Nuns as Art Patrons: The Decoration of S. Marta al Collegio Romano

Abstract

Female convents patronized some of the most notable ecclesiastical decorations in Baroque Rome, succeeding in attracting leading artists to embellish their churches. Decorative enterprises were financed both by the patrimony of the convents and by the often significant contributions of individual nuns who enjoyed private incomes. The mechanisms and vicissitudes of their patronage are particularly well illustrated by the late seventeenth-century renovation and decoration of S. Marta al Collegio Romano, the frescoes of which inspired Padre Oliva to include Giovanni Battista Gaulli among the candidates for the frescoes of the Gesù. Documents discovered in the Vatican Archives reveal the considerable role of individual nuns at S. Marta as patrons and clarify matters of attribution and chronology.

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Marilyn R. Dunn

Marilyn R. Dunn received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1985. Her article on Padre Resta and the Oratorians' patronage at S. Maria in Vallicella appeared in the December issue of the Art Bulletin for 1982. She is presently engaged in further research on the role of convents as art patrons in Baroque Rome. [Fine Arts Department, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60626]