Jesuits in Rome
by Reed Buchanan

Otherwise known as the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit Order began during the Counter-Reformation, and was used by the Papacy to bring followers back to the Catholic Church. One may see this fact clearly reflected in the art inside Jesuit churches, and even in the designs of the buildings themselves. This essay will deal primarily with the Church of Il Gesu, the mother church of the Jesuits, which is considered the fountainhead of Baroque architecture. Furthermore, I will explain how it evolved from its originally stark interior to the vivid Baroque interior it has today. This essay will also discuss the Church of Sant’Ignazio, known for its impeccable frescoes by the Jesuit Andrea Pozzo.

The Jesuit Order was founded in 1540 by Ignatius Loyola, and was recognized by Pope Paul III as a branch of Catholicism that same year. To become a Jesuit brother, one was required to take the “usual three monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, as well as a fourth vow of obedience to the papacy, promising to go wherever the Pope chose to send them” (Dictionary, 26). This final vow gave the Jesuit Order the flexibility and mobility it needed to establish missions all over the world. At a time when the Catholic Church’s congregations were at their smallest, the Jesuits’ missionary activity established them as one of Catholicism’s most effective Counter Reformation weapons.

The Jesuits are a secular clergy, meaning they do not live in a cloister, nor do they wear any special dress, “instead [they] adopt the normal priest’s clothing of whichever region they inhabit” (Dictionary, 508). Furthermore, the Jesuit missionaries studied the languages and customs of the people they hoped to convert, which, coupled with their culture-appropriate dress, gave the Jesuit missionaries a better opportunity to connect with locals in hopes of converting them. This technique proved extremely successful, and the Jesuit missions garnered thousands of new followers to the Catholic Church.

Education was one of the principal roles of the Jesuits, and “the schools, colleges, and universities run by the Jesuits throughout the world insist[ed] on the highest intellectual standards” (Dictionary, 509). The Jesuits did not initially intend to administer education. However, as their perspective clergy members grew in number, so too did the Jesuits’ need to educate them to reflect the standards of the Order. When Ignatius Loyola died in 1556, the Jesuits supervised eighteen colleges in Italy; and by 1600, that number had risen to 49. When the Jesuits reached the height of their influence in the late 18^th century, they operated more than 120 colleges throughout Italy. Furthermore, these colleges served as more than just educational institutions, for they were also fundraising tools. The Jesuits would draw in the sons of wealthy, potential patrons to their schools, in anticipation of the fathers’ generous patronage. Nonetheless, the Jesuit schools provided their students with exemplary educations, including classes on humanist rhetorical and literary principles, which forever transformed the nature of college and university classes.

The interior of Il Gesu was designed by Jacopo Vignola during the Counter Reformation, and its design shows the effects that the Counter Reformation had on Catholicism. As more and more people came back to Catholic churches, the formerly empty churches began to be filled with crowds, so the main nave had to effectively act as an assembly hall. The chief concern of the Jesuits in the design of the church was that the congregation would be able to see and hear the preacher, so Vignola made the nave shorter and wider than traditional designs. This way, the church was more compact and had better acoustics, which allowed the preacher’s voice to travel farther and better deliver the sermons for which the Jesuits were famous. The unobstructed, aisleless nave of Il Gesu came to be regarded as the ideal layout for preaching; the side chapels were perfect because they allowed for preaching in multiple places at once. This design was so successful and catered to the large crowds so well that it essentially became the model for future Counter Reformation churches. These large crowds, however, were not to be distracted by ostentatious displays inside of a Jesuit church. The Jesuits believed that art should be used for education, not admiration; In fact, there is a Jesuit text which states that a Jesuit structure should be neither lavish nor overly decorated. Instead, they maintained that art “should awaken contemplation of poverty;” however, that is not the case with the church of Il Gesu (Wittkower, 6).

The Jesuit policy of austere, stark interior decoration, however, slowly gave way to the elaborate, dramatic, and exciting artistic style of the Baroque period. Jacopo Vignola’s original interior design was indeed sparse, but the evolution to Baroque occurred slowly and in stages. Initially, some “Baroque spirit” was applied, in the form of banners on festive occasions, such as the First Centenary of the Order. At first, decorations were simply hung over Vignola’s original order; but then Giovanni Battista Gaulli, a pupil of Bernini known as Baciccio, was commissioned to decorate the nave and dome in the late 17^th century. Baciccio and a team of stucco artists completely resurfaced the ceiling of the nave and dome, applying thick stucco which produced a three-dimensional effect. The nave painting is the most famous of Baciccio’s works here, called The Triumph of the Name of Jesus. The title of the fresco literally refers to the name of Jesus, represented by the letters “IHS” in the center of the composition. The letters represent the first three letters of Christ’s name in Greek, and are a clear example of the emphasis the Jesuits placed on the name of Christ. Finally, in the 19^th century, many of the blank walls were covered with marble, forever covering up Vignola’s original, stark interior. However, Ignatius was a “quiet priest” who probably would have frowned upon these “images inflamed by passion, no matter how spiritual” (Wittkower, 27). In fact, he likely would have rejected an altar like this dedicated to himself, much like the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, which would have been far too grandiose and ostentatious for the humble Francis.

The church’s masterpiece, however, is the Chapel of Saint Ignatius. It was designed by Andrea Pozzo, who did most of the fresco work at the Church of Sant’Ignazio. A solid-silver Saint Ignatius (actually sculpted by Pierre Legros) stands in the center, flanked by four lapis-lazuli columns. This statue of Ignatius is actually a copy, however, because Pope Pius VI had the original melted down in order to pay war reparations to Napoleon in 1797. On the right side, Legros’ Religion Defeats Heresy shows Religion sending Heretics down to hell, while a cherub rips up a book of heresy. On the left side is Jean-Baptiste Theodon’s sculpture Faith Crushing Idolatry. These are both excellent examples of Counter Reformation propaganda. They boldly proclaim the victory of Catholicism, represented as religion and faith, over heresy and idolatry. The high altar of Il Gesu is dedicated to the circumcision of Christ, though the painting honoring this event is currently a 19^th century replacement for the original, which was painted by Girolamo Muziano. There are two primary reasons—one historical, one religious—why the high altar was dedicated to Christ’s circumcision. First, the Council of Trent stipulated that religious art could only depict episodes from the Bible or scenes from the lives of saints. Second, Christ’s circumcision was the first time he spilled blood, thus foreshadowing his crucifixion.

Jesuit church decoration was a complicated matter, and in reality, not always consistent in its faithfulness to Jesuit standards. These standards, which allowed religious images for educational purposes or to stimulate prayer, frowned upon ostentatious decoration. However, Jesuits themselves were poor, so the task of decorating a Jesuit church fell into the hands of the aristocratic patrons. These patrons were more familiar with the ways of princes than the impoverished and humble ways of a priest, and the richness of the Baroque interior of Il Gesu reflects that fact. The change in decoration from Counter Reformation austerity and utilitarianism to Baroque opulence and drama illustrates a change in the concept of religious art between the 16^th and 17^th centuries, when the mood of contemplation gave way to a mood of excitement (Wittkower, 28).

Location was paramount for a Jesuit church. Ignatius Loyola wrote that all Jesuit churches should be on a square accessible to the public, for a church’s proximity to the public was integral in its success and the size of its congregations. Because of the fact that Il Gesu was to be the mother church of the Jesuit Order, it therefore needed to be close to the Pope, as well. At the time of Il Gesu’s construction in the late 16^th century, Palazzo Venezia was the pope’s residence. For this reason, Il Gesu was erected several blocks from Piazza Venezia, so as to facilitate frequent collaboration between the Jesuits and the papacy.

Il Gesu was commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the nephew of Pope Paul III. Some sources suggest Farnese was the nephew of Pope Paul III, while others report he was his grandson. Given the amount of confusion and the nature of medieval popes, it is reasonable to assume that Farnese was indeed the grandson of Pope Paul III, but was deemed his nephew so as to avoid any problematic implications for the pope. All speculation aside, Farnese was undoubtedly very wealthy and powerful, and he had the final word in the design of the church.

Several architects submitted designs for the façade to the Cardinal Farnese, including Jacopo Vignola and Giacomo della Porta. Vignola was a very talented architect, but for most of his career he was overshadowed by Michelangelo. Giacomo della Porta, on the other hand, was a pupil of Michelangelo, whose works reflected Michelangelo’s influence due to their frequent collaboration. Vignola submitted three designs for the façade over several years, but they were each rejected in turn. Instead, Giacomo della Porta’s design was chosen. Crushed by his defeat at the hands of his rival’s pupil, Vignola accepted his compensation of 40 scudi and disappeared until his death.

Della Porta’s façade borrowed many aspects of Vignola’s design, but it was more cohesive as a whole, and more original. The façade has two levels, the bottom of which owes its inspiration to the Corinthian order, and the top, to the Ionic order. Della Porta cleverly placed volutes on either side of the upper storey, which link the smaller upper storey with the wider lower storey. This provides the façade with a feeling of unity that was less apparent in Vignola’s rejected design. Della Porta accentuated the main portal through the use of a pediment within a pediment, which until this point had never before been executed. The statues in the niches depict a Jesuit pointing to the word of the Bible and a Jesuit, quite literally, stamping out heretics. These statues are another example of the concept of the triumphant church, as they announce Catholicism’s victory over heresy and infidels. The young della Porta showed his appreciation of Cardinal Farnese’s selection by boldly engraving his name across a band in the church’s façade, as well as including the Farnese family’s coat of arms at the apex of the upper pediment. Both of these gestures would later become standard, as the two-order, scroll-flanked façade of Il Gesu became the standard model for Baroque church façades in Rome.

The church of Sant’Ignazio was designed by Orazio Grassi and built between 1626 and 1650. The church was dedicated to the recently canonized Saint Ignatius at the recommendation of Pope Gregory XV to his nephew, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi. Andrea Pozzo, a Jesuit brother, painted the fresco on the nave ceiling of Sant’Ignazio, for which the church is most widely recognized. It celebrates the life and work of Saint Ignatius and the Jesuit Order by showing Ignatius as he is welcomed into Heaven by Christ and the Virgin Mary, surrounded by allegorical representations of the 4 continents known at the time, where the Jesuits established missions. On the lower level, the struggle for men’s souls is still taking place. The flames, according to Pozzo, are the flames of divine love, sent from the angels to the hearts of men. Other angels hold javelins of divine wrath and threaten to kill those who continue to resist the light of faith. This fresco is clearly an ominous piece of propaganda with a slightly threatening tone, and an excellent example of the church triumphant, as the church is illustrated here as having overcome the obstacles of all four known continents of the world.

To the dismay of Ludovisi, the funding for the church ran out before the cupola had been built. Not to be thwarted by a lack of money, the very clever Pozzo simply painted a three-dimensional dome on a flat surface. A marble disk in the floor marks the ideal viewing point for this illusion, which tricks most first-time viewers. This technique is a type of trompe-l’oeil, which is French for “tricks the eye.”

Although Jesuit art cannot be simplified and limited to one artistic style, the Jesuit churches were extremely influential stylistically. Il Gesu is considered the fountainhead of the Baroque style, and its interior floor plan was so successful that it essentially became the standard for Counter Reformation churches. Jesuits also played a major role in establishing a general Counter-Ref iconography, which was applicable to any branch of Catholicism. The technique of illusion used by Pozzo in the false cupola and the stucco artists in Il Gesu would become a part of general religious art, and characteristic of the Baroque style. Furthermore, the fact that Jesuits acknowledged the persuasive value of religious images from the outset helped to steer Counter-Reformation art away from austerity and toward more emotional modes of expression, such as the Baroque.

Bibliography

• Wittkower, Rudolf and Irma B. Jaffe, eds. Baroque Art: the Jesuit Contribution. New York: Fordham University Press, 1972.

• Bailey, Gauvin A. Between Renaissance and Baroque: Jesuit Art in Rome, 1565-1610. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003.

• Murray, Peter. Architecture of the Renaissance. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1971.

• Buser, Thomas. “Jerome Nadal and Early Jesuit Art in Rome.” The Art Bulletin 58.3 (1976): 424-433. JSTOR. University of Washington Lib. 15 Dec. 2008.

• Worcester, Thomas. The Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

• “Jesuit Order.” The Dictionary of Art. Vol 17. 1996.