Carlo Fea, Antonio Canova e la "Lettera a Leone X"

Carlo Fea, Antonio Canova e la Lettera a Leone X di Raffaello e Baldassarre Castiglione – This paper highlights Carlo Fea’s belated reception of Raphael’s Letter to Leo X, which he mentions for the first time in 1802, when he lists it and partly reprints it amidst other documents in the Appendix to his Relazione di un viaggio ad Ostia e alla villa di Plinio detta Laurentino (Rome, 1802). There he refers to the Letter’s earlier, printed editions of 1769 and 1799. In fact, this acknowledgment (matching the one in the coeval Chirografo by Pius VII, inspired by him) is likely due to his close work relationship with Antonio Canova, General Inspector of the Fine Arts in the Church State, after Fea’s appointment as Commissario alle Antichità di Roma in April 1801. Canova was a fellow national of Daniele Francesconi’s, the Letter’s editor of 1799 and the first scholar ever to acknowledge Raphael’s authorial role in it, for it was originally given to Baldassarre Castiglione alone. This change of attribution was pivotal in the Letter’s subsequent reputation and reception, as is proven by Fea’s own case.