Re-constructing the Counter Reformation: Women architectural patrons in Rome and the case of Camilla Peretti (Italy)

This dissertation examines the art, architectural, and urban patronage of Camilla Peretti (1519--1605), sister of Pope Sixtus V (r. 1585--1590). By investigating Peretti's patronage at the Villa Montalto, her family's homestead on the Esquiline Hill, and at the church of S. Susanna on the Quirinal Hill, this case study seeks to contribute to the growing body of scholarship on women patrons in early modern Rome. Whereas the majority of that literature addresses women's patronage of art, this project focuses on Camilla Peretti's architectural patronage and her contributions to the urban development of the city. It also explores how Peretti participated in the contemporary Catholic reform movement through her patronage projects in Rome.; Chapter One provides an overview of the dissertation. Chapter Two traces Camilla Peretti's biography and the urban history of Rome during the Renaissance. Chapter Three turns to Peretti's patronage at the Villa Montalto, recovering her agency in the evolution of the Villa from 1576 to 1588. This chapter addresses art historians' traditional tendency to associate early modern noble-family villas with the male members of Rome's noble families, arguing that the example of Camilla Peretti demonstrates that women also played significant roles in the development of the residences commonly understood as markers of those families' identities. Chapter Four turns to Peretti's involvement with the Confraternity of S. Bernardo, a group of reformed nuns called the Fogliante, and the church of S. Susanna. This chapter reveals that Camilla Peretti collaborated with her brother to bring the Confraternity of S. Bernardo and Folgiante to S. Susanna as part of their shared effort to foster transformation of the area around S. Susanna into a new neighborhood called the "Borgo Felice di S. Bernardo." Chapter Five examines the iconography of Peretti's chapel inside S. Susanna, which she dedicated to St. Lawrence and had decorated by Cesare Nebbia (1536--1614) and Giovanni Battista Pozzo (1563--1591). Chapter Six provides an overview of the patronage projects Peretti pursued outside of Rome in the last two decades of her life, including the church of S. Lucia, which she built in her hometown of Grottammare in the Marche.