The veiled body: Within the folds of early modern Neapolitan convent architecture

Oxford Art Journal

Volumn 27, Issue 3, 2004, Pages 269-290

  Hills, Helen ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 61449317326     PISSN: 01426540     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/oaj/27.3.269     Document Type: Article

References (99)

1. On the building of the Chapel of the Crucifix, Monreale Cathedral, see G. Millunzi, 'La Cappella del Crocifisso nel Duomo di Monreale', Archivio Storico Siciliano, II series, XXXII, 1907, pp. 459-76
2. On S. Maria di Valverde, see L. Boglino, La Monumentale Chiesa di Santa Maria di Valverde in Palermo (Palermo, 1907)
3. On the use of inlaid marbles to evoke drapery, see H. Hills, Marmi mischi, pp. 69-86
4. G. Isgrò, Feste barocche a Palermo (Flaccovio: Palermo, 1986)
5. On the relationships between temporary and permanent arehiteeture in Sieilian marble inlay, see Hills, Marmi Mischi Siciliani pp. 70-83
6. For a stimulating discussion of the baroque fold, see G. Deleuze, The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque (Athlone; London, 1993), especially pp. 3-13
7. Thomas Aquinas, Sum ma Theologiae: Vol. 43: Temperance, trans. T. Gilby OP (New York and London, 1963), pp. 168-9
8. on virginity in general, see J. Bugge, Virginitas: An essay in the history of a medieval ideal (Martinus Nijhoff: The Hague, 1975)
9. On widows in convents, see P. R. Baernstein, 'In Widow's Habit: Women between convents and family in sixteenth-century Milan', Sixteenth Century Journal, XXV/4," 1994, pp. 787-807
10. For a useful discussion of the problems of periodisation in Italian religious history, whether in terms of 'baroque' or 'the seventeenth century', see F. Modioli, 'Monache e monacazioni nel Seicento', in Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa, XXXIII, 1997, pp. 670-93
11. For a fuller discussion of this process, see G. Zarri, ' "De Monialibus" (Secoli XVI-XVII-XVIII)', Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa, Anno XXXIII, 1997 n. 3, pp. 643-69
12. and Hills, Invisible City, pp. 23-45
13. M. Dunn, 'Piety and Patronage in Seicento Rome: Two Noblewomen and their Convents', Art Bulletin, December 1994, LXXVI, pp. 644-63
14. M. Dunn, 'Spiritual Philanthropists: Women as Convent Patrons in Seicento Rome', in C. Lawrence (ed.), Women and Art in Early Modern Europe (The Pennsylvania State University Press: Pennsylvania, 1997), pp. 154-88
15. D. Agrest, P. Conway, and L. Weisman (eds), The Sex of Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press: New York, 1996)
16. D. Coleman et al. (eds), Architecture and Feminism (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1996)
17. M. Roberts, Living in a Man-Made World (Routledge: London, 1991)
18. D. Hayden, The Grand Domestic Revolution (MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 1982)
19. For further bibliography, see M. L. Durning, Gender Perspectives in Architectural History: A Working Bibliography (Oxford Brookes Humanities Research Centre: Oxford, 1995)
20. See also L. Durning and R. Wrigley (eds), Gender and Architecture (John Wiley: London, 2000)
21. Jeffrey Hamburger called attention to this problem in relation to medieval issues, and Gabriella Zarri has sketched its extent in the post-Renaissance period. See J. Hamburger, 'Art, Enclosure and the Cura Monialium: Prolegomena in the Guise of a Postscript', Gesta, vol. 31, no. 2, 1992, p. 126
22. G. Zarri, 'De Monialibus', pp. 643-715
23. E. Novi Chavarria, Monache e Gentildonne: Un labile confine. Poteri politici e identità religiose nei monasteri napoletani secoli XVI-XVII (FrancoAngeli: Milan, 2001)
24. G. Zarri, 'Monasteri femminili e città (secoli XV-XVIII)' in G. Chittolini and G. Miccoli (eds), Storia d'Italia, Annali 9. La Chiesa e il potere politico dal Medioevo all'Età Contemporanea (Einaudi: Turin, 1986), pp. 420-9
25. and see R. Gilchrist, Gender & Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious Women (Routledge: London and New York, 1994), especially p. 17
26. Studies of convent architecture which consider it primarily in religious terms, but give short shrift to other social issues include L. Grassi, 'Iconologia delle chiese monastiehe femminili dall'alto medioevo ai secoli XVI XVII', Arte Iombarda, IX, 1964, pp. 131-50
27. L. Patetta, 'L'Età di Carlo e Federico Borromeo e gli sviluppi delle chiese '"doppie" conventual] nella diocesi di Milano', in G. Spagnesi (ed.), L'Architettura a Roma e in Italia (1580 1621) (Centro di studi per la storia dell'architettura: Rome, 1989), pp. 169-482
28. J. Hamburger, Nuns as Artists: the visual culture of a medieval convent (University of California Press: Berkeley and London, 1997)
29. M.-A. Winkelmes, 'Taking Part: Benedictine Nuns as Patrons of Art and Architecture', in G. Johnson and S. Matthews Grieco (eds), Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1997), pp. 91-110
30. C. Monson, 'La pratica della musica nei monasteri femminili', in eds. O. Mischiati and P. Russo, La capella musicale nell' Italia della Controriforma (Cento: G. Baruffaldi, 1993), 143-60
31. See, for instance, K. Norberg, 'The Counter Reformation and Women: lav and religious' in J. O'Malley (ed.), Catholicism in Early Modern History (Center for Reformation Research: St Louis, 1988), pp. 133-42
32. G. C. Odorisio, Donna e Società nel Seicento (Bulzoni: Rome, 1979)
33. C. W. Bynum, 'The Female Body and Religious Practice in the Late Middle Ages', in M. Feher (ed.), Zone 3: Fragments for a History of the Human Body, Pt. I (Zone: New York, 1989), pp. 160-219
34. C. W. Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in medieval Religion (New York, 1991)
35. On female consecrated virginity see C. Bologna, 'L'"Invenzione" dell'Interiorità (Spazio della parola, spazio del silenzio: monachesimo, cavalleria, poesia cortese)' in S. Boesch Gajano and L. Scaraffia (eds), Luoghi sacri, pp. 243-66
36. J. Bugge, Virginitas
37. J. C. Brown, Immodest Acts: the Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (Oxford University Press: New York, Oxford, 1986)
38. J.-M. Sallmann, Naples et ses saints à l'age baroque (Presses Universitaires: Paris, 1994)
39. R. Creytens, 'La riforma dei monasteri femminili dopo i Decreti Tridentini' in Il Concilio di Trento e la riforrna tridentina (Hereder: Rome, 1965), pp. 45-84
40. On conventual abuses, see Romano Canosa, Il velo e il cappuccio: monacazioni forzate e sessualità nei conventi femminili in Italia tra Quattrocento e Settecento (Sapere: Rome, 1991)
41. G. Boccadamo, 'Una riforrna impossihile? I papi e i primi tentativi di riforrna dei monasteri femminili di Napoli nel '500', Campania Sacra, pp. 98-122
42. M. Miele, 'Sisto V e i Monasteri Napoletani', Campania Sacra, 21, 1990, pp. 123-204
43. C. Russo, Monasteri femminili
44. and G. Zarri, Recinti Sacri: Donne. Clausura e Matrimonio nella 'Prima' Età. Moderna (Bologna, 2000)
45. For patrician networks in relation to female convents, see M. A. Visceglia (ed.), Signori, Patrizi, Cavalieri in Italia centrameridionale nell'età moderna (Laterza: Rome-Bari, 1992)
46. A. Facchiano, Monasteri femminili e nobiltà a Napoli tra medioevo ed età moderna (Altavilla: Salerno, 1992)
47. E. Novi Chavarria, Monache e Gentildonne. A good survey of the bibliography in this area is given by G. Boccadarno, 'Donne e clausula in età modcrna. Strategic familiari ed economia in alcune puhblieazioni recenti', Sapienza: 'Rivista di filosofia e di teologia, 47, 1994, pp. 211-26
48. C. Bruzelius, 'Queen Sancia of Mallorca and the Convent Church of St.a Chiara in Naples', Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, XL, Michigan, 1995, pp. 69-100
49. C. Bruzelius and Constance Berman, 'Monastic Architecture for Women', Gesta, vol. 31, n. 2, 1992, pp. 73-5
50. J. Wood, Women. Art, and Spirituality: The Poor Clares of Early Modern Italy (Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, 1996)
51. K. Gill, 'Open Monasteries for Women in Late Medieval and Earlv Modern Italy: Two Roman examples', in C. Monson (ed.), The Crannied Wall, pp. 15-47
52. M. Dunn, 'Spiritual Philanthropists', pp. 154-88
53. M. Dunn, 'Pietv and Patronage', pp. 644-63
54. and 'Women as Convent Patrons', pp. 154-88
55. J. Mann, 'The Annunciation Chapel in the Quirinal Palace, Rome: Paul V, Guido Reni, and the Virgin Mary', Art Bulletin, vol. 75, n. 1, March 1993, pp. 113-34
56. C. Valone, 'Women on the Quirinal Hill: Patronage in Rome, 1560-1630', Art Bulletin, vol. 76, n. 2, March 1994, pp. 129-46
57. C. Valone, 'Roman matrons as Patrons: various views of the cloister wall', in C. Monson (ed.), The Crannied Wall, pp. 49-72
58. M. A. Winkelmes, 'Taking Part; Benedictine nuns as patrons of art and architecture', in G. Johnson and S Matthews Grieco (eds), Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1997), pp. 91-110
59. G. Zarri, 'Recinti sacri e forma dei monasteri femminili a Bologna tra '500 e '600' in S Boesch Gajano and L. Scaraffia (eds), Luoghi sacri e spazi della santità (Turin, 1990), pp. 381-96
60. and E. Makowski Canon Law and Cloistered Women: Periculoso and Its Commentators, 1298-1545, Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law, vol. 5 (The Catholic University of America Press: Washington, DC, 1997)
61. R. Creytens, 'La Riforma dei monasteri femminili', pp. 52-4
62. and M. Miele, 'Sisto V e i monasteri napoletani', pp. 123-204
63. See especially Creytens, 'La Riforma dei monasteri femminili', pp. 50-68
64. and A. D. Wright, 'Venetian View of Church and State: Catholic Erastianism?', Studi secenteschi, 19, 1978, pp. 96-7
65. On asvlums in general, see S. Cohen, 'Asylums for Women in Counter-Reformation Italv', in S. Marshall (ed.), Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe (Indiana University Press: Bloomington, 1989), pp. 166-88
66. On those in Rome, see C. Elling, Rome: the biography of its architecture from Bernini to Thorvaldsen (Westview Press: Tübingen, 1975), pp. 174-6
67. G. Cantone, Napoli Barocca (Rome-Bari, 1992)
68. On the relationship between the various religious orders and the social standing of nuns, see Russo, Monasteri femminili
69. for Rome, see Elling, Rome, pp. 161-2, 172
70. Novi Chavarria, Monache e Gentildonne, pp. 103-30
71. M. Bevilacqua, S. Caterina da Siena a Magnanapoli: arte e storia di una comunità religiosa romana nell'età della Controriforma (Gangerni: Rome, 1993), pp. 67-74
72. A. Boureau, 'L'Imene e l'ulivo. La verginità femminile nel discorso della chiesa nel XIII secolo', Quaderni Storici, n.s., vol. 25, no. 3, 1990, pp. 791-803
73. G. Sissa, 'La Verginità materiale. Evanescenza di un oggetto', Quaderni Storici, n.s., vol. 25, no. 3, 1990, pp. 739-56
74. See also C. Atkinson, 'Precious Balsam in a Fragile Glass: The Ideology of Vorginitv in the later Middle Ages', Journal of Family History, vol. 8, 1983, pp. 131-43
75. and T. Renna, 'Virginity and Chastity in Early Cistercian Thought', Studio. Monastica, vol. 26, 1984, pp. 43-54
76. I am not, of course, suggesting that seventeenth-century palace façades transparently revealed their interiors. There was often considerable disjunction between the clear hierarchical articulations of a palace façade and the spatial organisation of its interior. See Waddy, Seventeenth-century Roman Palaces, pp. 28, 67-9
77. Convent exteriors have received little attention from architectural historians, but for an eloquent description of the exteriors of Roman religious houses of the late baroque, see C. Elling, Rome, pp. 160, 180-4
78. See, for instance, Simeon Metaphrastes, Vita di S. Gregorio Arcivescovo di Armenia, in Fr. F. Gravina (ed.), Hanc Vitam cum miraculis s. Gregorij collectana ex Metaphraste, exemplari longohardo, & relationibus Christianitatis Armeniae (Naples, 1630)
79. and G. B. De Luca, La Dama e il cavaliere (Rome, 1657), pp. 487-505
80. For the same point in relation to medieval nuns and secular women of the upper classes, see Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, pp. 167-9
81. I explore this relationship further in ' ''Enamelled with the blood of a noble lineage": Tracing noble blood and female holiness in early modern Neapolitan convents and their architecture', Church History, 2004, 73:1, pp. 1-40
82. On the careful separation of female bodies in aristocratic baroque palaces, see Waddy, Seventeenth-Century Roman Palaces, pp. 25-30
83. and F. Peccerillo, I Ragioni per la Fedelissima, ed Eccellentisima Città di Napoli circa l'Impedire la Fabbrica delle Nuove Chiese e l'acquisto, che gl'Ecclesiastici fanno de' hent de' Secolari (Naples, 1719)
84. See H. Hills, 'Cities and Virgins', Oxford Art Journal, vol. 22, no. 1, 1999, pp. 29-54
85. Anon, Vita della Servo di Dio Sor[or] Celestina Raineri palermitana (Palermo, 1734), p. 40
86. Nuns also dressed dolls representing the infanl Jesus. For Sister Rosaria Caterina's wax Infant jesus at the Vincenzo Ferreri convent in Carini, see A. Mongitore, Compendia della Vita e virtù aella servo, di dio suor Rosaria Caterina Alias delta di Gesù (Palermo, 1718), pp. 54-8
87. Secular wedding celebrations in early modern Naples need further research, but for useful comparative material, see P. Allerston, 'Wedding finery in sixteenth-centurv Venice' in T. Dean and K. Lowe (eds), Marriage in Italy, pp. 25-40
88. A. Mongitore, Compendia della Vita e Virtù della serva di Dio suor Rosaria Caterina Alias detta di Gesù (Palermo, 1718), pp. 20-1. During the ceremonies of monacation, nuns were not usually shielded from the view of their families and invited guests
89. Crevtens, 'La Riforma dei monasteri femminili'
90. On nuns' choirs, see Grassi, 'Iconologia delle chiese monastiche'
91. M. G. Mazzola, 'Il coro delle monache nella chiesa della Martorana a Palermo', Storia dell'arte, vol. 75, 1992, pp. 226-41
92. H. Hills, 'Cities and Virgins', pp. 29-54
93. Russo, Monasten femminili, p. 221
94. For plavs performed in Tuscan convents, see E. Weaver, 'The Convent Wall in Tuscan Convent Drama', in C. Monson (ed.), The Crannied Wall, pp. 73-86
95. Maggio, Vita della Venerabile D. Maria Carafa, Naples, 1670, p. 455
96. Maggio, Vita, p. 452
97. Weddlc, 'Enclosing Le Murate', p. 235
98. Quoted by Weddle, 'Enclosing le Murate', p. 252, n. 357
99. Gabriella Zarri, Recinti Sacri: Donne, Clausura e Matrimonio nella Prima'Età Moderna (Mulino: Bologna, 200), especially pp. 7-15