Carlo Cesare Malvasia's account of Bolognese painters and painting, 'Felsina Pittrice' (Bologna, 1678), is one of the most important sources for the history and criticism of painting in Italy. This volume provides a critical edition and annotated translation of the first part of Malvasia's work, which focuses on the art of late medieval Bologna.

Richly illustrated, this critical edition and English translation of Malvasia's lives of Domenichino and Francesco Gessi from his Felsina pittrice offer access to the life and work of two great masters of seventeenth-century Bologna. Domenichino's life plays a seminal role in Malvasia's definition of the fourth age of painting in Italy. From the very beginning, Malvasia pits against each other Guido Reni and Domenichino, the two champions of the vanguard style that emerged from the Carracci reform of painting. If Guido becomes the idol of the Lombard and Bolognese school, more attuned to tenderness and audacity, Domenichino embodies an ideal of perfection more in keeping with the Florentine and Roman school, fond of finish and diligence.