FRANCESCA S. CROCE is a DOC Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, currently pursuing a doctorate in art history at the University of Vienna under the supervision of Professor Sebastian Schütze, where she specializes in late seventeenth-century Roman art. She has published in Paragone Arte, the Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, and Anales de Historia del Arte. Croce holds a master’s degree in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University. She has presented at symposia and conferences on the Seicento in the United States and Europe, including at the Universities of London and Vienna, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, and Columbus Museum of Art.

Under the Lens showcases works from the Croce Collection, a reflection of scientist Carlo M. Croce’s inquisitive mind and relentless pursuit of discovery. Since acquiring his first painting at the age of twelve, he has assembled one of the largest and most signifi- cant private collections of Italian Baroque art in the United States. Through contributions from leading international experts and art historians, this volume focuses on individual works, ranging from paintings by early seventeenth-century Bolognese artists to the ultra-Baroque creations of Pietro da Cortona and eighteenth-century tapestry designs. Rather than acting as a catalogue raisonné, Under the Lens introduces the Croce Collection for the first time to scholars and art enthusiasts alike, providing fresh insights into key Baroque masters and paving the way for further research on both the collection and this important period in art history.

From Laboratories to Allegories: An Introduction to the Croce Collection, Francesca S. Croce – PAINTINGS - Pietro Faccini, appunti per un’accademia bolognese «alternativa», Emilio Negro - Divine Depictions: Analyzing the Heavenly Representations of Mary in the Croce Collection, Helen Kohn - Falsi e veri caravaggeschi: un Martirio di Sant’Agata di Mario Minniti a Columbus, Ohio, Antonio Vannugli - Un portrait peint par Vouet représenté dans un tableau italien du XVIIème siècle: une Allégorie de la peinture, Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée - Gli eroi del passato nel racconto epico di Pietro da Cortona, Anna Lo Bianco - Due nuove Madonne del velo di Onorio Marinari, Francesca Baldassari - Copy or Cartoon? A Painting after Raphael’s Miraculous Draft of Fishes from the Croce Collection, Larissa Mohr - Altre aggiunte al catalogo della produzione nota di Filippo Falciatore, Nicola Spinosa – DRAWINGS - Due studi di figura: Tintoretto e una proposta per Paris Bordone, Cristiana Romalli - ‘Quel quadro che atterrisce tutti’: Ludovico Carracci and Guercino for Bologna’s Santi Gregorio e Siro, Francesca S. Croce – Photographic Credits