ABSTRACT
Sant’Isidoro Agricola a Capo le Case, the church to which Luke Wadding was always very close, was a center of great development regarding the Roman figurative culture in the middle of the seventeenth century. The presence of Giovan Pietro Bellori and the chapel’s decorations made by Carlo Maratti represent the climax of this context. However, the Franciscan friar did not act as a simple patron, but he was also mediator for some other commissions. On the one hand, this chapter will analyze Wadding’s relevance at St. Isidore’s and his relationship with Bellori, Maratti, Cardinal Camillo Massimo and the other people circulating in the so-called “Cenacolo pinciano”; on the other hand, it will focus on how Wadding’s network of scholars was valuable not just in order to exchanging knowledge, manuscripts and documents, but even for the circulation of paintings and patronage.
