Rome Fellowships: Between empire and exile: Cypriot nobles between the Regno di Cipro and Venice

Abstract

southern Italy (c. 1350–1450)’ would have entailed travelling throughout the peninsula, to try to reconstruct the patronage of a family that was once powerful enough credibly to challenge the Neapolitan throne in the mid-1400s. It would have meant visiting a number of sites in Puglia, especially Lecce, where the del Balzo Orsini court was based, and Taranto, the capital of the Principality (the del Balzo Orsini being princes of Taranto in 1399–1406 and 1420–63). I wanted to understand whether there was continuity across the family’s commissions, which spanned Provence, Rome, Naples and its hinterland, and the Salento. In other words, I wanted to contextualise Santa Caterina — by far the most important and best preserved of the del Balzo Orsini commissions — within the family’s patronage. At the same time, my research is anchored in the belief that the meaning of a work of art derives from its reception and not just its patronage. Thus, how did the different communities that lived in southern Italy and Provence understand the art of their signorial lords? How were questions of identity articulated by viewers and patrons alike? How did these identities change as the des Baux became del Balzo and married into the Orsini clan? The pandemic restrictions made this impossible, as travel became difficult, and archives, museums and sites closed. I took some time to reorient myself, and understand how to benefit the most from the time I had at the BSR. The paper I gave at the BSR, on how Greek Salentine communities may have understood the cycle of the Book of Revelation in Santa Caterina, helped me immensely in terms of shaping the contours of my book. Thus, the monograph will now concentrate exclusively on the Greek minority and its reception of the frescoes of Franciscan Santa Caterina. Two chapters will expand on my paper, looking at how ideas of individual and communal Salvation may have been articulated in the interpretation of the frescoes. Then, I turn to the question of Greek Salentine identity, which both post-Tridentine officials and modern scholars have read as ‘Orthodox’. The Graeci, however, expressly stated that they were descendants of Athenians. By reconstructing a minority’s interpretations of art, I hope to challenge art history’s traditional preference for artists and patrons, which necessarily favours those in power. As in 2016, the support of the BSR and the possibility to use the excellent library have been indispensable. I want to thank everyone for making my time at the BSR so productive and rewarding, especially during the extended lockdown.