernardino was conceived as the Mausoleum of the Dukes of Urbino. It's written that there was a clear reason behind the dei Montefeltro idea of building an autonomous mausoleum for themselves. Instead of being placed in a chapel as part of a religious complex, the Dukes wished to evoke the ancient circular burial monuments of Imperial Rome. As such, over time, San Bernardino took on the dual role of church and Ducal Mausoleum. It lies in an extraordinary spot of lay of the land, with a panorama over Urbino to one side, a mix of woodland and farmsteads, hills and open fields, to the other. Art historians have always found it fascinating, and not just because it's still uncertain who to attribute it to; possible names range from Donato Bramante to Francesco di Giorgio Martini. This paper starts by confronting any questions as to the hypothetical plan and construction of the building, its history, the major restoration projects, up to the last, current one, since 2012 directed by myself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines a drawing in the Colección Salazar y Castro of the Real Academia de la Historia di Madrid. Until now it was thought to depict the funeral, in 1516, of Ferdinand the Catholic, in Rome. This belief is discussed in depth and questioned. A series of figurative elements are presented: the triptych on the altar and the castrum doloris similar to a small temple very much bring to mind the Stefaneschi triptych and the ciborium in St. Peter's, in Rome. This raises the question over where Giotto's triptych might have been during those centuries when its position isn't documented in the fonts. There are also new reflections over what might have occupied the emblematic space around the high altar and the confessici in St. Peter's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper concerns an analysis of a small bronze group housed in The Hermitage. The figures would have decorated the handle of a basin. It is very similar to other well known examples. The handle would have been made in Athens between the sixth and fifth century BCE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carlo Lambardi s success in business meant that he could afford to invest in an opulent chapel in the church of Santa Maria in Via in Roma. He'd already built himself a palatial townhouse, no longer standing, just around the corner. This paper clarifies how the chapel was given out to tender, and, most of all, which artists worked on it. Comparing unpublished documents, it adds new, and corrects past, information. The stucco work was by Giovanni Battista Serodine, an apprentice of Ambrogio Buonvicino. Though Giovanni Baglione attributed the altarpiece to Cristofano Casolano, it was in fact produced by Cristoforo Greppi in 1614. Francesco Lambardi worked on one of the side walls. He was the biological son of the architect, with whom he had a very conflictual relationship. The change of attribution of the principal painting, depicting the Trinity and Saints, encouraged the writer to look more carefully into Greppi's activity. Within his family his father was a stucco artist, originally from Caslano, and his brother-in-law a painter. Could Cristoforo Greppi, with his Castano roots, be that same Cristofano Casolano that Baglione mentions? It's a hypothesis impossible to prove but apparently very probable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper pieces together the history of wooden paneled polyptychs and anconas in Northern Italy between 1450 and 1525. It is based on the most recent published articles as well as a comparison between photographs of the various works, original drawings and analytical study of their wooden structures. The Author takes the chance to deepen the research he first broached for the Zenale e Leonardo exhibition in Milan's Museo Poldi Pezzoli in 1982-1983. The original research was based on results from the restoration of the pieces, taken apart and then remounted, as well as Giorgio Rolando Perino's technical drawings. It compared the painted sculpted moulding of the polyptych's frame to painted wooden sculpture, as well as hypothesizing the possible form of the missing frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the activity of Armando Ottaviano Quintavalle. He was the then Superintendent of the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the provinces of Parma and Piacenza. Letters, official announcements and a report drawn up by the superintendent himself, stored in the Soprintendenza archives, piece together his relationship with the Directorate General for the Arts in the Ministry for National Education. On the eve of war the Minister Giuseppe Bottai asked Quintavalle, along with his colleagues in the other provinces, to make safe from possible bombardment or pillaging any works of art in his custody. The superintendent found himself faced with technical and ethical choices. He conserved the artistic heritage he had saved in Torrechiara Castle. Unwilling to hand it over to the Germans or the fascists of the Republic of Salò, from 1943 onwards he was to use cunning and fine diplomacy to avoid the works of art from Piacenza and Parma being dispersed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the Chapel of the Nativity in the church of Santa Maria della Pace. It was decorated by Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta. A document housed in the San Pietro in Vincoli archives identifies who commissioned the work and the timeline for its completion. The written font is borne out by some of the stylistic effects of the painting. The same document brought to light further clarifications and hypotheses about the Cesi ChapeL This is the other votive chapel in the church of Santa Maria, della Pace decorated by Siciolante in the 1540s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds new light on the eighteenth century architecture of the library of San Giovanni in Carbonara di Napoli. It minutely describes the events that have shaken the library collection through the years It may have been for only two and a half centuries, but between the middle of the sixteenth and into the late seventeenth century the library was a must for scholars and travellers visiting Naples. It's thanks to descriptions of it in their travel diaries that it rose to fame in Italy and abroad for the richness of the collection of manuscript codices, many in Greek and Latin, and printed volumes that it housed. The first news of the monastery library dates back to 1470, but it wasn't until 1531 that the collection was noticeably enriched. This was thanks to a generous donation by Cardinal Girolamo Seripando. In the following centuries his gesture was followed by other benefactors. On several occasions over the following decades the library was pillaged. On a partic ularly bad occasion in 1718 Charles VI ran off with a lot of the collection to enrich his Imperial Library in Vienna. The stolen works were handed back to Naples' National Library in 1923. There they were reunited with the rest of the book heritage, housed there since the early 1800s. From 1736 the library was given a location worthy of its prestige. It was housed in a building designed by the famous architect Ferdinando Sanfelice. He came up the library atop one of the towers of the Aragonese city walls. The project appears in some drawings as well as in an 1817 plan. These provide an idea of how the building looked as well as the cultural and geometric mix locked away within it. This all changed in the second half of the 1800s when the library was converted into a barrack block, the Caserma Garibaldi, today Naples' Justice of the Peace court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper goes back over the elusive character of Gregorio Preti, brother of the elder and better known Mattia. The first work considered is an important altarpiece portraying Saint Nicholas in the church of San Nicola ai Prefetti in Rome. It's an addition to the very few known works of the artist in the city. The author believes that a further three previously unidentified paintings are by the same artist. These include the Adoration of the Shepherds in the church of San Domenico in Modigliana and the Healing of a Possessed Man in the Collegio Papio in Ascona. They represent a significant increase in the number of known works by Gregorio outside Rome and the borders of the Marches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Torrechiara Castle in Langhirano, province of Parma, is rectangular with a tower at each corner. These are connected one to the other by lower buildings. Sitting on top of a hill it's surrounded by walled terraces. It has always been considered one of the best preserved examples of little altered 1400s architecture. Jacopo Caviceo, a contemporary of the nan who built the castle, Pier Maria Rossi, describes it in his writings. So too does Vincenzo Carrari, a couple of centuries later in the 1680s. Both write of a walled inscription above the entrance gate, the seventh gate, on the west side. It states that the castle was completed in thirty years, between 1448 and 1460. Despite the writings of the two above, both Ireneo Affò in the late 1700s, and Lorenzo Molossi in the 1830s insisted to their historian colleagues that the castle had been built in twelve years, between 1448 and 1460. They based their conclusions on a different walled inscription above the arched entrance to the ravelin, triangular fortress, in the northwest, the sixth gate. During numerous restorations the writer has uncovered a variety of archaeological evidence buried within the architectural hotchpotch. This includes the rectangular recess above the "seventh gate" tlxat would have housed the inscription and a statue of Pier Maria Rossi. Both were removed during Francesco Sforza di Santa Fiora s renovations during the 1680s. Their loss me, ant that the information they carried was blown to oblivion. For a long time it was difficult to analyse in depth, the Pier Maria Rossi transformations during those thirty years' building work. This paper concentrates on some of the work done during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, leaving aside later renovations during the late mediaeval period to suit the needs of a building that was to house a Renaissance court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the iron fencing that encloses the baptismal font just inside on the right luhen you enter Prato's Cathedral. The fencing is signed and dated. There has been a new interpretation of the signature, deciding that the actual date is 1349 (not 1348). The makers' names are Giovanni and Ristoro, whose identity and geographical origins are discussed here. The niche for the baptismal font was opened on the inner wall of the church front in 1444. By studying overlooked or lesser known material evidence, documentary sources, old photos, comparable artefacts, and an analysis of their historical context, the article questions previous hypotheses on the original provenance of the fence (the Manassei Chapel; the baptistery itself). Instead it argues that it was made for a different site. This would have been the two-storey "intermediate" Chapel of the Virgin's belt (built no earlier than 1346, and possibly completed by September 1350; now lost). The belt is Prato's most important relic. Its form repeats some of the original features of the grill fencing the chapel's lower storey. It is likely that the use of a grill for Prato's chapel owes itself to a similar solution adopted in 1327 for the Chapel of the Cathedral of San Giacomo in Pistoia, and that, in turn, it served as a model for the extant Chapel of the Virgin's belt, whose famous bronze fence was commissioned for Maso di Bartolomeo in 1438. In the final paragraph some unpublished documents are discussed recording works done on the baptistery in 1444. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines notes taken by antiquarians about three statues in the Torlonia Museum on Via della húngara. They provide information about the three being brought to Rome from Velletri. This information is missing from more recent documentation. There is also a description of their purchase in the first decades of the 1600s at the hands of the Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani. By confronting etchings made by different hands over different periods it becomes clear that the statues have been restored more than once. The Giustiniani collection of archives revealed that the statues were on display in the family's palace on at San Luigi dei Francesi up till the 1800s. They then passed into the hands of the Torlonia family and were divided and shared between their various townhouses, meeting different fates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamics of the Gabinetto Fotografico's (later Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale) acquisition of photographic collections and archives during the first two decades of the twentieth century. The photographic images and archival materials guide us to an understanding of the reasons for the interest and the evaluation criteria behind the accessioning o f the various materials by Gargiolli and Carboni, respectively first and second directors of the Gabinetto Fotografico, and of officials in the Direzione Generale Antichità e Belle Arti. The research has revealed the importance of a program intended to gather, incorporate and utilize the work of photographers active in Rome whose personal archives, once consigned to the market, would have inevitably undergone dispersion. Specifically, the study traces the crucial phases of the migration of the Tuminello and Cugnoni collections from photographer to photographer, and from private individuals to public institutions. The second part of the article focuses instead upon the Fondo Cugnoni, a collection of photography comprising a wide variety of subjects. This collection is characterized by the impossibility of ascribing it either to a single photographer, or to a single client; its composition, in fact, resulted from a deliberate acquisition policy on the part of Ignazio Cugnoni, who subsequently sold his collection to the State. The collection reflects the image o f the city and its architectural and artistic sites during the period of its transition from papal Rome to Rome, Capital of the Kingdom of Italy, providing visual evidence of the character o f the epoch in terms of both its monumental architecture and landscape features. Analysis of the various stages of the collection's archiviation has revealed the difficulty in connecting the photographs to specific photographers, that is, in achieving definitive, attributions. This leads the writer to considerations on the absence of the concept of authorship (and copyright) in the practice of photography during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jan Brueghel the Elder's paintings on copper, between the end of the sixteenth and the first decades of the seventeenth century, were very popular among contemporary collectors who were won over by the precise execution and the complex meanings hidden in the images. The author of this essay reconstructs, with the help of new documents, the Flemish painter's Roman beginnings between 1592 and 1595, identifying in Cardinal Enrico Caetani one of his first admirers. These are the years in which the artist solidified his fruitful relationship with Cardinal Federico Borromeo who, according to sources, saved him from a slanderous accusation brought against him by the Holy Office. An investigation of court papers offers new insights into the matter and allows us to identify names of other artists who were tried. Also in these cases an association with a powerful member of the Papal Curia proved decisive in their release from custody. Finally, the author proposes to attribute to Brueghel, thanks to the cross-referencing of a number of documents, four paintings on copper belonging to the celebrated collection of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reconstructs, on the basis of extensive documentation and an updated bibliography, the relations between the Bologuese painter Annibale Carracci and Cardinal Odoardo Farnese from 1593 to the painter's death on 15 July 1609. During this long period the artist painted for the cardinal not only many oil paintings, including various altarpieces, but also the frescoes of the Camerino and those of the famous Galleria in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. The painter's relations with his patron were rather turbulent and often subject to the rivalry between the Farnese and the Aldobrandini which was converted more than once into what can only be called forms of blackmail. In the last part of the paper the author elucidates for the first time the events surrounding the grave illness that struck the painter in 1605 and that prevented him from working down to his premature death at the age of only 49. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Riario Sforza archive (in the Archivio di Stato in Naples) contains a file concerning the reconstruction of the Early Christian basilica of Santi Apostoli in Rome, directed by the architect Francesco Fontana in the first decade of the eighteenth century. Apart from a plan relating to a preliminary project for the church, never realized, and attributable to Fontana, the file comprises various autograph papers of the Oratorian Father Sebastiano Resta, who commissioned the painter Sante Piccinetti in 1708 to produce a graphic reproduction of Melozzo da Forlì's fresco formerly in the apse of the old basilica. Though the work in question has still to be identified, the writings of Father Resta in the Riario Sforza archive throw fresh light on his dealings with this painter. It includes a letter sent to an unknown correspondent, who can be identified with the marchese Ottavio Riario, then titular of the cappella maggiore in Santi Apostoli. Though sometimes mistaken, the information provided by Father Resta in this letter on the late-Quattrocento fresco decoration in the apse of Santi Apostoli (now preserved only in partial and fragmentary form) is of particular interest; it is accompanied by his own sketches and by a drawing by Sante Piccinetti, which reproduces a portion of the large arch surrounding the apse, comparable with a similar copy, hitherto anonymous, but now securely ascribable to Piccinetti, that was incorporated by Resta in the famous volume of drawings (the Galleria Portatile) in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the festivities held in the Piazza Grande (now de' Cavalli) in Piacenza in 1658 to celebrate the birth of Filippo Prospero, Infante of Spain, a commemorate booklet remains with the title "Applausi festivi fatti in Piacenza..." The present contribution investigates this festive event through the accounts of contemporary chroniclers; reconstructs the career of the man who planned and staged it, Giovanni Simone Boscoli, a military officer in Parma and a projector of festivities in the Farnese duchy in the second half of the seventeenth century; and analyses the engravings that illustrate the text, placed in the wider context of the development of the baroque festa. The final part of the paper examines the images of the Farnese dukes shown in the engraving (fig. 2). They are to be counted among the earliest representations of two famous equestrian bronze statues, masterpieces of the early-baroque sculptor Francesco Mochi (1580-1654). The two monuments were commissioned by the community of Piacenza to the honure Ranuccio I Farnese and his father Alessandro. The first project for these monuments, however, was by Giovanni Battista Trotti, called Il Malosso, who had envisaged for the dukes two honorific columns to be sited where thee equestrian groups now stand and to be erected on the conclusion of the festivities accompanying the entrance into the city of Madama Aldobrandini, wife of Ranuccio, in 1612; the equestrian groups were erected instead in 1620. In. particular, the engraving represents a pyrotechnic macchina placed at the centre, between the two monuments. Together with it, they participate in the ephemeral event, and become an integral part of it. The central space of what is now the Piazza de' Cavalli at Piacenza was historically the site of a festa held in honour of the Assunta in mid-August. This was accompanied by time explosion of the so-called macchinone, and probably by a bonfire already in the Middle Ages. The two dukes continued to preside over the festa in the piazza until its final holding in 1909, but by the Farnese policy of applausi festivi had vanished for good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On December 26th 2003 a devastating earthquake of 6.5 of the Richter scale, turned Bam in a heap of rubble. The international community responded quickly. Not only on behalf of the human tragedy, but also in regard, to its endangered cultural heritage. The UNESCO and other international institutions started to organize with, the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization (ICHO) the planning of the recovery of Old Bam (Arg-e Bam). In 2004 the archaeological site and its landscape were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Italy is involved in the recovery project from the very beginning. After a short introduction on the cooperation project of the Ministry of Cultural, Heritage and Activities (Research, Innovation and Organization Department): "Tower n° 1, restoration and, seismic improvement measures", the first part of this paper describes the preliminary results of the archaeological research. Part two presents the first comprehensive review of textual sources deeding with the fortifications and defensive systems of Bam. The examined, literature offers a, rather interesting insights in the history of the site and may allow clues for a better understanding of the building history of the city walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this essay arises from the author's identification, (in 2007) of ten important early seventeenth-century's paintings from the Peretti Montalto collection. The discovery took place by recognizing the Prince Michele Peretti's coat of arms in one of these paintings, followed by the archive research that made it possible to find another part of the masterpieces from the same important collection. Among these paintings, there are extraordinary works of art by Paul Bril, Francesco Albani, Sisto Badalocchio and Antonio Tempesta. Following a thorough analysis of one of these paintings, ‘Fuga delle Ninfe' (‘Flight of the Nymphs'), the author proposes the attribution of this significant ideal landscape to Domenico Zampieri, also called Domenichino. Those pictures ended up in the Patrizi Montoro collection only in the eigtheenth-century and all of them, until now, were erroneously believed to have been part of the seventeenth-century Patrizi collection. This paper gives also important information about the role of Prince Michele Peretti as a patron of the arts and about the collection of paintings in Rome during the early seventeenth-century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper briefly reviews recent research and new theories or interpretations that the author considers particularly significant with a view to a proper historical and formal understanding of Etruscan Wandmalerei. Striking new findings are especially reported for the Orientalizing period, which, thanks to specific studies, now seems more clearly defined as regards centres of production, decorative contents, and the geographical distribution of monuments. But the archaic and classical period also continues to be a focus of great attention and it is just in this period that important new findings on the conception of the tomb space, on the religious ideologies and beliefs that in some sense shaped it, and on the stylistic characteristics of the images that adorned it are reported. The parallel study of figured ceramics is also significant. It has permitted an overall re-interpretation of aspects of Etruscan funerary culture: especially the iconographies relating to the journey to the afterlife and the role played in it by funerary demons. The author devotes some brief concluding remarks to tombs of the 3rd century BC and their new chronological and formal definition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents one of the most important complexes of the Orientalizing period in Caere (Ceroet- en). The tomb in question has unfortunately long remained unpublished, although it contains pieces of exceptional artistic importance, such as the black-figure kotyle of the Bellerophon Painter of Aegina, the greatest and most gifted of the Corinthian potters active in the second quarter of the 7th century BC. The only kotyle of this period to have survived intact, this drinking cup is of extraordinary artistic level. With its monumental and imposing figures of animals and sphinxes, the decoration of the kotyle is characterized by elegant expressive lines and a sense of majesty in the, way the bodies move forward in a placid and dignified manner The cup's excellent design uses, apart from the black-figure technique, moderate but significant retouches in red, and a confident use of incision. A satisfactory reconstruction of the career of the Bellerophon Painter is still awaited - in a period so marked by strong and continuous experiments in the art of ceramics. Only a few works have been attributed to him, often with some uncertainty or dissent among scholars, and all of them - with this exception - so far found in Greece itself. The grave assemblage, to which our kotyle belongs, also includes a small bronze head of Near Eastern, probably Urartan, production. It perhaps served originally as decor for a chariot terminal, and is of particular rarity both in a Greek and in a Western context. Many other rare pieces of pottery imported from various areas of Greece and the Near East also belonged to the same tomb. They include a Protocorinthian aryballos of the Corneto Painter three Rhodian bird-cups and an extremely rare Vroulian cup. In addition the artifacts include Greek transport amphorae, one with an inscription, and five pendants in faience of the cypress moneta type of Egyptian production. The locally produced artifacts are also important, including a model shield in terracotta, a little ship model, banqueting services in impasto and very fine bucchero pots. So, the context of Monte Abatone tomb is emblematic of the tendency of the Etruscan aristocracies to acquire exotic luxury objects, display their rank and express their patrician pride through the accumulation and ostentation of prestige goods. The inclusion in the burial of a chariot, indicative of a precise social prestige, of furniture of particular luxury, such as thrones or footstools, and the occurrence of the holmos and the olla with lion protomes, of clear oriental derivation, not only attest to the new ideology of the symposium and its ceremonies, but signal the intention to reproduce models of life of the great foreign aristocracies. In Monte Abatone tomb 4 this is expressed both by the importation of furnishings of particular luxury, or at least of particular prestige, and by the sharing of behavioural models and ceremonial practices linked to the convivial consumption of wine and meat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]