Abstract

The paper considers the monochrome frescoes discovered beneath a layer of plasterwork (scialbo) during the architectural restoration of Cardinal Stefano Nardini’s (1420-1484) palace in Rome in 2023 and formulates an initial hypothesis on their context. The frescoes were commissioned by the cardinal as evidenced by his insignia on the pediment of the vault in the center of the wall. Early stylistic data qualify them as frescoes by a master with a good command of perspective construction and the human figure comparable to the work of Melozzo da Forlì and his workshop along with perhaps some other Umbrian-Tuscan painters. The approximation to Melozzo also seems supported by historical data: the painter was the favorite artist of Pope Sixtus IV and his court, to which Cardinal Nardini also belonged, between 1475 and 1480. Moreover, handed down by Giulio Mancini is a lost pictorial commission from Nardini to Melozzo in Santa Maria in Trastevere that may have followed the one already assigned in the palace.