Papal Patronage and Cultural Bureaucracy in Eighteenth-Century Rome: Clement XI and the Accademia di San Luca

Abstract

1TWO EVENTS OCCURRED IN THE YEAR 1700 which forever altered the status quo in Western Europe: the death of the childless King Charles II of Spain and the election of Cardinal Gianfrancesco Albani of Urbino as Pope Clement XI. The former precipitated a twelveyear conflict, the War of the Spanish Succession, and the latter gave control of the Church to the uncompromising zelanti faction. This clique of conservative prelates was willing to sacrifice expediency and political advantage in order to uphold traditional ecclesiastical immunities and privileges that were of a retrospective rather than a progressive nature. Ironically, the war and the zelanti triumph contributed to the vitiation of the Church's secular influence, initiating a process that culminated in the humiliation of Pius VII by Napoleon. Throughout the eighteenth century, a succession of worthy pontiffs exploited, to a greater or lesser extent, the Church's remaining resources after its loss of decisive political influence. Following this trend, papal art patronage shifted away from grand new projects towards the restoration and refurbishment of existing classical and Christian monuments.1 In so doing, the Settecento Papacy, beginning with