Luigi Ferdinando Marsili and the Arts of Drawing

General Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, from a noble Bolognese family, was among the protagonists of the early Enlightenment, and his work for his country helped to establish it as a cultural center of excellence, thanks to the creation of the Institute of Sciences, an institution for research and the dissemination of knowledge.This text explores in innovative terms the quality of this great intellectual’s relationship with the arts of drawing, the real nature of his patronage, and the choices that led to commissions inspired by his association with figures such as Giovan Pietro Bellori, Carlo Cignani, and Carlo Maratti.