One of the Italian cities where Spain enjoyed a particularly significant presence during the Modern Age was undoubtedly Bologna, owing above all to the strong appeal of its prestigious, long-established university. At the same time, various Bolognese were destined to play a prominent role on the Spanish cultural scene of the seventeenth century. Despite these circumstances, current historiography has barely touched on the ties between Spain and Bologna in that period. Seicento boloñés y Siglo de Oro español (Bolognese Seicento and Spanish Golden Age), derived from the author’s doctoral thesis, examines artistic and cultural relations between Spain and the Italian city during that prolific century, providing the first overall view of artists and patrons, politicians and religious orders, travellers and literati.

David García Cueto is a lecturer of Art History at the University of Granada and head of the Department of Italian and French Painting until 1800 at the Prado Museum. His studies have chiefly explored artistic relations between Spain and Italy during the seventeenth century, and several of them have been published in international journals. He is the author of La estancia española de los pintores boloñeses Agostino Mitelli y Angelo Michele Colonna, 1658–1662  (2005). His studies have chiefly explored artistic relations between Spain and Italy during the seventeenth century, and several of them have been published in international journals. He is the author of La estancia española de los pintores boloñeses Agostino Mitelli y Angelo Michele Colonna, 1658–1662  (2005).