You know by now, if you visit my blog, that Villa Farnesina in Rome is a treasure trove of art, color and beauty, a sixteenth-century villa frescoed by artists such as Baldassarre Peruzzi and, above all, an already mature Raphael. A building that, in a certain sense, after centuries is our model for all the suburban buildings of the Roman Renaissance and beyond, private property of businessmen, rich and sometimes unscrupulous, but above all lovers of beauty and great patrons. This would be enough to make a visit, especially with a tour guide like me, but now I will give you one more reason to go...

Entering the Sala di Galatea, where stands the elegant and wonderful fresco by Raphael depicting the topical moment in the life of the nymph Galatea, on one of the lunettes of one of the walls of lat or short you will notice this man's head made in charcoal. Finished, perfect in its forms despite being barely sketched. Author? According to tradition, none other than Michelangelo! Legend says that Raphael, already famous and in great demand for his paintings in the Vatican Loggias and the famous rooms he frescoed, always at the Vatican Museums, used to cover his paintings during the process, so as not to reveal his work to anyone. An artist's quirk, which aroused the curiosity, and perhaps jealousy, of the surly Michelangelo, who had received news of a new masterpiece by Raphael at Villa Chigi (now Villa Farnesina) almost ready and completed. The genius had no qualms, and managed to evade surveillance by dressing up as a merchant. Distracting the keepers with the merchandise he had brought with him, it seems that for a few seconds he was able to peek behind the tarpaulins that covered Raphael's frescoes. Struck by the skill of the young man from Urbino, he took some coal and, climbing up some supports, simply drew this head freehand. Something unique and exceptional, which left everyone amazed except Raphael, who understood that only a genius, like his rival, could have done something similar, so much that he ordered it not to be canceled.

An episode probably invented from scratch, but which makes Villa Farnesina in Rome even more special. If the amazing perspectives visible on the second floor are not enought, even if the extraordinary Loggia of Cupid and Psyche will not astonish you, I think that this apparently anonymous drawing in charcoal makes this villa in Rome worth studying, admiring and, in a certain sense, loved. Obviously what I have told you is a tradition, consolidated over the centuries, which most likely does not reflect the reality of the facts in the least. But after all it is nice, sometimes, to fly high with the imagination…