Fresco discovery raises questions in Italy

By Valeria Pini, CNNitalia staff writer

ROME, Italy -- A medieval fresco, which could undermine Giotto's role as the founder of Italian painting, has been discovered in the church of Santa Maria in the Italian town of Aracoeli.

The work, which depicts a Madonna with child between Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, is thought to be by Pietro Cavallini -- a painter who pre-dates Giotto.

GALLERY Frescoes to rewrite history

Art historian Tommaso Striani, who discovered the fresco underneath a Vincente Vittoria painting, said: "Up until now we knew that modern painting was born in Assisi in the second half of the nineties of the 12th Century. There was no evidence of a direct connection between Rome and Assisi."

Art critic Paolo Vagheggi said if the work was found to have been painted before this time: "Giotto would not be the Italian Renaissance isolated lighthouse he has been so far."

Only after careful studies and detailed examinations will it be possible to discover the creator of such a masterpiece.

Striani, 27, added: "It's a very delicate work, the frescoes are still in a good state but we have to be careful anyway. For the fresco attribution it will take two years. We don't know if it's by Cavallini, it's by a very similar hand, maybe one even more refined than Cavallini's."

Striani has been studying the fresco for six months.

In a chronicle from the 17th Century by Franciscan Father Casimiro, Striani read that Cavallini painted the Savelli chapel of which nothing remained.

But Cavallini also carried out frescoes in the Aracoeli church -- namely the apse which was completely pulled down in the 16th Century.

Striani believes the brush strokes of his discovery are very similar to other works Cavallini painted in Rome such as the mosaic "The Virgin's Stories" in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere and the fresco "The Universal Judgement" in Santa Cecilia.

But now it is up to the art researchers -- the experts who will have the final word.

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