21 - Rome, *La Baruffa di Bruttobuono*.

Rome, *La Baruffa di Bruttobuono*. Oil on canvas, with relining. (17th century). Approx. 110 x 186 cm. The work is listed in the Fondazione Zeri under number 50284. The painting is based on the famous etching by Francesco Villamena (1564–1624), dated 1601, *La Baruffa di Bruttobuono*, and is among the higher-quality painterly adaptations of this motif, which was seminal for the development of Roman genre painting. It depicts the spectacular brawl between supporters of the French and Spanish factions that took place around 1600 at the Villa Mattei on the Celio, during which Bruttobuono, a follower of the Mattei family, was killed. The extraordinarily dynamic composition of figures, with its grotesquely exaggerated facial features, vigorous gestures, and intertwining movements, reveals itself to be a direct engagement with Villamena’s widely circulated graphic model. Gianni Papi published a stylistically related version in 2017 as the work of a painter active in Rome during the first decade of the 17th century. In 2022, Francesco Petrucci emphasized the extraordinary impact of the etching as a veritable archetypal model for the later Bamboccianti, while also pointing out that there is no convincing evidence of Villamenas’s own painting activity. This version should therefore be understood as an independent painterly interpretation of the famous Roman motif. Bibliography: Gianni Papi, Pittore attivo nel primo decennio del XVII secolo. *La Baruffa di Bruttobuono*, 2017, pp. 10–15; Petrucci, Francesco, “La Baruffa di Bruttobuono by Francesco Villamena: A Model for Genre Scenes by the ‘Bamboccianti’,” *Pittore attivo nel primo decennio del XVII secolo*, in: About Art Online, 2022, No. 17. Provenance: Galleria Frascione Arte, Florence. International private collection. Taxation: subject to regular taxation (VAT: Regular Taxation).