Drawing on rich archival research and focusing on works by leading artists including Guido Reni and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Karen J. Lloyd demonstrates that cardinal nephews in seventeenth-century Rome – those nephews who were raised to the cardinalate as princes of the Church – used the arts to cultivate more than splendid social status.
Through politically savvy frescos and emotionally evocative displays of paintings, sculptures, and curiosities, cardinal nephews aimed to define nepotism as good Catholic rule. Their commissions took advantage of their unique position close to the pope, embedding the defense of their role into the physical fabric of authority, from the storied vaults of the Vatican Palace to the sensuous garden villas that fused business and pleasure in the Eternal City. This book uncovers how cardinal nephews crafted a seductively potent dialogue on the nature of power, fuelling the development of innovative visual forms that championed themselves as the indispensable heart of papal politics.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, early modern studies, religious history, and political history.
Author(s): Karen J. Lloyd
Series: Visual Culture in Early Modernity
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 278
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction. Nephews, Cardinals, Patrons
Introduction
The Cardinal Nephew
Beyond Magnificence
Capacities and Credibility
Nepotism as Orthodoxy
Conclusion
PART I: The Cardinal Nephew
1 Obedience. Scipione Borghese and the Cardinal Nephew as Servant
Introduction
Paul V’s Wing
The Sala delle Dame
Reni’s Style
Scipione Caffarelli Borghese
The Sala di Sansone
The Obedient Samson
Typology
Samson and Aurora
Conclusion
2 Prudence. Paluzzo Altieri and the Cardinal Nephew as Padrone
Introduction
The Altieri, Adoption, and Romanitas
The Triumph of Clemency
Reason of State and the Visual Apologetics of Nepotism
Clemency, Justice, and Public Happiness
Paluzzo’s Prudence
Prudence and Fortitude
Conclusion
PART II: The Ex-Cardinal Nephew
3 Pietas. Francesco Barberini and the Ex-Cardinal Nephew as Model
Introduction
Another and the Same
Cardinal Virtues
Displaying Pietas
Reason and God
Conclusion
4 Fidelity. Paluzzo Altieri and the Ex- Cardinal Nephew as Intimo
Introduction
Portraits, Life, and Display
Bernini’s Clement X
Vases and Rooms
The Stanza dei Quadri
Cardinal Paluzzo as Collector
Busts on Display
Theories of Mind
Vases and Urns
Conclusion
5 Order. Flavio Chigi and the Ex-Cardinal Nephew as Collector
Introduction
Chigi Nepotism
Flavio Chigi and the Quattro Fontane Complex
Nicolò Simonelli, Agent and Object
Mummies, Monsters, and Heretics
Exotica
Moustaches and Human Mannequins
Ambiguity and Order
A New Apollo
Conclusion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
