The Brawl

"The Brawl", an exceptional subject, is based on an actual incident in 1601, in which a servant of the Roman nobleman Ciriaco Mattei was killed.
The dynamic action with the stricken servant of Mattei (pro Spanish) and his violent opponent (pro French), takes place in front of the former garden of Mattei on the Caelian Hill – now Villa Celimontana. The picture follows an engraving which gives details of the incident and the protagonists, as well as the dedicatee (Ciriaco Mattei) and the name of the servant (Bruttobuono).
In the 1844 Czernin inventory, Annibale Carracci (1560–1609) was named as the painter, before an engraving linked the picture with Villamena, and it was then attributed to him (Frimmel 1924, p 70). Norbert Grillitsch carried out a detailed analysis (Norbert Grillitsch "... egli morì d'una percossa ..." Visuelle Ermittlungen zu einer Schlägerei mit Todesfolge im römischen Seicento. In: Bösel Richard, Fillitz Hermann (Ed.): Römische Historische Mitteilungen. 49. Band. Wien 2007, p. 255-289).

Habersatter Thomas: Francesco Villamena, The Brawl, in: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg./Edi.): von | from 0 auf | to 100. Residenzgalerie Salzburg 1923-2023. Salzburg 2023, S./p. 228-229