About the Connections Between Giulio Mancini and Fabio Chigi and the Index of the Pittori, scultori e architetti ferraresi

Abstract

The article aims to focus attention on unpublished or little-known manuscript material preserved in the Chigi collection of the Vatican Apostolic Library relating to the years of formation and the beginning of the ecclesiastical career of the Sienese Fabio Chigi, future Pope Alexander VII. From the analysis of these manuscripts, new information is obtained about his relationship with Giulio Mancini. Some of the opinions expressed by Chigi on ancient and modern art are compared with those of the Sienese doctor, together with notes to the Considerazioni sulla pittura that highlight Mancini’s strong influence on the young prelate, but also his independence and autonomy. Furthermore, specific attention is dedicated to Fabio Chigi’s project, dated 1630 but remained unfinished, to write a historical work on the arts in Ferrara based on the artists (painters, sculptors and architects) who left works in the Emilian city from the fifteenth century to to the first decades of the seventeenth century. The text, although unfinished, is a further testimony, hitherto unpublished, of Chigi’s profound interests in the figurative arts, and is inserted at very early dates in the literary trend of local artistic historiography.