Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome - Form, Function, Meaning - Grand Format

The nine chapels that form the subjects of this volume—dating to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and occupying spaces in early Christian, medieval, Renaissance, and baroque churches—are among the most splendid liturgical spaces created in early modern Rome. They also represent a cross section of chapel types, in terms of their form, size, location, function, decorative program, and patronage.

Employing historical, philological, iconographic, and other methodological approaches, the contributors to this volume illuminate the myriad ways these chapels reflect and embody many of the most important devotional, social, and political concerns of the period and served as vehicles for the display of their patrons' social status, identity, and faith. Altogether, these essays provide readers with a deeper understanding of the richness and complexity of sixteenth.

and seventeenth-century Roman chapels—as the sites for preserving and reviving early Christian and medieval forms of decoration ; as "laboratories" fora virtually infinite range of architectural, sculptural, and pictorial invention ; as the settings for liturgical celebration and quiet devotion ; as burial places and reliquary shrines ; and as eloquent expressions of individual, familial, and ecclesiastical power and spirituality.