Chiara Franceschini, Steven F. Ostrow, Patrizia Tosini (editors)
Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome: Form, Function, Meaning
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Nine studies of early modern private chapels as multimedia “laboratories” for social and devotional display and for artistic invention and innovation in 16th- and 17th-century Rome.
Roman church interiors throughout the Early Modern age were endowed with rich historical and visual significance. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in anticipation of and following the Council of Trent, and in response to the expansion of the Roman Curia, the chapel became a singular arena in which wealthy and powerful Roman families, as well as middle-class citizens, had the opportunity to demonstrate their status and role in Roman society. In most cases the chapels were conceived not as isolated spaces, but as part of a more complex system, which involved the nave and the other chapels within the church, in a dialogue among the arts and the patrons of those other spaces. This volume explores this historical and artistic phenomenon through nine examples involving the patronage of prominent Roman families such as the Frangipane, Spadas, Caetanis, Cybos and important artists and architects such as Federico Zuccari, Annibale Carracci, Giacomo della Porta, Francesco da Volterra, Carlo Maderno, Alessandro Algardi, Carlo Maratta.
Table of Contents:
Chapels: An Introduction
Chiara Franceschini, Steven F. Ostrow, and Patrizia Tosini
Map of the Churches
The Frangipani Chapel in San Marcello: Farnesian Devotion, Antiquarian Taste, and Municipal Pride
Patrizia Tosini
Between all’Antica and Acheiropoieton: The Cappella Gregoriana in the Ekphrases of Lorenzo Frizolio (1582) and Ascanio Valentino (1583)
Fabio Barry
Caetani’s Blood: Magnificence, Lineage, and Martyrdom in the Family Chapel of Santa Pudenziana
Enrico Parlato
“A Gem Set in Most Resplendent Gold”: Girolamo Rusticucci’s Confessio Chapel in Santa Susanna
Steven F. Ostrow
A Splendid Shrine for an Ugly Image: Visual Interactions in the Salviati Chapel at San Gregorio al Celio
Chiara Franceschini
Carving Out Identity: The Boncompagni Family, Alessandro Algardi, and the Chapel in the Sacristy of Santa Maria in Vallicella
Guendalina Serafinelli
The Angelic Balustrade of the Spada Chapel in San Girolamo della Carità
Louise Rice
The Arm Relic as Index of the Body: The Chapel of Francis Xavier in the Gesù
Alison C. Fleming and Stephanie C. Leone
A Chapel in Dialogue: The Cybo Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo
Fabrizio Federici
List of abbreviations
Bibliography
Contributors
Index of Names
Index of Places
Photo Credits
