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IMC 2003: Sessions

Session 811: 'Ruling Elites': Artistic Patronage as Public Statement of Political Power and Social Status: Rome and Northern Italy in the 12th-14th Centuries

Tuesday 15 July 2003, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:Claudia Bolgia, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:Dale Kinney, Department of the History of Art, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania
Paper 811-aCardinal Guido's Self-Celebration and the Restoration of the Basilica of Ss. Cosmas and Damian in 12th-Century Rome
(Language: English)
Pier Luigi Tucci, Independent Scholar, Roma
Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Art History - General, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 811-bFamily Competitions and Power Ostentation in 13th- and 14th-Century Rome: The Earliest Chapels at Santa Maria in Aracoeli
(Language: English)
Claudia Bolgia, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Art History - General, Heraldry, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 811-cGuglielmo Villa and the Abbey of San Pietro, Viboldone
(Language: English)
Honor Brooke Miller, Department of the History of Art, University of Warwick
Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Art History - Painting, Monasticism
Abstract

On the basis of significant archaeological and archival findings - presented here for the first time - the session investigates different examples of artistic patronage from the 12th to the 14th century in Rome and Florence: the rearrangement of an early-Christian Roman basilica and the construction of his own sepulchral monument by Cardinal Guido, the pope's favoured counsellor; the building of discrete sepulchral chapels by Roman important aristocrats (Conti, Colonna, Capocci,…); the construction of seven rood-screen chapels by the richest Florentine families. The session aims at showing how these commissions expressed the donors' political power (and ambitions), and reflected their relationship with the major 'authorities' of the time (cardinal/pope, Roman aristocracy/Franciscans/Senate, 'new' Florentine families/Dominicans/commune).