Giulio Cantalamessa

Against his parents wishes, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna under Antonio Puccinelli.

In 1868 he paints Plauto in atto di scrivere una scena faceta, which wins a first prize at the Fermo Exhibition of 1869.

In 1883, his health made him stop painting a large canvas depicting Pope John X fatto strozzare da Marozia nelle prigioni.

[1] He went on to become active in inventorizing the galleries in Modena (1894 with help from Corrado Ricci and Adolfo Venturi), Venice, as well as the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

For this picture documentary evidence is of primary importance because the Mona Lisa in the Louvre has been there so long".