Invisible City: The Architecture Of Devotion In Seventeenth-century Neapolitan Convents
by Helen Hills /
2004 / English / PDF
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More than any other European city, Baroque Naples was dominated by
convents. Behind their imposing facades and highly decorated
churches, the convents of Naples housed the daughters of the city's
most exclusive families, women who, despite their cloistered
existence, were formidable players in the city's power structure.
More than any other European city, Baroque Naples was dominated by
convents. Behind their imposing facades and highly decorated
churches, the convents of Naples housed the daughters of the city's
most exclusive families, women who, despite their cloistered
existence, were formidable players in the city's power structure.Invisible City
Invisible City vividly portrays the religious world of
seventeenth-century Naples, a city of familial and internecine
rivalries, of religious devotion and intense urban politics, of
towering structures built to house the virgin daughters of the
aristocracy. Helen Hills demonstrates how the architecture of the
convents and the nuns' bodies they housed existed both in parallel
and in opposition to one another. She discusses these women as
subjects of enclosure, as religious women, and as art patrons, but
also as powerful agents whose influence extended beyond the convent
walls. Though often ensconced in convents owing to their families'
economic circumstances, many of these young women were able to
extend their influence as a result of the role convents played both
in urban life and in art patronage. The convents were rich and
powerful organizations, riven with feuds and prey to the ambitions
of viceregal and elite groups, which their thick walls could not
exclude. Even today, Neapolitan convents figure prominently in the
city's fabric. In analyzing the architecture of these august
institutions, Helen Hills skillfully reads conventual architecture
as a metaphor for the body of the aristocratic virgin nun, mapping
out the dialectic between flesh and stone.
vividly portrays the religious world of
seventeenth-century Naples, a city of familial and internecine
rivalries, of religious devotion and intense urban politics, of
towering structures built to house the virgin daughters of the
aristocracy. Helen Hills demonstrates how the architecture of the
convents and the nuns' bodies they housed existed both in parallel
and in opposition to one another. She discusses these women as
subjects of enclosure, as religious women, and as art patrons, but
also as powerful agents whose influence extended beyond the convent
walls. Though often ensconced in convents owing to their families'
economic circumstances, many of these young women were able to
extend their influence as a result of the role convents played both
in urban life and in art patronage. The convents were rich and
powerful organizations, riven with feuds and prey to the ambitions
of viceregal and elite groups, which their thick walls could not
exclude. Even today, Neapolitan convents figure prominently in the
city's fabric. In analyzing the architecture of these august
institutions, Helen Hills skillfully reads conventual architecture
as a metaphor for the body of the aristocratic virgin nun, mapping
out the dialectic between flesh and stone.