Late Renaissance Rome & Jesuit Cultural Policy- Teresa Berner

Yet another week has past here in Rome. 

For class, we went on excursions to places with Late Renaissance, Mannerists, and Baroque influence.

We started with Il Gesu which is the main Jesuit church located in the center of Rome. Much like St. Peter’s Basilica, the construction of Il Gesu started during the High Renaissance and continued into the Baroque period. The location of this church was crucial to the Jesuit’s mission. After elected, the Pope would always process from the Vatican to St. John Lateran where he would be crowned officially. Naturally, this is where the Jesuits wanted to build their church. The Jesuits wanted to be in close proximity to power so this was the perfect place. At the time, it was a dodgy area where poverty thrived. The Jesuits helped the poverty in this area diminish by building this church. They needed a popular area that could accommodate large crowds so they could preach. They would not preach in mass but in terms of having sermons, sacred lectures, and confessions for all who were interested. 

They began to look for a patron to pay for the construction and decoration of the church and found Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Problems came about because the Jesuits and the Cardinal had disagreements of what the church should look like. The Jesuits wanted the bare minimum while Cardinal Alessandro Farnese wanted a grand building that would reflect his wealth. They came to a compromise by putting the Cardinal in charge of the architecture and the Jesuits in charge of decoration. 

The decoration of Il Gesu went through three phases. The first was during the Renaissance. They wanted to have a unified program which basically means that they wanted all of the decorations to match and not be too gaudy. This idea changed with the second phase during the Baroque period. This is when they placed all of the current theatrical decorations into the church. The third and final phase happened in the nineteenth century. This is where they added the colored marble to the interior of the church.  

The St. Ignatius altar in the transept was designed by Andrea Pozzo, SJ which captures all the dramatics of the Baroque. It is filled with material splendor and visual delight. It also has confrontational statues including an allegorical figure of Religion overcoming pagans and angels ripping out pages of books of heresy. The most theatrical aspect of the altar is the painting of St. Ignatius which moves to reveal a bejeweled statue of St. Ignatius. 

Another church that was built at around the same time as Il Gesu is the Chiesa Nuova. This church was made for the Oratorians which was founded by St. Philip Neri. The make up of this church is similar to the Gesu. This church was also decorated with Mannerists and Baroque art. An iconography that was popular during this time was of the Deposition or Jesus’s descent from the cross. The image formula for this iconography is the crucified Jesus being taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. The only description of the Deposition has these two men, but other biblical figures are also depicted in the scene. The other figures include the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdeline, Mary Salome, and St. John. This subject became popular for artists because of the complexity of the figures’s poses. Caravaggio’s Deposition has Jesus in a pose that references Michelangelo’s Pietà. 

Although it does not have much to do with the Jesuits in the Late Renaissance, the Galleria Borghese was another place we visited this week. This gallery had several famous Bernini sculptures, Caravaggio paintings, and even some of Rafael’s paintings. The Canova sculpture of Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorius was one that I remembered from Intro into Art History. The story goes that this sculpture was so scandalous that only certain people were able to see it. 

The Bernini sculptures that were featured included some of his more famous works like The Rape of Persephone, Apollo and Daphne, the portrait bust of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, etc. Although a controversial title, the Rape of Persephone is a great example of Baroque sculpture. In order to fully understand the sculpture, the viewer must walk around and see it from all sides. The aspect that stood out the most from this sculpture is the king’s grasp of Persephone. His hand is not just placed on top of her thigh, it is pushing down and grabbing her. 

Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne is another example of breaking the frontality of earlier sculpture. In this one, Apollo and Daphne are caught in a moment, very spontaneous and theatrical. When Apollo’s hand touches Daphne, she suddenly turns into a tree. This statue is depicting that moment exactly. Daphne has started to grow tree bark, sprout leaves from her fingers, and roots from her toes. Another aspect of this sculpture that stands out is how the texture varies between Daphne’s skin and the tree bark. These two Bernini sculptures have complicated, spiral compositions which not only shows off Bernnin’s talents, but also exhibits the competitive nature  of Baroque art. 

The Caravaggio room, as I like to call it, showed how his style solidified over his lifetime. The self portrait with basket of fruit exhibits the beginning of his work leading up to the enormous altarpiece that he made for Sant’ Anna dei Palafrenieri. During the Baroque period, the most prestigious work that an artist could be commissioned for was an altarpiece for a major church. When Caravaggio was asked to do this altarpiece, he knew that he had made it in the art world. The vast painting went up on the altar for one day and when the parishioners criticized it for not being idealized, they took it down. This must have been devastating for Caravaggio. Now looking at it, I think it is one of his best works exhibiting his style and all that he stood for.

Seeing all of these famous works in person was an incredible experience. 

Three weeks down, one more week to go!

Ciao for now!