This thesis explores the construction of cittadini identity in early modern Venice, by looking at social relationships and artistic patronage in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The cittadini were the middle stratum of Venice’s social hierarchy, located below the patriciate or nobility and clearly distinct from the popolani, the lower stratum of the population. The cittadini profoundly shaped society and culture in early modern Venice even though they were prohibited from ruling the Republic: only members of the patriciate could belong to governing bodies of the state. All the same, cittadini were the only members of the population allowed to run the six scuole grandi, which were the major lay confraternities in the city. They also took active roles in religious institutions and they influenced the cultural networks of the time.
The project focuses on the analysis of Venetian confraternities, parish churches and humanistic circles, and argues that these were the optimal spaces for the construction of cittadini identity. By using an interdisciplinary methodological approach, the project breaks new ground by contextualizing the part played by social relationships and the arts in affirming and displaying the prestige of the cittadini in early modern Venice. This work combines extensive archival research with analyses of architecture, gardens, paintings, portraits, sculpture, engravings, inscriptions, tomb slabs, carvings, illuminations and ephemeral arts. The chronological scope of the thesis investigates changes in cittadini identity between the mid-sixteenth century, when the group obtained legal recognition, and the second half of the seventeenth century, when the patriciate opened up, for the first time in centuries, to some high profile cittadini families. My analysis of the middle stratum of Venetian society reveals new dimensions of their attempts to elevate their position. This work sheds light on our grasp of social hierarchy and the possibilities for social mobility in pre-modern Europe.
