Santa Maria dell’Anima. Social Plurality and Art Patronage in the Age of the Reformation
At the time that Martin Luther posted his theses on the cathedral portal in Wittenberg in 1517, the German national church of Santa Maria dell‘Anima in Rome was undergoing complete renovation. The hospice associated with the church, run by a confraternity, was a contact point for people from the lands of the Holy Roman Empire from the Middle Ages on.
According to the building contract of 1499, the new church was to be built in explicit competition with the churches of other foreign communities (nationes) in the German style: “alemannico more compositum”. What exactly was meant by this, especially at a time when, due to religious conflicts, denominational aspects increasingly played a role in the definition of ‘national’ identity, has been explored and clarified within the scope of this research project. In particular, the extent to which the topographical and political fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire affected the membership structure of the Anima community, and to what extent the plurality of regional identities and traditions was reflected in the artistic furnishings of the church were issues for investigation. One of the central questions of the project was to what extent the altarpieces, fresco cycles, and sepulchral monuments of Santa Maria dell’Anima can be read as decidedly confessional statements against the backdrop of the Reformation. The results of this project have been published in 2024 as volume 3 of the series Roma communis patria.
