Antoniazzo romano, a misunderstood and unrecognized painter

Antonio Aquili, a.k.a. Antoniazzo Romano, had the good fortune to live in the late 400s and early 500s, when the preciosity of late Gothic Mannerism was being painstakingly dampened and the Renaissance and Humanism studded with such distinguished authors as Raphael Sanzio and Leonardo da Vinci was about to triumph.During his lifetime he was constantly considered by Roman patrons and was part of the family workshop in rione Colonna, La Cerasa locality, founded by his father Benedetto Aquili and where he worked with his brothers Nardo and Giuliano until 1480, the year of the breakthrough in which he was given the position of first consul of the university of painters in Rome.Also in 1480 was the contract by which he entered into a partnership with Melozzo da Forlì to carry out the decoration of the hall of the Secret Library and the Pontifical Library in Rome, and from then on he was involved in various commissions, including for French patrons such as the Congregation of St. Louis of the French. Antoniazzo was also involved for the extraordinary 15th-century undertaking of the Sistine Chapel, commissioned to decorate one of the doors. In 1483, Antoniazzo decorated three rooms in the papal apartment.