Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli

An etching by Joachim von Sandrart showing the façade of Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli, a building in the centre of Rome, executed possibly on Raphael's project, with the involvement of Lorenzo Lotti (Lorenzetto). This print was published in the "Teutsche Academie der Bau-Bildhauer- und Maler-Kunst" (vol. III, pl. 1). It is lettered under the image with a scale, the plate number "1" and the title. The series of the Palaces of Rome by Sandrart derives from the prints executed by Giovan Battista Falda for the architect Pietro Ferrerio (this print is a reversed etching of RCIN 854162).

Joachim von Sandrart (1606–1688), from the mid 1660s, devoted himself increasingly to his work as an art theorist and teacher and in 1668 he began to write the "Teutsche Academie" with the help of the poet and publicist Sigmund von Birken; this work was published in three volumes between 1675 and 1680 in Nuremberg. This was a monumental work richly illustrated with hundreds of prints depicting antiquities, architecture and classical mythology, mostly after designs by the author, executed by various printmakers (Jacob von Sandrart, Karl Gustav Amling, Richard Collin, Georg Christoph Eimmart the Younger, Johann Franck, Bartholomeus II Kilian, Philipp Kilian, Melchior Küsel, Johann Jacob von Sandrart, Johann Jacob Thourneysen, Johann Georg Waldreich, Georg Andreas Wolfgang and some anonymous plates).

This palace was commissioned by Bernardino Caffarelli and erected between 1515 and 1538, with the inclusion of other older buildings. In the 18th century the palace was bought by Cardinal Vidoni (hence its current name) who enlarged it and it was later acquired by the Giustiani Bandini family. The Palace is decorated with 16th century frescoes (in the Charles V room) possibly executed by the school of Perin del Vaga and with other frescoes by Roman artists of the 18th century.