Before his death, Ottaviano Mascarino (1536-1606) left his collection of drawings to the Accademia di San Luca, to which he belonged, most of them autographed. Some of the drawings by other people, attributed to various contemporary architects, often document the building sites Mascarino inherited or his activity as a consultant for important patrons. The Academy’s oldest existing inventories ‒ from 1608, 1624 and, in more detail, 1712, which record the Academy’s state of affairs in 1682 ‒ only allow us to partially reconstruct the original size of the bequest. However, as well as the larger number of drawings, there is also evidence to suggest that some of these were valuable drawings by Baldassarre Peruzzi, or at least attributed to him, and Vignola. Some of the drawings that were originally part of the Academy can be identified in other collections, while many others are not currently traceable. Architects in the following century, (Carlo Maderno, Pietro da Cortona, Girolamo e Tolomeo Rainaldi, Francesco Maria Ricchino, Domenico Martinelli) were influenced by Mascarino’s drawings rather than by the few buildings which were actually built or preserved. This essay also seeks to shed light on the collection’s success outside Rome, highlighting the architect’s relationships with other geographical and cultural realities, until now overlooked.
