Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi degli Albertoni Altieri and his picture collection in the Palazzo Altieri: The evidence of the 1698 death inventory: Part i

Using the evidence of his 1698 death inventory, this article reconstructs how Cardinal Paluzzo Altieri's collection of paintings and furniture was displayed in his apartment in the Altieri palace in Rome. Although scholars have occasionally cited individual objects, the inventory has never been published. Numerous entries are here linked to extant paintings, providing new provenance information for works in public and private collections. Paluzzo emerges as a cautious collector, single-mindedly directed towards underscoring his piety and his identity as a loyal ex-cardinal nephew. Analysis of the inventory provides a new foundation for considering the patronage dynamics of the important late-seventeenth-century Altieri family, and contributes fresh material to the study of collecting and display as self-fashioning in papal Rome. This is part one of a two-part study; the second part will consider Paluzzo's other spaces in the palace, and a broader array of objects, including sculpture, decorative arts, and naturalia.