Patronage and Dynasty: The Rise of the della Rovere in Renaissance Italy (review)

This wide-ranging survey of the artistic patronage of members of the della Rovere family—including popes, cardinals, dukes of Urbino, and two women—covers the period from the pontificate of the pope who may be regarded as the founder of the dynasty, Sixtus IV (although he had no direct descendants), to the reign of the last della Rovere, duke of Urbino in the early-seventeenth century.

Andrew C. Blume stresses Sixtus's identification with the Church and the papacy, and not just his family, in relation to the iconography of the Vatican Sistine Chapel. Most of Jill Elizabeth Blondin's survey of the commissions of Sixtus for the Franciscan basilica and monastery at Assisi is concerned with a little-known, curiously old-fashioned statue of the pope placed on the buttress he had built to prop up the infirmary. Henry Dietrich Fernández examines the palaces of the bishop and the pope at Avignon that Julius II renovated while he was cardinal legate there, as well as the palace he had built in his home town in Savona, for architectural ideas that would be brought to the work on the Vatican Palace during his pontificate.

Other della Rovere cardinals as well as the two popes commissioned works for Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome: Lisa Passaglia Bauman argues they were coopting the magnificence and glory of classical Rome to enhance the claims of their family to an exalted social and political position. Ian Verstegen contributes an essay on the patronage of Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, the second son of Duke Francesco Maria I, arguing that his family name with its associations of nepotism was a liability in his efforts to be considered papabile. As Verstegen points out, however, Giulio owed his cardinalate to his brother Guidobaldo's marriage to the granddaughter (Verstegen calls her the niece) of Paul III, Vittoria Farnese, and his conversion from a worldly to a reform-minded cleric followed the marriage of his niece to Federico Borromeo, nephew of Pius IV.

Caroline Murphy argues that the purchase by Felice della Rovere, Julius II's daughter, of the coastal fortress of Palo strengthened her position within the Orsini family into which she had married and helped win the favor of Leo X, who used Palo as a hunting lodge. By contrast, Isabella della Rovere, daughter of Duke Guidobaldo II, was a major patron of the Jesuits: Maria Ann Conelli considers that the church furniture given by patronesses in the sixteenth century necessitates revision of notions of the austerity of the interior of early Jesuit churches.

In a second contribution, Verstegen writes of Francesco Maria I's interest in designing fortifications and his employment of the architect Girolamo Genga from Rome, while looking to Venice, particularly Titian, in his patronage of painting. Jeffrey Fontana also emphasizes the dukes' artistic links to Venice in his article on Guidobaldo II's interest in Titian; he argues Federico Barocci modeled himself on Titian to try to attract the duke's patronage. In the best essay in the collection, Stuart Lingo examines the unusual pattern of Francesco Maria II's patronage of Barocci, who produced gifts for other rulers that enhanced the image of the duchy.

For a volume focused on a dynasty, there are a disconcerting number of errors in information about members of the family and their relatives. Several contributors tend to confuse speculation with demonstration and to attribute motives and thoughts, without any documentary support, to the patrons they are discussing. Nevertheless, there is much of value and interest in this volume.