Notions of Nationhood and Artistic Identity in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Rome

The concept of artistic schools first found its way into Italian art theory during the sixteenth century and was used with increasing frequency by the seventeenth century. But beyond art theoretical discourse, notions of school, manner, and style linked to specific geographic territories were part of much broader cultural historical developments regarding collective identities and their artistic forms of expression. On the basis of the foreign communities residing in sixteenth-century Rome and considering the specific case of the church of Santa Maria dell’Anima, this paper examines the extent to which art was used as an expression of ‘national’ identity and the role played by strategies of demarcation and rivalry in identity-building.