The catalogue presents Christ Carrying the Cross, recently rediscovered by Carlo Falciani in a private collection, which was born out of the intense friendship between the painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) with Bindo Altoviti (1491-1557), important banker and refined art collector and patron. The artwork was painted in 1553, just before Vasari’s return to Florence to take service as court painter of the Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. The painting shows the extremely high quality reached by Vasari’s production in Rome - where he was working for Pope Julius III and where the Florentine banker Bindo Altoviti had a palace and conducted business - and, at the same time, it shows the experimentations of his manner, characterised by the re-elaboration of modern and contemporary models, in this case works of Michelangelo, Francesco Salviati and Sebastiano del Piombo. AUTHORS: Barbara Agosti is professor of History of Art and of Art Criticism at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. Her books include a monograph on Paolo Giovio historian of the arts and one on genesis of Vasari’s Lives of the Artists. Michela Corso is a researcher at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. She has written contributions on Mannerist painting and draftsmanship. Carlo Falciani is professor of Art History at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. He has written a monograph of Rosso Fiorentino and curated and co-curated exhibitions on Bronzino, Pontormo and Rosso, and portrait painting at the Medicis’ court. SELLING POINTS: . Recently rediscovered, Vasari’s Christ Carrying the Cross has never been published in such detail . A masterpiece in Vasari’s oeuvre: it really stands out in his production . Documents the friendship between Vasari and Bindo Altoviti, important collector and patrons of the arts . New information on Altoviti, whose art patronage was investigated in a 2003 exhibit in Boston . Published to accompany an exhibition at the Gallerie Nazionali Barberini Corsini, Palazzo Corsini, Rome from 24 January, to 30 June 2019 32 colour images