Elpidio Benedetti (1609-1690)

Elpidio Benedetti (1609-1690)
Committenza e relazioni artistiche di un agente del re di Francia nella Roma del Seicento
by Yuri Primarosa

This book sheds lights on the figure of the abbot Elpidio Benedetti, one of the main personality of the political and artistic dialogue between Rome and Paris in seventeenth-century. He was Cardinal Jules Mazarin’s secretary in Rome and Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s agent. Amateur draftsman, iconographer and inventor of sophisticated emblems, creator of “apparati effimeri” for the French crown, Benedetti often used exempla taken from ancient history to celebrate his patron and give of himself the image of perfect Christian ambassador.

This research sheds light on the artistic relationships of Elpidio Benedetti through new correspondence of letters and unpublished documents. Focusing on Plautilla Bricci (1616 – post 1690), a very unusual case of female painter and architect in seventeenth-century Rome, this book presents several unpublished paintings and proposes new attributions.