La “Storia pittorica” di Luigi Lanzi e i “quattro Carli”

The article deals with Luigi Lanzi’s use of the topos of the “quattro carli” in his Storia pittorica within the frame of a discussion on the French school of painting. This case allows to shed light on how Lanzi used and manipulated art historical sources in order to offer a convincing and readable narrative to his readers. The change of the context of Lanzi’s quotation of the “quattro carli” from the 1st (1792) to the 2nd edition (1795-1796) of the Storia pittorica suggests interesting clues on Lanzi’s shift of approach towards a different national tradition (Charles Le Brun and the French Academy at Rome) and towards coeval artists, such as Jacques-Louis David.