Between 1585 and 1621, Popes Sixtus V and Paul V focused on the basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, Rome's preeminent Marian shrine, as the site for the most wide-ranging expression of their spiritual visions. In two separate, though independent, campaigns, they commissioned colossal chapels, which they adorned with elaborate programs of painting and sculpture.

Unprecedented in their scale, richness of decoration, and multiple functions, the Sistine and Pauline Chapels represent two of the most complex public monuments built in the papal capital during the Counter-Reformation period. Art and Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Rome offers an interdisciplinary study of the chapels, providing an interpretive reading of their artistic programs as an expression of their patrons' personal spirituality and of the larger institutional concerns of the papacy as it confronted the Protestant challenge.

Viewed within their religious, political, and social contexts, the historical meaning of the chapels are explored as a means to advance our understanding of the ways in which the post-Tridentine Church enlisted the visual arts to communicate and advance its mission.