Resumen de Tre ricerche sul Quattrocento perduto
A connecting thread clearly links the three articles by Francesca Coltrinari, Fabrizio Federici and Beatrice Cirulli, each treating works that are lost, fragmentary, or surviving only through descriptions in early sources. The three historical accounts also share a common methodological approach, suggesting that the paths to attribution can become particularly perilous when they have to take into account areas and periods with only meagre susviving works, as well as shifts in style and practice that are sluggish and not without apparent inconsistencies. Moreover, the widespread existence of instances of this kind, habitually involving not only contiguous geographical areas but also --within an intricate nexis of circulation-- artistic milieus and circles from further afield, can generate identifications (or even comparisons), and consequiently dates, that are less secure.
