Week 3 Alaina Fontenot

As our month long trip quickly comes to a close, our third week in Rome brought us deeper into the history of the Jesuits and how their influence affected the world of art history—particularly pertaining to Renaissance and Baroque art. We were able to see exquisite works of art by two of my favorite (and most prominent) artists of this time: Bernini and Caravaggio. We entered the Gesù and took a deeper look at sculptures and paintings that we’d previously seen numerous times from visiting this particular church fairly often; saw three of Caravaggio’s most important paintings attributed to his career; delved into the art of ceiling paintings; meandered through a peculiar circular church; and finally we were able to see the magnificent sculptures of a young Bernini and some of the early works of Caravaggio as well as his later religious paintings. 

We had quite a treat on Wednesday morning sitting in the pews of the Gesù, as were able to see the magnificent sculpture of St. Ignatius revealed from the large painting that usually sits in front of him. This sculpture is located in the St. Ignatius Chapel on the left side of the transept. The sculpture of St. Ignatius is accompanied in the chapel designed by Andrea Pozzo by sculptures of Faith defeating Idolatry and Religion defeating Heresy. We were also able to view the marvelous ceiling fresco of The Triumph of the Name of Jesus by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, where the ceiling seems to break through the roof and open up into the heavens—a defining style of the Baroque movement. 

Caravaggio is a talented yet troubled artist who can’t seem to keep out of trouble. Nevertheless, his works are stunning. We were able to see three of his paintings of the life of St. Matthew: The Calling of St. Matthew, the Martyrdom of St. Matthew, and the Inspiration of St. Matthew. These were the commissions that took his trade to the next level, and led him to later being commissioned to paint other religious depictions like St. Jerome Writing, which we saw at our last stop of the day in the Galleria Borghese. Caravaggio’s paintings are highly recognizable because of his unique use of tenebrism—a stark contrast of light and dark—that spotlights the scene that he is depicting while leaving the background dark and almost completely black. He also rejects the previous notion of depicting people as idealized versions of themselves and paints his subjects as real and as raw as he desires, often using prostitutes and thieves as models. 

Santa Stefano Rotunda was unlike anything we had previously seen; it’s scandalous and striking while also being breathtakingly beautiful. The rotunda, as the name suggests, is a circular church, housing a number of frescoes painted by Niccolò Circignani and Antonio Tempesta graphically depicting many of the Christian martyrs. Regardless of this image of a church decorated with gruesome deaths, what sets this church apart from many others is that there is an explanation of each martyr being depicted along with the emperor who ordered the martyrs execution and a biblical quote located at the foot of each fresco. 

There seems to be a theme of saving the best for last on this trip, because once again our final destination of the day was the most remarkable, in my opinion. We saw numerous Bernini sculptures: Rape of Persephone, Apollo and Daphne, but my ultimate favorite sculpture of all time is his interpretation of David. It is the one work of Art History 1 and 2 that stuck with me the most, and his lifelike depiction of a young, determined man in mid-launch of his slingshot is even more magnificent in person. You can see the youthful elasticity in his skin through the stone. 

This week we focused majorly on the transition from Renaissance to Baroque art and sculpture, looking at a number of works from Bernini and Caravaggio who were both pioneers of the Baroque art movement. This transition took place around the time of the Protestant and Counter Reformations, which had an enormous impact on everything being created at the time. The Catholic Church responded to these reformations with the Council of Trent, which stated that religious depictions should communicate the message of the story. The Baroque movement was widely accepted and encouraged by the Catholic Church because of its ability to accomplish this with with its theatricality and elaborate nature.