The Stanza dell’Incendio and the Ideological Agenda of Pope Leo X (original) (raw)
Related papers
Art as a mean to propaganda in 17th and 18th century Catholic Rome
The end of the 16th and the dawning of the 17th century found the tottery Europe having to face poverty, epidemic outbursts, lethal diseases, population’s increased mortality and numerous revolutions. Religious and political wars and social unrest gave a blood like color to the motley Europe’s chessboard and while political leaders sought ways for the new political status to obtain some balance. While the early forms of European nations were struggling to establish their independence, the Holy Roman Empire was finding it impossible to establish a new subsistence and the French Monarchy was reaching its apex, the new catastrophic element of the irreversible religious schism between the Catholic and the Protestant Church appeared, leading to a whole diverse prospect of Europe’s religious identity. Luther’s Reformation undeniable challenge towards the Catholic Church, the almost immediate response of the papal power through the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563) with the movement of the Counter-Reformation and the devastating consequences of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) completed the picture strife-torn Europe. Within such ambiguous and divided environment Baroque art was born. Despite all the difficulties, the adamant Catholic Church, following the Council of Trent’s commands and with the succor of Ignatius Loyola’s Jesuits, redefined its relationship with art and its commitment to the fight against Protestantism. Art became sacred and expressed in a high tone the catholic doctrine aiming at spreading the ecclesiastical morale over the world. The papal hierarchy was the key patron to Baroque Art which glorified God and the power of the Catholic Church by appealing to the human senses as a means of spiritual awakening and enlightenment to convince the faithful Catholics for the prestige and grandeur of Catholicism. This project aims to indicate, through an intensive research of the 17th and 18th century artistic movements, the great impact of Baroque’s art on the religious propaganda of the Catholic Church and the Counter Reformation movement and to also examine its extensions to politics. Throughout this project and by perusing certain case studies of artistic creations, such as the Bernini’s marble statue of Santa Teresa, currently located in the church of Santa Maria Della Vittoria in Italy, we will present the significance and the power of Art to accompany, empower and enhance the religious effort of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide organization to lead the “prodigal” crowd into awareness and back within the true Catholic faith. Arcangelo Correlli’s music piece Christmas Concerto Grosso in Sol minor Op. 6, No 8, will establish the attempt of the Catholic Cleric leadership to create strong connections of preference and friendship to the European Royal Courts.
Gesta, 2001
This article examines representations of papal sanctity in the late eleventh-century wall paintings of Sant'Urbano alla Caffarella. An analysis of these frescoes, which include the earliest known example of the life of Urban I (d. 230), reaffirms that the ecclesiastical environment of the Gregorian Reform influenced the development of new hagiographic imagery. Cults of Early Christian papal martyrs, such as Urban I, were promoted to support the authority of contemporary popes like Urban II (1088-1099). The frescoes in Sant'Urbano, however, were not the product of papal or ecclesiastical patronage; instead, the images were sponsored by two lay donors, who are pictured in the Crucifixion scene. This pictorial program offers an important index of the extent to which reform ideology permeated various levels of society: artistic commissions came not only from high-level ecclesiastics but also from lay members of the community. The wall paintings in Sant'Urbano demonstrate that any concept of an artistic "platform" at the time of the Gregorian Reform must be broadened to include lay commissions. These frescoes, in which private and public themes converge, illustrate that even seemingly peripheral imagery was informed by the ideals espoused by the ecclesiastical reformers. Italian pictorial programs created during the period of the Gregorian Reform frequently reproduced imagery of the Early Christian Church.' When papal supporters of the late eleventh and twelfth centuries commissioned frescoes or mosaics, they reaffirmed the authority of the Roman Catholic Church by consciously reviving earlier iconography or by copying wellknown imagery, such as that decorating the nave walls of Old St. Peter's with the earliest surviving representation of the life of Urban I (d. 230), a pope who was often invoked as a model during the pontificate of Urban II (1088-1099). As such, the frescoes would seem to support an official reform agenda. Donor portraits incorporated into the cycle, however, make clear that the wall paintings were not commissioned by a pope or even by a cleric, but by lay patrons. The frescoes thus encourage us to reevaluate the role and character of lay patronage during the period of the Gregorian Reform.
AN APPRAISAL OF POPE LEO XIII'S AETERNI PATRIS
The threat of modernism heightened in the mid-twentieth century. The Church was not left out as humanism and rationalism challenged the teaching authority of the Church. Pope Leo's encyclical sought the restoration of Thomism as panacea. However, it was criticized for its infantile nostalgia for the past. This work concludes that a recourse to the past is always indispensable for a fruitful philosophical and theological reflection. It holds that the Church's task of being mother and teacher, fostering an encounter with human cultures, through new evangelisation, needs to place high value on the harmony between faith and reason which St. Thomas stood for.
Leonardo’s is known for his masterly paintings and his numerous inventions. Little or no attention has been drawn to his political allegories from the late 1490s and early 1500s. In this presentation, I highlight three different kinds of works by Leonardo. The first shows an eagle standing on a globe on the coast of Italy wearing a crown as the symbol of Rome. The second shows a kneeling Roman Centurion holding a scale for a Madonna and a Child. The third example is made for the French Secretary to the King Robertet and depicts a Madonna with a cross-stab instead of a yarn winder. In this presentation I offer the evidence that in all three works, Leonardo carefully applies a clear political message.
The objective of this book is to draw attention to fifth-century Rome – to those hundred years which even today need to be looked at from different perspectives. It is a key moment, a border between worlds, far too important not to receive further attention. The studies, presented here together, aim to respond to new demands: the art object remains at the centre, but with a new search for its context. This context would be unthinkable without the key concept of co-existence – between popular and elite culture, popes and emperors, pagans and Christians. As well as between liturgy – intrinsically necessary to the Christian world – and patronage – the intellectual project which stems from a cultural concept. Moreover, co-existence is crucial between the mindset of the Roman elites (the tradition inscribed in the city’s DNA), and new internal and external demands arising from this rich moment in the history of Rome. The fifth-century, studied in this book, is the moment in which future and past meet, and Antique and Christian coincide. An artistic moment with only one identifying feature: its incredibly rich complexity.