Main entry:

Scott, John Beldon, 1946-

Title & Author:

Images of nepotism : the painted ceilings of Palazzo Barberini / John Beldon Scott.

Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©1991.

Description:

xiii, 243 pages, [108] pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 29 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-234) and index.
The patron and the painted ceiling: The art and ideology of the painted ceiling; The painted ceiling of Palazzo Sforza (1580-1612) -- The theater of nepotism, prince Taddeo's wing: Arrangement of apartments and chronology of fresco work (1629-1632) ; domus Sapientiae: Sacchi's divine wisdom in the house of the Barberini; Divine science, the Barberini and astrology ; The author of the program ; Camassei's creation of the angels, ministers of God's providence ; Thematic unity of the piano nobile ceiling paintings ; The apartments of Anna and Taddeo -- The Salone Fresco, Cortona's divine providence: Genesis and execution. It took me longer than I thought ; Program and narrative action of the scenes, Rosichino the sweeper ; The iconographic tradition of papal nepotism: mirror of popes and quest for immortality ; A swarm came from Tuscany. Providence in historical context ; The audience of the Salone Fresco and the issue of intelligibility -- Epilogue -- Appendixes: Measurement and monetary values in Seventeenth Century Rome ; The program of Sacchi's wisdom ; Ode hortatoria ad virtutem by Maffeo Barberini ; Documentation of Muratori payments for the Salone Fresco ; amount and mode of payments to Cortona ; The dichiaratione of Mattia Rosichino (1640) ; domenichino's letter to Franscesco Angeloni (1640).
Current Copyright Fee: GBP51.60 0.

Summary:

"This book explores the impact of papal nepotism on the visual arts of seventeenth-century Rome through an examination of the painted vaults of Palazzo Barberini, the family palace of the foremost patron of the High Baroque, Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644). The study focuses on the intersection of art and power in the ceiling paintings commissioned by Urban's nephews in the 1620s and 1630s to adorn their new palace. Viewed against the backdrop of the changing social codes and power relationships that characterized the ferment of Rome in this period, Palazzo Barberini stands as a remarkable document asserting the divine sanction of that family's emergence. The author presents a new analytical approach for appraising the form and content of ceiling imagery, allowing for a thorough assessment of the painted scenes that functioned as vehicles of the social and political agenda of the Barberini. The vast fresco painted by Pietro da Cortona in the palace salone--the largest ceiling painting in Rome since Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling--and Andrea Sacchi's Divine Wisdom fresco receive major consideration for their novel pictorial illusionism and their poetic symbolism. These principal components of the Barberini Palace cycle embody the definitive statement of Baroque allegory as a mode of optical and intellectual persuasion. Propagandistic purpose here finds exalted theo-political expression. In sum, this study undertakes to define the linkage between art patronage and social aspirations in the last great age of papal nepotism and to establish within this societal context a new means for grasping the technical and iconographic novelties of Roman Baroque ceiling painting"--Publisher description.

Resources:
Publisher description

ISBN:

0691040753 (alk. paper)
9780691040752 (alk. paper)

Subject:

Urban VIII, Pope, 1568-1644 Art patronage.
Urbain VIII, pape, 1568-1644 Mécénat.
Urban VIII, Pope, 1568-1644
Urbain, (1568-1644; 8 ; pape)
Palazzo Barberini (Rome, Italy)
Palazzo Barberini (Rome, Italie)
Mural painting and decoration, Baroque Italy Rome.
Mural painting and decoration, Italian Italy Rome.
Allegories.
Authority in art.
Ceilings Italy Rome.
Peinture et décoration murales baroques Italie Rome.
Peinture et décoration murales italiennes Italie Rome.
Allégories.
Plafonds Italie Rome.
Autorité dans l'art.
allegory (artistic device)
allegories (literary genre)
Art patronage
Ceilings
Mural painting and decoration, Baroque
Mural painting and decoration, Italian
Paleizen.
Plafondschilderingen.
Opdrachtgevers.
Peinture et décoration murales de la Renaissance Italie Rome (Italie)
Peinture baroque Italie Rome (Italie) Renaissance.
Népotisme Dans l'art.
Peinture et décoration murales Italie Rome.
Italy Rome
Rome (Italie) Palazzo Barberini.
Murals
Rome (Italy)

Form/genre:

Allegories
Allégories.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 65012
Call No.: ID PLS; ID:91-B2167
Status: Available