Patronage and public image in Renaissance Rome: Three Orsini palaces

This dissertation examines the artistic and architectural means by which the Orsini family positioned itself within the political topography of Renaissance Rome. By providing a focused study of how a baronial family inhabited and shaped their environment during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, the present thesis expands the existing literature on the development of art, architecture and urbanism in Renaissance Rome, which is dominated by studies of papal patronage.;This study begins with an examination of the foundations of Orsini patronage, which were laid by Nicholas III Orsini (1277--80). The Orsini pope's artistic and architectural projects at the Vatican, Lateran, and other sites in Rome combined an emphatically Roman image of authority with a degree of family aggrandizement unprecedented in earlier papal patronage, and established themes revisited in the fifteenth century by Cardinal Giordano Orsini. Chapter Two is primarily concerned with Cardinal Giordano's patronage at Monte Giordano, which included the building of Rome's first identifiably Renaissance palace and Cardinal's apartment, as well as a reconstruction of the location and appearance of Masolino's extensive Uomini Famosi fresco cycle. The next chapter examines the changing fortunes and patronage models of the Orsini during the sixteenth century, followed by an Epilogue presenting newly discovered architectural plans and related documents by the seventeenth-century architect Horatio Torriani.;The history of the Orsini palaces at Monte Giordano, Campo de' Fiore and Piazza Pasquino reflects the ideals and influence of their owners, who employed a wide range of Florentine and Roman artists to project their identity to their peers, to the papal court, and to the wider circle of European court culture. Analysis of the evolving artistic and architectural models embraced by the Orsini family from the late Middle Ages through the sixteenth century also illuminates the development of post-Avignon Rome, and the complex relationships between secular and curial patronage during the Renaissance. The artistic and architectural projects of the Orsini family were intended not only to respond to a variety of public and private uses, but also to reinforce an image of family power that explicitly rivaled those of papal patrons during this period.