Patronage & Policy: The Jesuits’ Use of Art in Early Modern Rome - Final Blog by McCalla
Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di Gesù all'Argentina, also known simply as Il Gesù is the second most grand church built after St.Peter's. It is built in the center of Rome, at the crossroads of the two major streets that the Pope's use to walk from St.Peter's Basilica to the Basilica of St. John Lateran. These two facts are for two reasons, one is proximity to the Pope which leads us to two, proximity to power. These two were perhaps not the most important reason, however. This central part of Rome was also the nitty-gritty of the city. This was important because, in the Renaissance, preaching was a part of public works as opposed to something done during mass. Confession and ministry of the word were done out in the open, so in Jesuits' case, outside in the Palazzo. It is important to note that the church itself was not built until after the death of Ignatius (around the 15000s) and that it was dedicated to the holy name of Jesus.
Every church needs a patron, and in the case of the Gesù, this was predominantly Cardinal Alexander Farnese (5 October 1520[1] – 2 March 1589) and his nephew Odoardo Farnese (6 December 1573 – 21 February 1626), with Alessandro being the patron to the church itself and Odoardo being the patron to the apartments next door.
The painting pictured above, located in the sacristy of the Gesù, depicts both men with Alessandro on the left and Odoardo on the right both seated in the Gesù. Alessandro has blueprints for the church in hand, while Odoardo holds the blueprints for the adjoined apartments. This painting was done by an unknown artist.
Alessandro was the grandson of Pope Paul III who was the Pope that accepted the Society and granted them sanction as an official order of the church. Alessandro was known for being a great patron of the arts, literature, and the sciences. The buildings that Cardinal Farnese built or restored include the Gesù, the Villa Farnese, the Farnese palace near Lake Bracciano, as well as the monastery Tre Fontane also located in Rome. He is buried at the high altar of the Gesù, pictured below.
As the patron, Alexander wanted the church to be one way and the Jesuits wanted another. The Jesuits wanted things more simple (like a flat wooden ceiling) while the Cardinal Alexander wanted things to be more extravagant. He imposed barrel vaults and a domed ceiling as the church had his name on it and therefore it needed to show the power and majesty his money commanded.
Despite the cardinal's control of the design and architect of the church, the Jesuits had control over the iconography and the artists. The Society would sell the side chapels to wealthy families, predominately wealthy women who acted as patrons similar to how wealthy women were the patrons to the early Christians before Constantine allowed them to move into more public domiciles.
Despite selling the side chapels to these wealthy families, the chapels and the theme of the church itself retained a certain unity that was held throughout all its paintings and sculptures as well as through the nave and the dome. Because the Jesuit's had no saints at the time that the Jesuit's were building this church, they chose to focus the dedications of the side chapels on the Spiritual Exercises. The Jesuits imposed a unified program for the church invoking the spiritual exercises.
For example, the second chapel to the right is the Cappella della Passione, with frescoes depicting scenes of the Passion: Jesus in Gethsemane, Kiss of Judas, and six canvases on the pilasters: Christ at the column, Christ before the guards, Christ before Herod, Ecce Homo, Exit to Calvary, and Crucifixion. The altarpiece of the Madonna with child and beatified Jesuits replaces the original altarpiece by Scipione Pulzone. These depictions of Jesus aligned with the spiritual exercises emphasis on following and attempting to know the life of Jesus. This chapel also depicts the Crucifixion as previously mentioned which is meant to call to the observer the spiritual and mystical part of life as a nod to the theological part of the spiritual exercises.
Originally the first chapel to the left was dedicated to the Apostles as a nod to the part of the spiritual exercises that represented life on Earth, however, once the Pope began cantonizing Jesuits as saints they too began converting some of the side chapels from their original dedication to that of dedication to their saints. The chapel previously mentioned was converted into the Cappella di San Francesco Borgia, the former Spanish Duke of Gandia, who renounced his title to enter the Jesuit order, and become its third "Preposito generale". In 1622 St. Ignatius and St. Xavier were canonized and construction of side chapels in their honor was put into place around 1697 and finished in the early 1700s. St. Ignacius is buried at his altar and St. Xavier's hand is housed at his altar as a relic.
St. Francis Borgia Chapel
St. Francis Xavier Relic at high altar
The art the Society of Jesus was meant to uphold the decisions made by the Church during the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent was a meeting of Bishops in the mid 16th century after the counter-reformation of the Catholic Church as a response to the Protestant Reformation. Therefore it was important for the Jesuit's to uphold certain standards. They, therefore, participated in what we now call the Paleo-Christian Revival. The Paleo-Christian Revival refers to an artistic movement in which renewed interest in saints and veneration of martyrs was popular. For the Jesuits, this was interwoven with their cultural policy of didactic methods of teaching through pictures and labeled explanation. The scenes of gruesome martyrs were meant to inspire Catholics at a time in which they were being persecuted and killed in Protestant countries and to reaffirm that theirs was the true church, as opposed to losing faith in the face of such atrocities.
Let us take for example the Church of San Vitalis (pictured above with apologies to the blurred ones), which was a public church under the care and authority of the Jesuits. Though this church was originally built in antiquity, they renovated it in the late 1600s. The church itself was dedicated to the martyred Saint Vitalis who praised the name of God and his Savior Jesus Christ all throughout his torture and death through being buried alive. We can see in the photos that the walls of the church are lined with these images of martyred saints accompanied with plaques placed below the images that explain exactly what is going on in the picture. Once again, these explanations under the images of gruesome martyrdoms were meant to be used as a teaching tool as an implementation of Jesuit Cultural Policy.
This church can be compared to another church from antiquity that was put under the care of the German-Hungarian College of the Jesuits in 1579, Santo Stefano Rotondo. The walls of this circular church are decorated with numerous frescoes, including those of Niccolò Circignani (Niccolò Pomarancio) and Antonio Tempesta portraying 34 scenes of martyrdom, commissioned by Gregory XIII in the 16th century. Like the church of San Vitalis, each painting has an inscription explaining the scene and giving the name of the emperor who ordered the execution, as well as a quotation from the Bible. As we can see in the images provided below, each picture had letters next to different parts of the image and the description below the image will have a part of it labeled (A) with an explanation, (B) with an explanation, (C) with an explanation and so on and so forth.
Every church needs a patron, and in the case of the Gesù, this was predominantly Cardinal Alexander Farnese (5 October 1520[1] – 2 March 1589) and his nephew Odoardo Farnese (6 December 1573 – 21 February 1626), with Alessandro being the patron to the church itself and Odoardo being the patron to the apartments next door.
The painting pictured above, located in the sacristy of the Gesù, depicts both men with Alessandro on the left and Odoardo on the right both seated in the Gesù. Alessandro has blueprints for the church in hand, while Odoardo holds the blueprints for the adjoined apartments. This painting was done by an unknown artist.
As the patron, Alexander wanted the church to be one way and the Jesuits wanted another. The Jesuits wanted things more simple (like a flat wooden ceiling) while the Cardinal Alexander wanted things to be more extravagant. He imposed barrel vaults and a domed ceiling as the church had his name on it and therefore it needed to show the power and majesty his money commanded.
Despite the cardinal's control of the design and architect of the church, the Jesuits had control over the iconography and the artists. The Society would sell the side chapels to wealthy families, predominately wealthy women who acted as patrons similar to how wealthy women were the patrons to the early Christians before Constantine allowed them to move into more public domiciles.
For example, the second chapel to the right is the Cappella della Passione, with frescoes depicting scenes of the Passion: Jesus in Gethsemane, Kiss of Judas, and six canvases on the pilasters: Christ at the column, Christ before the guards, Christ before Herod, Ecce Homo, Exit to Calvary, and Crucifixion. The altarpiece of the Madonna with child and beatified Jesuits replaces the original altarpiece by Scipione Pulzone. These depictions of Jesus aligned with the spiritual exercises emphasis on following and attempting to know the life of Jesus. This chapel also depicts the Crucifixion as previously mentioned which is meant to call to the observer the spiritual and mystical part of life as a nod to the theological part of the spiritual exercises.
Originally the first chapel to the left was dedicated to the Apostles as a nod to the part of the spiritual exercises that represented life on Earth, however, once the Pope began cantonizing Jesuits as saints they too began converting some of the side chapels from their original dedication to that of dedication to their saints. The chapel previously mentioned was converted into the Cappella di San Francesco Borgia, the former Spanish Duke of Gandia, who renounced his title to enter the Jesuit order, and become its third "Preposito generale". In 1622 St. Ignatius and St. Xavier were canonized and construction of side chapels in their honor was put into place around 1697 and finished in the early 1700s. St. Ignacius is buried at his altar and St. Xavier's hand is housed at his altar as a relic.
St. Ignatius Chapel and Tomb
St. Francis Borgia Chapel
St. Francis Xavier Relic at high altar
The art the Society of Jesus was meant to uphold the decisions made by the Church during the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent was a meeting of Bishops in the mid 16th century after the counter-reformation of the Catholic Church as a response to the Protestant Reformation. Therefore it was important for the Jesuit's to uphold certain standards. They, therefore, participated in what we now call the Paleo-Christian Revival. The Paleo-Christian Revival refers to an artistic movement in which renewed interest in saints and veneration of martyrs was popular. For the Jesuits, this was interwoven with their cultural policy of didactic methods of teaching through pictures and labeled explanation. The scenes of gruesome martyrs were meant to inspire Catholics at a time in which they were being persecuted and killed in Protestant countries and to reaffirm that theirs was the true church, as opposed to losing faith in the face of such atrocities.
Let us take for example the Church of San Vitalis (pictured above with apologies to the blurred ones), which was a public church under the care and authority of the Jesuits. Though this church was originally built in antiquity, they renovated it in the late 1600s. The church itself was dedicated to the martyred Saint Vitalis who praised the name of God and his Savior Jesus Christ all throughout his torture and death through being buried alive. We can see in the photos that the walls of the church are lined with these images of martyred saints accompanied with plaques placed below the images that explain exactly what is going on in the picture. Once again, these explanations under the images of gruesome martyrdoms were meant to be used as a teaching tool as an implementation of Jesuit Cultural Policy.
This church can be compared to another church from antiquity that was put under the care of the German-Hungarian College of the Jesuits in 1579, Santo Stefano Rotondo. The walls of this circular church are decorated with numerous frescoes, including those of Niccolò Circignani (Niccolò Pomarancio) and Antonio Tempesta portraying 34 scenes of martyrdom, commissioned by Gregory XIII in the 16th century. Like the church of San Vitalis, each painting has an inscription explaining the scene and giving the name of the emperor who ordered the execution, as well as a quotation from the Bible. As we can see in the images provided below, each picture had letters next to different parts of the image and the description below the image will have a part of it labeled (A) with an explanation, (B) with an explanation, (C) with an explanation and so on and so forth.
This concludes my detailed account of the Jesuits, and their patron's and policy. I hope that this has shown the reader how patronage and cultural policy affected the art represent by the Jesuits during the Renaissance and Baroque periods of Roman art and architecture.
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