Marco Benefial, l'Accademia di San Luca e le 'mezzerie': una rilettura della vicenda attraverso le fonti

Ten years ago Kees van Dooren published an article in which the 1764 letter by Ponfredi on Marco Benefial was judged unreliable. it is now important to reiterate that that letter remains an absolutely reliable source, and indeed only through the information reported in it is it possible to identify a meaning in the surprising path of Benefial. In this article the author demonstrate how, due to the clash with the Academy of St. Luke, Benefial had to undergo a sort of ostracism in Rome, and only at the end of the 1730s, thanks to the support of the Corsini, he managed to free himself completely from the odious "mezzeria" with Evangelists. Already Anthony Morris Clark, in his pioneering, fundamental article on Benefial of 1966, had guessed how things had gone, but the confirmation comes from the analysis of another important source on the painter, an anonymous letter of 1757, probably written by Niccolò Soderini, patron and friend of Benefial. Through a careful reading of this text it is possible to better frame, chronologically, the two "mezzerie" of Benefial with Germisoni and Evangelisti.