The Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina

Art, Iconography and Patronage in Fourteenth Century Naples

Janis Elliott author Cordelia Warr editor Janis Elliott editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:23rd Dec '04

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina cover

The church of Santa Maria Donna Regina in Naples is a rare example of aristocratic convent architecture in Italy, designed and built for the devotional use of the Clarissan nuns. Its decorative programme rivals that of Giotto's Arena Chapel in Padua in scope, iconographical complexity, and quality of artistic production. The first book in English on this important church, this elegantly written volume is also the first full-scale study to bring together innovative interdisciplinary research on the building. The authors explore themes relating to the architecture, decoration, sculpture, iconography, audience, liturgy, and patronage of Santa Maria Donna Regina, enriching our understanding of the art patronage of royal women and the monastic experience of Clarissan nuns, as well as the politics, culture and patronage of trecento Naples. Over one hundred illustrations, many commissioned specially for the book, accompany the text.

'The essays are uniformely well written and researched and are greatly helped by the numerous illustrations.' Contemporary Review '... makes a ground-breaking and important contribution not only to our understanding of the art and architecture of the church of Santa Maria Donna Regina but indeed the larger artistic and cultural context of early modern Naples.' Aislinn Loconte, Renaissance Journal 'Here is a real jewel: an exemplary collaboration that has produced a prolific study of a forgotten Trecento masterpiece. This book on the surprisingly well-preserved Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina contains studies in social and religious history and in royal patronage in Naples during the late Middle Ages. The broad cultural exposition serves as the setting for a marvelous anthology of masterly studies of the artistic expressions of this patronage. The book is of extreme importance for any lover of art history.' Renaissance Quarterly ’... this collection of essays [is] extremely unified, and an enormously useful, genuinely collaborative, research enterprise...The numerous black-and-white and colour images of the church and its decoration, often of far better quality than anything previously available, add to the usefulness of this book as a scholarly resource.’ Art History

ISBN: 9780754634775

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 793g

272 pages