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In the second half of the seventeenth century, following the deaths of Pietro da Cortona and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Carlo Maratti became the pre-eminent representative of the modern mode of painting in Rome, a style that was soon to be exported all over Europe. He was praised by his biographer Giovan Pietro Bellori as the \"Raphael of his time\" and was the favorite painter of kings, cardinals, and the Roman, Spanish, and Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, as well as four popes: Alexander VII, Clement IX, Clement X, and Clement XI, who honored him with the title of Cavaliere di Santa Croce. From a young age, Maratti was committed to several specific approaches in his art, from deriving inspiration from the Antique (reproducing Roman statues and reliefs), to studying the works of the great masters of classicism, Annibale Carracci, and Guido Rem, to drawing from life (both nude and draped models). Maratti achieved great precision as a draftsman of both figures and compositions, accurately rendering parts of the human figure in space, with naturalistic and well-defined three-dimensional values. Such stylistic elements—traits that define classicizing artists—remained characteristic of his activity as a draftsman his whole career. It should thus come as no surprise that two beautiful sheets with anatomical studies preserved in the Courtauld Gallery, London, attributed here for the first time to Maratti, were in the past attributed to Charles Le Brun (1619—1690), the major representative of classicism in France in the seventeenth century.

Rodino focuses on the two letters and caricatures by artist Pier Francesco Mola. Mola (1612-1666), one of the most original draftsmen of the Roman Baroque, left behind many drawings, including numerous caricatures. Often described as ritratti carichi (loaded portraits), caricatures also function as narrative vignettes with autobiographical elements, the precise meaning of which is often now elusive. Mola's caricatures were studied in depth by Manuela Kahn-Rossi and Nicholas Turner in the catalogue of the pioneering exhibition dedicated to the artist held in Lugano and Rome in 1989-1990. Both letters are signed by Mola, and one is addressed to his friend Sebastiano Baldini (1615-1685), a well-known writer, poet, and scholar at the Roman court of Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689). Despite the strides made in recent decades, mystery still surrounds the identity of many figures portrayed in the caricatures, to what events they refer, and especially to whom the sketches were addressed. I believe that two illustrated letters acquired in 2007 by the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (Figs. can help clarify the type of ribald message that Mola wished to send to his friends and colleagues.

Reviews \"Dibujos y ornamento : trazas y dibujos de artes decorativas entre Portugal, Espana, Italia, Malta, y Grecia : estudio en honor de Fuensanta García de la Torre\" (\"Drawing and ornament : sketches and drawings of decorative arts in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Malta, and Greece : study in honor of Fuensanta García de la Torre\"), edited by Sabina de Cavi (Diputación de Córdoba and De Luca Editori d'Arte, 2015). This important book is the first monograph dedicated to ornamental and architectural drawing in southern Europe with a particular focus on the Baroque period, although it ranges in date from the 16th to the 18th centuries. [Revised Publication Abstract]

An obituary for Anna Forlani Tempeste, a member of the journal's Editorial Advisory Board, who died on March 3, 2019 at the age of eighty-eight is presented. An overview of her interest, achievements and previous jobs is offered. Her contributions to the study of several Renaissance artists like Raphael, Michelangelo, Fra Bartolommeo, Pontormo, Timoteo Viti, and Baccio Bandinelli is also mentioned.