From almost the beginning of his pontificate, the Quirinal Palace was a major focus of the patron... more From almost the beginning of his pontificate, the Quirinal Palace was a major focus of the patronage of Paul V Borghese (r. 1605-1621), who wished to make it the equal to the Vatican Palace. Key to this effort was the construction of the Sala Regia and Cappella Paolina, in which could be staged all the ceremonial and liturgical functions formerly served only by the Vatican. While considerable scholarly attention has been paid to the Sala Regia, especially to the frescoes that adorn its walls, the Pauline Chapel, both as planned and as executed under Paul V, to a large extent has been ignored. This essay addresses this lacuna, interpreting the chapel's program of decoration-both in relation to the contiguous Sala Regia and, more broadly, with regard to the most pressing religious and political concerns of the Borghese pope's papacyas a carefully formulated proclamation of papal authority and the Church's role in defeating heresy.
Collecting Copies of 'the most charming fountain in Rome': Taddeo Landini's Fontana delle Tartaru... more Collecting Copies of 'the most charming fountain in Rome': Taddeo Landini's Fontana delle Tartarughe Although the taste for garden fountains goes back to antiquity, a particular enthusiasm for them re-emerged in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, especially in England and the United States, and the words quoted above, written in 1900 by the British garden designer and landscape architect Thomas H. Mawson, speak directly to this vogue. 1 Indeed, books and magazines of the period devoted to gardens are replete with calls for fountains to adorn gardens of any kind, from the smallest and most intimate planted lot to the grandest of landscaped estates. As the American horticulturalist and author, Phebe Westcott Humphreys, wrote: 'We are gradually awakening to the charm and the possibilities of the "poetic spray" in our garden pools. It is true that many landscape architects insist that fountain statuary is fitting only in formal gardens and parks. But all agree that the sparkling fountain spray […] is appropriate and desirable for every form of garden'. 2 The combination of water-what J. B. Waring called 'the very life and soul of pleasure-grounds' 3-and sculpted and architectural forms distinguishes fountains from all other types of what was then often referred to as garden furniture and accounts for their unique allure, as Steuart Erskine noted in an article in House and Garden of 1904. 'Fountains have', he wrote, 'from time immemorial, exercised a particular fascination over the mind of man. The combination of the artist's skill with the resources of Nature, the mingling of stone and marble with the ever-changing, sparkling, dripping, tumbling
Pietro Tacca's wonderfully bizarre Fontane dei Mostri Marini (Fountains of the Sea Monsters) in F... more Pietro Tacca's wonderfully bizarre Fontane dei Mostri Marini (Fountains of the Sea Monsters) in Florence's Piazza SS. Annunziata – designed and cast in bronze in the third decade of the seventeenth century – were widely praised in English-language guidebooks, travel literature, and scholarly texts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They also attracted the attention of collectors, and between 1902 and 1920 four exceptionally affluent patrons – in Rome, Washington, dc, Minneapolis, and London – purchased copies of one of the fountains, three of them installing them in the grounds of their respective stately homes. This article examines the history of these copies – their patrons, their installation, and their manufacture – tracing the afterlife of Tacca's original fountain and illuminating a little-studied aspect of the history of collecting in Italy, the United States, and England at the beginning of the twentieth century.
From almost the beginning of his pontificate, the Quirinal Palace was a major focus of the patron... more From almost the beginning of his pontificate, the Quirinal Palace was a major focus of the patronage of Paul V Borghese (r. 1605-1621), who wished to make it the equal to the Vatican Palace. Key to this effort was the construction of the Sala Regia and Cappella Paolina, in which could be staged all the ceremonial and liturgical functions formerly served only by the Vatican. While considerable scholarly attention has been paid to the Sala Regia, especially to the frescoes that adorn its walls, the Pauline Chapel, both as planned and as executed under Paul V, to a large extent has been ignored. This essay addresses this lacuna, interpreting the chapel's program of decoration-both in relation to the contiguous Sala Regia and, more broadly, with regard to the most pressing religious and political concerns of the Borghese pope's papacyas a carefully formulated proclamation of papal authority and the Church's role in defeating heresy.
Collecting Copies of 'the most charming fountain in Rome': Taddeo Landini's Fontana delle Tartaru... more Collecting Copies of 'the most charming fountain in Rome': Taddeo Landini's Fontana delle Tartarughe Although the taste for garden fountains goes back to antiquity, a particular enthusiasm for them re-emerged in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, especially in England and the United States, and the words quoted above, written in 1900 by the British garden designer and landscape architect Thomas H. Mawson, speak directly to this vogue. 1 Indeed, books and magazines of the period devoted to gardens are replete with calls for fountains to adorn gardens of any kind, from the smallest and most intimate planted lot to the grandest of landscaped estates. As the American horticulturalist and author, Phebe Westcott Humphreys, wrote: 'We are gradually awakening to the charm and the possibilities of the "poetic spray" in our garden pools. It is true that many landscape architects insist that fountain statuary is fitting only in formal gardens and parks. But all agree that the sparkling fountain spray […] is appropriate and desirable for every form of garden'. 2 The combination of water-what J. B. Waring called 'the very life and soul of pleasure-grounds' 3-and sculpted and architectural forms distinguishes fountains from all other types of what was then often referred to as garden furniture and accounts for their unique allure, as Steuart Erskine noted in an article in House and Garden of 1904. 'Fountains have', he wrote, 'from time immemorial, exercised a particular fascination over the mind of man. The combination of the artist's skill with the resources of Nature, the mingling of stone and marble with the ever-changing, sparkling, dripping, tumbling
Pietro Tacca's wonderfully bizarre Fontane dei Mostri Marini (Fountains of the Sea Monsters) in F... more Pietro Tacca's wonderfully bizarre Fontane dei Mostri Marini (Fountains of the Sea Monsters) in Florence's Piazza SS. Annunziata – designed and cast in bronze in the third decade of the seventeenth century – were widely praised in English-language guidebooks, travel literature, and scholarly texts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They also attracted the attention of collectors, and between 1902 and 1920 four exceptionally affluent patrons – in Rome, Washington, dc, Minneapolis, and London – purchased copies of one of the fountains, three of them installing them in the grounds of their respective stately homes. This article examines the history of these copies – their patrons, their installation, and their manufacture – tracing the afterlife of Tacca's original fountain and illuminating a little-studied aspect of the history of collecting in Italy, the United States, and England at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome, 2020
Just out with Officina Libraria!
Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome... more Just out with Officina Libraria!
Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome, edited by Chiara Franceschini, Steven F. Ostrow, and Patrizia Tosini, Milano: Officina Libraria, 2020
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
Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome form function meaning, ed. by C. Franceschini, Steven F. Ostrow, P. Tosini, 2020
Introduction to "Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome form function me... more Introduction to "Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome form function meaning", Milano: Officina Libraria, 2020
Chapels in Roman Churches of the Cinquecento and the Seicento. Form, Function, Meaning, ed. by C. Franceschini, P. Tosini, S. F. Ostrow, Milano, Officina Libraria, 2020, 2020
This essay examines the history and decoration of the Salviati Chapel at San Gregorio al Celio in... more This essay examines the history and decoration of the Salviati Chapel at San Gregorio al Celio in Rome as the repository of an image of the Virgin and in relation to two other chapels created by the same patron (Antonio Maria Salviati) in the church of San Giacomo in Augusta. In considering this dialogue among the chapels, I analyze the rationale behind the project at San Gregorio and its purpose to valorize antique images, reconstructing the particular design and function in the space of the now lost altarpiece with St. Gregory by Annibale Carracci. I also discuss more broadly th theme of the artistic experimentation and confrontation between "old" and "ruined" 'images' and "new" and "beautiful" 'works of art', that took place in Rome at the turn of the seventeenth century.
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Papers by Steven Ostrow
Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome, edited by Chiara Franceschini, Steven F. Ostrow, and Patrizia Tosini, Milano: Officina Libraria, 2020
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