Resumen de Una lettera illustrata a Nicolò Simonelli, Guardaroba del cardinale Flavio Chigi
Angiola Canevari, Giulia Fusconi
An unpublished and anonymous sheet in the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Rome, contains a series of witty vignettes of male and female figures presented as caricatures. These are accompanied by inscriptions and a fragmentary letter addressed to Nicolò Simonelli, the well-known connoisseur and art dealer in seventeenth-century Rome. Contextual study of the letter and drawings has made it possible to identify their author as Francesco Milizia, a painter hitherto known solely for the execution of frescoes and canvases in the Palazzo Chigi at Formello in 1662-1663, when Simonelli was Cardinal Flavio Chigi's curator. The sheet appears to be linked to a theatrical event at the Cardinal's court, and casts significant light on a much-practiced activity in the Chigi milieu.
