The Sistine Chapel at Sta. Maria Maggiore: Sixtus V and the Art of the Counter-Reformation

The Sistine chapel at S. Maria Maggiore, erected between 1585 and 1590 by Pope Sixtus V, was one of the most elaborate artistic enterprises of late sixteenth-century Rome. Despite the variety and richness of its decoration, and its importance in the development of the unified chapel, no synthetic study of the Sistina exists. Thus, in this dissertation I consider the iconography and style of the chapel, studying it from the point of view of its patron, in relation to the basilica to which it is appended, and in the context of the Counter Reformation. Chapter One sets the physical and historical stage for a consideration of the chapel. I sketch the history and traditions of S. Maria Maggiore from the fourth to the sixteenth centuries, isolation patterns of decoration and patronage, iconographic traditions, and religious practices which influenced the formal and thematic character of the Sistina. I analyze the historical context of the chapel, explicating how the most pressing theological and intellectual issues of the Counter Reformation were given expressive form in the chapel. Chapter Two offers a critical biography of Sixtus V and an analysis of his early artistic patronage in light of the Pope's Franciscan background, devotion to Saints Lucy and Jerome, and friendships with the leading reform figures of the Church. His first act as art patron, the erection of a tomb for Nicholas IV in S. Maria Maggiore, and the decoration of his villa adjacent to the basilica are seen as exemplifying Sixtus's personal iconography and artistic taste; more significantly, these projects demonstrate his early interest in the basilica, preceding the creation of his burial chapel. In the final chapter, devoted to the Sistine chapel itself, I examine the component parts of the chapel, showing how their specific form and content, while part of a broader art-historical development, could only have been created at S. Maria Maggiore in this particular moment in the Counter Reformation. The chapel is seen simultaneously as an integral part of the basilica, as a personal expression of Sixtus's devotion, and as a paradigmatic Counter-Reformatory monument.