Carlo Maratti and the Barberini family: two paintings for churches in Palestrina

The article deals with some archival discoveries relating to two altarpieces commissioned by the Barberini family to Carlo Maratti for churches in Palestrina (about 40 kilometres east of Rome). The archival documents shed new light on the S. Rosalia interceding for victims of the plague in Palestrina (formerly in Church of S. Rosalia in Palestrina) and an Annuciation, formerly above the high altar of the church of the Annunciation in Palestrina. This Annuciation has been considered, until now, destroyed in the 1944 bombardment, whereas it still exists, housed in the store room of Palestrina’s Cathedral.