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An unpublished panel housed in New York's Brooklyn Museum is recognized as part of the dismantled Colonna dais. The structure was put together in the late fifteenth century in a Florentine style mixed with influences from the Marches. This research accompanies a critical revaluation of any conjectures, by the most erudite scholars, over pieces from the Colonna dais. This includes an early commentary by Fra Carnevale on one of the Colonna panels. His critique has never been truly accredited to the artist, even though it is one of the very few known records of his views on already known works. The project as a whole stimulated debate over previous research and the perhaps sometimes too "political" model for museums in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acquisition by Camillo Pamphilj Jr. of a group of paintings by foreign school artists, confirmed in a document of 1722 in the Archivio Doria Pamphilj in Rome, permits the author to determine the accuracy of the document in question, since the works are still today present in the family's collections. The list is examined in relation to the paintings owned by the prince, the prices paid to acquire the paintings and the attributions attached to them, enlarging the discussion to encompass other works purchased by Camillo Pamphilj Jr. on diverse occasions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The X-rays of the painting entitled ‘Martyrdom of Saint Dorothea' by Alessandro Tiarini, hanging in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome, have provided an opportunity for a series of reflections on the elaboration of the composition and its iconographic origins. The result is that an earlier hypothesis has been reinforced, that the iconography of the painting is based on the saint's life as it was told in the Nuovo leggendario della vita, e fatti di N.S. Giesu Christo, e di tutti i santi, a recounting of the lives of Jesus and all the saints by Alonso de Villegas. This close relationship, which until now art historians were unable to consider, is confirmed by the X-rays. In fact, Tiarini's composition has many points in common with the wood engraving that illustrates the saint's life in the Nuovo leggendario published in Venice in 1601. The numerous pentimenti identified in the X-rays are proof of a characteristic that is to be found in other works by the artist. After creating an initial composition, he experimented with various ways of organising the figures, but in the end he went back to solutions he had used before, even a long time before. Saint Dorothea, in particular, according to the first sketches on the canvas, started out as a more dramatic composition, with the executioner leaning over the saint whose head is bent back, not easy to see. The final solution Tiarini chose was a much more lyrical composition, where even the executioner appears surprised at his participation in the miraculous event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The original provenance of Caravaggio's ‘Penitent Magdalene' and ‘Rest on the Flight into Egypt', both paintings still present in the Pamphilj Collection (in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome), has been much debated by art historians. A re-reading of some of the documents has permitted the author to establish that the paintings initially belonged to Alessandro Vittrici and that, after his death, they were sold by his sister Caterina to Camilla Pamphilj on 30 October 1650. Examination of infrared images of the paintings has also enabled the author to establish that the ‘Penitent Magdalen' was originally placed more frontally; the painter then corrected his initial design. X-rays of the ‘Rest on the Flight into Egypt' also reveal an important pentimento: the preparatory sketch of a nude figure to the right of Mary, probably an initial idea for the placement of the angel. As regards the Aldobrandini Lunettes, also in the Pamphilj Collection, an inventory list dating to 1646 show they had already been transferred to the Palazzo Doria on the Corso by this date. The same list also mentions some missing parts to the corners of the canvases and incomplete parts of the frames, probably following the removal of the paintings from their original chapel. Documents consulted by the author attest that these damages were repaired by the restorer Giovanni delle Tele in 1668; the frames in which the lunettes are now contained probably date to the early eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]