Fray Juan Rizi en Italia

Abstract

Since Tormo, Gusi and Lafuente wrote fray Juan Rizi's monograph in 1930, and Ángulo & Pérez Sánchez revised years later this study in their book Pintura madrileña del segundo tercio del siglo XVII, very little has been published about the life and work of the Benedictine painter. Furthermore, the Italian journey of Rizi, that involved the last 20 years of his life, has always been an enigma, resolved only in certain aspects, thanks to few news supplied by his biographers and the manuscripts the monk wrote during his staying in the Montecassino abbey. Our recent discovery of 8 new canvases painted by Rizi to decorate the Saints Cosme and Damian's chapel in the main church of Trevi nel Lazio (Frosinone, Italy), as well as the location of several new drawings in the Montecassino and Vatican libraries, will allow us to study his activity as painter in Italy and also to profile, with more accuracy, the history of the last years of his life.