U of A Professor's Book Explores Life and Work of 17th Century Italian Architect and Artist

"Plautilla Bricci. Pictura et Architectura Celebris. L'architettrice del Barocco Romano" explores the life and works of 17th century Italian artist and architect Plautilla Bricci.

Consuelo Lollobrigida, faculty member at the University of Arkansas Rome Center and adjunct professor for the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has published a book about 17th century Italian artist and architect Plautilla Bricci.

Plautilla Bricci. Pictura et Architectura Celebris. L'architettrice del Barocco Romano was published as an Italian textbook by Gangemi International in August.

Bricci is the only known female architect of her time. She designed a villa for Elpidio Benedetti, an art dealer for the king of France. She designed the Chapel of Saint Louis de France in Rome's Church of San Luigi, where she also painted the altar piece. Additionally, she completed works for the Church of Rome, the Canons Regular of the Lateran and the Carmelite Order.

"I have done a lot of archival research and uncovered a lot of new and unpublished information about Plautilla Bricci and also about the life of women in 17th century Rome," Lollobrigida said. "For Bricci to achieve what she did professionally and for her to do so as an unmarried woman who was not attached to a religious order, that's an important social accomplishment for a woman of that time."

The book is an extension of Lollobrigida's doctoral dissertation, which focused on three women artists in 17th century Rome.

Earlier this month, Lollobrigida presented a paper titled "Function and Position of Women Artists in the Age of Barberini" at the Early Modern Rome 3 conference at the University of California Rome Center. The conference is focused on the history of Rome. More than 120 scholars from around the world attended.