The Capuchin church in Frascati houses pictorial decoration sponsored by pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) and by his two cardinal nephews, Filippo Boncompagni and Filippo Guastavillani. These two long-standing rivals competed on this occasion in artistic commissions. While we know that the
Boncompagni Pope employed Girolamo Muziano for the execution of the 'Crucifixion' high altarpiece for the church, the authors of the two paintings on the lateral altars − 'The Sacra Conversazione' and 'Saint Francis receiving the Stigmata', respectively commissioned by Filippo Boncompagni and Filippo Guastavillani − remained unknown. For the first painting the artist can now be identified as Niccolò Trometta, who also painted the nave frescoes. The same had realized the painting originally for the church of San Giuliano in Banchi in Rome by request of Pietro da Cordova, copying the Fugger altarpiece by Giulio Romano in the church of Santa Maria dell'Anima, as the contract of 1563 attests. We hypothesize that the other lateral painting was executed by the still anonymous 'Maestro di Filippo Guastavillani,' so identified by Daniele Benati, who was active for the cardinal nephew in the villa Guastavillani at Barbiano, near Bologna.