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Divine and Demonic Imagery at Tor de'Specchi, 1400-1500

Religious Women and Art in 15th-century Rome

Suzanne M. Scanlan

9789462983991
244 pages
Amsterdam University Press
Overview
In the fifteenth century, the Oblates of Santa Francesca Romana, a fledgling community of religious women in Rome, commissioned an impressive array of artwork for their newly acquired living quarters, the Tor de'Specchi. The imagery focused overwhelmingly on the sensual, corporeal nature of contemporary spirituality, populating the walls of the monastery with a highly naturalistic assortment of earthly, divine, and demonic figures. This book draws on art history, anthropology, and gender studies to explore the disciplinary and didactic role of the images, as well as their relationship to important papal projects at the Vatican.
Author Bio
Suzanne Scanlan is a Lecturer in the History of Art and Visual Culture at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI.