"Family Patronage in Early Modern Genoa, Rome, and Venice (1500–1750)"
Study Day
Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana—Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte
8 September, 2014

Among the increasingly monarchic arena of Early Modern Europe, the
powerful Italian cities of Genoa, Rome, and Venice are exceptional.
Genoa and Venice, the largest remaining republics in Italy,
predominated the financial, mercantile, and military spheres of the
Mediterranean. Rome’s religious authority and historical cachet, along
with its sizable territory, were the foundations of its leading
position. All three of these cities stand out for their oligarchic
power structures; while Genoa and Venice were led by governments
elected from a restricted book of families, Rome fostered an
aristocracy both parallel to and participating in the electoral
principle of the Papal court. Therefore, in the absence of hereditary
lords, power and prestige was shared among the ruling families. As a
result, in all of these cities, the families could remain powerful even
as the government changed.

Central challenges for these cities’ aristocratic families were how to
figure their relationships to local power structures and balancing
their own interests against those of the communal state. The particular
social-political contexts nurtured different forms and strategies of
representation than those deployed in monarchic and ducal societies.
The oligarchic aristocracy had to submit to an abstract concept shaped
by values and virtues such as equality and liberty rather than to a
dynastic authority. Each of these societies experienced turning points
when their political structures shifted and opened to new families—be
they from outside the city or from non-noble stock—and their ruling
classes sought new methods of representation and patronage to assert
their role in the changed social scene. The reforms of 1576 to Genoa’s
oligarchic government, the rising status of papal families in
seventeenth-century Rome, and the opening of the Libro d’Oro in the
context of Venice’s wars against the Ottoman Turks in the late
seventeenth century were all moments from which such changes arose.

Against this background, this study day seeks to compare the demands
and strategies of art and architectural patronage among these
non-dynastic aristocratic groups. Although Genoa and Venice have often
been mentioned in chorus, they have never been directly and critically
compared. Because of their diverse political alliances and statuses,
the differences in their governmental structures, as well as their
differing territorial dispositions, two distinct types of an early
modern republic developed. Furthermore, the exemplary role of Rome for
the non-monarchic sphere—its permeable system of social ascension—still
asks for a more differentiated view. While scholarship often focuses on
the Papacy of Rome and likens it to a monarchy, we seek to understand
the strategies of the ruling class while not in power.

We invite abstracts from scholars in all stages of their careers
addressing key aspects and questions such as the following:

- How did individual families present themselves vis-a-vis rival
families or  the state?
- How and when did these representations take place?
- What were the spaces used for representation and how were they marked?
- How did these strategies change or shift through time or across
political changes?
- Can we identify instances of collective patronage or patterns of
patronage?
- Are there collective representations or patterns of representation?
- Did strategies differ between sacred and secular contexts? If so, how?
- How do we conceive of the dialectic  of public – private in these
societies?

Proposals for 25-minute papers should include the title of the paper, a
250–300-word abstract, the author's institutional affiliation, a
one-page CV, and full contact information. Papers may be submitted in
English, French, German, and Italian.

Proposals should be sent to both:
Benjamin Eldredge (Bibliotheca Hertziana) [log in to unmask]
and Bettina Morlang-Schardon (Bibliotheca Hertziana)
[log in to unmask]

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