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Rome 1600: The City and the Visual Arts Under Clement viii, written by Clare Robertson

2016; Brill; Volume: 3; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1163/22141332-00304009-14

2214-1332

Historical and Religious Studies of Rome

This exceptional book focuses on and around the Holy Year of 1600, declared by Pope Clement viii Aldobrandini (r.1592Aldobrandini (r.-1605)), and explores the distinctive artistic patronage of a period when donors and artists in Rome must have felt "in the right place at the right time."Robertson constructs a fascinating web of overlapping points of views: the visual-a systematic analysis of works of art commissioned by Pope Clement viii, his cardinal nephew Pietro, the principal religious orders, confraternities, cardinals, and nobles; the historical-a profound literary and archival investigation of the papacy, the Aldobrandini family, the lives of the artists, and the history of the city of Rome seen through different social lenses; and the topographical-an analysis of the urban transformations of the abitato and disabitato through maps and documents.This is a beautifully illustrated book divided into five chapters ("Clement viii and Aldobrandini Patronage;" "The Cardinal Nephew, Pietro Aldobrandini;" "Palaces, Villas and Gardens;" "Churches and Chapels;" and "Lives of the Artists") that draws upon exhaustive historical and archival research, ideally synthesized by one of the most distinguished scholars in the field.With her book on the Farnese family ("Il gran cardinale": Alessandro Farnese, Patron of the Arts [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992]), Robertson had mastered the patterns of patronage within the family of Pope Paul iii and, in particular, of the cardinal nephew Alessandro, with emphasis on Rome and the villa in Caprarola.Because of the impact of that book in the last two decades, specialists have awaited Rome 1600 with high expectations, given the great importance of evaluating the patronage of the Aldobrandinis in Rome and Frascati.In many ways one detects the scrupulous, incisive methods of the author, yet Rome 1600 is broader in scope, for it is enriched with different interdisciplinary approaches, and it extends beyond the perimeter of papal patronage into other historical realities within the city of Rome.While Pope Clement viii (with his attention to the main centers and axes of Rome: Saint Peter's, Saint John the Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore, and the Campidoglio) is presented as the official patron of the Counter-Reformationand he followed, in fact, rigorously the rules of Tridentine decorum and the religious principles of Philip Neri-Cardinal Pietro seems to have had more freedom.The restorations of the churches of Santa Maria in Traspontina, San Nicola in Carcere, Santa Maria in Trastevere, Santa Maria Scala Coeli, the Tre Fontane, and the chapel at Santa Maria sopra Minerva evolved with the construction of private palaces around the via del Corso and the villas in Frascati