The history of art has been written by the victors, that is, by the artists who have been able to impose their own set of values. But certainly the evolution of events and ideas has not been exclusively determined by them, because in fact history has often been nourished by the thinking of those who, at some point in their earthly lives, were considered "defeated".
Starting from this assumption, the author, through a rewriting of some events in the history of art, investigates artists, centers and patrons who, seemingly defeated by the traditional line, are actually "defeated winners" because their ideas and works nourished and directed the evolution of the discipline.
Controversial, forgotten or misunderstood artists: Flavio Caroli returns to investigate the shadowy line of art that has always interested him: artists such as Lorenzo Lotto, Giuseppe Maria Crespi or Filippo de Pisis, misunderstood by contemporaries or art critics; centers such as Renaissance Mantua or early 19th-century Milan, overshadowed by more "fashionable" cities; or the changing fortunes of great patrons such as the Farnese family.
And it tells of how seemingly defeated artists and works were nonetheless able to carry on their version and create ideas that would influence the future.