Alfonso Ciacconio. Note al convegno Die Antikenalben des Alphonsus Ciacconius in Braunschweig, Rom und Pesaro

In October 2017, the museum Herzog Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig, promoted an important International Congress about Alfonso Chacón and his drawings of antiquities: “Die Antikenalben des Alphonsus Ciacconius in Braunschweig, Rom und Pesaro. Dokumentation und Deutung antiker Skulpturen im 16. Jahrhundert”. Many of the most important scholars and experts of the 16. century analyzed all the different aspects of Chacón’s work in Rome and his crucial role in rediscovering Roman, Christian and medieval antiquities at the beginning of Counter-Reformation. His drawings, now divided in three different European institutions (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome, Biblioteca Oliveriana in Pesaro and Braunschweig), are very useful also for reconstructing the beginning of the studies on wall mosaics in Roman churches: actually, Alfonso Chacón can be easily identified as the first scholar of modern times that had a deep interest in describing conservative state and understanding original iconography of the early Christian and medieval mosaic cycles of Rome. This congress managed to keep an eye open on this particular issue and to hopefully promote further thoughts about how Chacón influenced the following studies of ancient mosaics.