A letter by Andrea Casali addressed to FIGURE 3

I would like you to do me the favour of sending me one of those young men, and to do so as soon as possible, and in case you do not have any mounts, I will write to Giovanni Battista to find one

to publicly endorse the identification can be explained as a desire on his part to avoid a direct participation in a case that had become so divisive and quarrelsome.35 Another indication of his personal involvement is that, upon hearing of Casali’s return, Guido had sent 25 scudi to Rome, in order to help him to pay for his trip back to Bologna, a donation that was taken as a key evidence of the artist’s own belief about the claimant’s identity.36 Such a gift also marks a typical tract of Guido’s liberality that is underlined by his biographers. Read the rest of this entry »