Devotion, Paintings, and the House

The Collections of Ercole and Giuseppe Branciforti, Princes of Scordia (Palermo, 1687-1720)

Bibliographic Data

ID3556730
AuthorsValeria Viola (0000-0002-3862-8851, University of York, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume11
Issue1
Pages39
Publication date2020-01-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel11010039
OpenAlexW2999690350
LanguageEN
References cited8

This paper interrogates familial devotion and its relationship with parts of the house other than the chapel. In detail, it aims to problematize the issue of the devotional/non-devotional use of paintings inside the house by moving the focus from this dual opposition to the active role of canvases, broadly defined. Informed by Jacques Derrida's and Pierre Bourdieu's writings, this paper argues for the structural nature of the paintings inside the house and their meaningful correlation with both the arrangement of the domestic interior and the practices of people experiencing those spaces. To do this, the paper challenges the overwhelming attention paid by early-modern scholars to Northern and central Italy and investigates a precise case study, i.e., Palazzo Scordia in Palermo (Sicily). The research draws upon primary sources and amongst these, upon two detailed inventories of furniture referring to two subsequent generations of an aristocratic clan residing in Palermo between the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, i.e., Ercole and Giuseppe Branciforti, princes of Scordia

Art · Art history · Chapel · Clan · Painting · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Historical Art and Architecture Studies · Historical Art and Culture Studies · History · Law · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

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