(Visual Culture in Early Modernity)
by Karen J. Lloyd (Author)
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.
