Abstract

This dissertation, “Un’orrida bellezza: Religious Polychrome Sculpture in the Kingdom of Naples,” situates polychrome sculpture in the evolving religious and cultural landscape of Southern Italy during the Regno di Napoli (1503-1714). In this period, a series of upheavals inextricably altered the fabric of the Kingdom of Naples, including the establishment of the Spanish viceroyalty in 1503, the Counter Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century, and a series of crippling plagues. This period of change, trauma, and subjugation provoked reactions from all levels of culture, making Southern Italy a fertile laboratory of innovation and exchange. These shifts took physical form in polychrome sculpture, which filtered the desires and anxieties of the faithful through a prism of the divine-made-human, from elaborate multi-figural Nativities scenes to grotesque processional sculptures. By investigating the connections between sculptural production and cultural forces, I argue that these developments were interrelated phenomena that must be understood in light of the cultural and religious realities of their time and Southern Italy’s place in the early modern world. I thus negotiate between the sculptures themselves, the agency of their makers, and the historical circumstances that governed their production.

Committee Chair

William Wallace

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Author's Department

Art History & Archaeology

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

1-13-2022

Language

English (en)

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