A bit late to announce this here, but I contributed an article, entitled “The Chigi Graffiti”, on the graffiti on the walls of the loggia di Galatea at the Villa Farnesina in Rome, under the famous fresco by Raphael, the Triumph of Galatea (c. 1512-13), as well as the somewhat less famous one of Polyphemus by Sebastiano del Piombo (1511). These comprise a range of caricatured figures and heads as well as more naturalistic drawings and, some clearly by Sebastiano and some possibly — even probably — by Raphael.

I examine these closely in my article, which was published in the catalogue for the recently closed exhibition at the Farnesina, Raffaello e l’antico nella villa di Agostino Chigi, curated by my friend and colleague Costanza Barbieri. It was a great show, which brought back to the Farnesina a number of the antique sculptures that were in the collection of the villa’s original owner, the hugely wealthy banker Agostino Chigi, from the collections in which they’re dispersed today.

My examination of the graffiti is the latest in a number of articles I’ve written focusing on caricature and doodling by some of the great artists of the renaissance. You can get the catalogue here.

Sebastiano del Piombo, Study of Martha and other figures for the Raising of Lazarus, 1517. Frankfurt, Städel

Last week I was a guest on the live culture evening broadcast og Italian Radio 3 along with my great colleague and friend Costanza Barbieri to talk about Michelangelo and Sebastiano del Piombo on the occassion of our new(ish) book The Compass and the Mirror. If you can deal with my pessimo italiano, I think it turned out pretty informative, especially due to Costanza’s presence there. And if you just can’t get enough, here’s the video of the book presentation we did at the Accademia San Luca last autumn.