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Abstract:  FORMS OF PROPAGANDA: POLITICAL PAINTING IN ROME IN THE AGE OF COLA DI RIENZO. A RESEARCH PROPOSAL An anonymous Roman narrated in his Cronica that, before his coup d’etat, Cola di Rienzo had some extraordinary allegoric scenes painted on the walls of Roman buildings. There are no material signs, however, of these important political paintings described by literary sources. Although this is a significant absence, it conforms with the impoverished panorama of fourteenth century Roman painting. As a matter of fact, the study of this period has been biased by a methodological prejudice that for many years has associated the beginning of the Papacy with the end of art commissions and the resulting decline of art. This research, that discloses the result of a larger study which is still underway, uses the example of Cola di Rienzo’s commission and its particular form of political propaganda based on images to reflect on the relationship between lost and surviving fourteenth century Roman painting.