Il Gesu Essay, Research Paper

Resource Name: Il Gesu

Location: Rome, Italy

Architect: Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola; born 1507, died 1573. His career illustrates the rigidity of Mannerist art in the later half of 16th century. His design of Il Gesu meant that Jesuit missionaries carried copies of his design all over the world.

His first major work was the villa (Rome) built for Pope Julius III, but Il Gesu was the most influential, although considered architecturally less adventurous.

Vignola published his own treatise, Regola delli Clinque Ordini d?Architettura in 1562. It became the standard textbook for architectural students, mainly in France, for about three centuries and nearly two hundred editions of it are known.

Towards the end of his life, he built a gateway for the Farnese Gardens in Rome. The gateway was demolished in 1880, but stones were preserved and it has been rebuilt.

Builder: Giovanni Tristano

Construction Date: began 1958 (factual).

Resource type: Church

Style/Culture: Italian Renaissance

Description and Features: Il Gesu displays a tunnel-vaulted nave (about 60 feet wide) and has four chapels on each side. The end walls are aligned with the outer walls of the chapels. The tunnel vault rises above the cornice that runs from the fa?ade to the piers of the crossing. Due to the fa?ade windows and the lunettes of the tunnel-vault, the nave is brightly lit, but in contrast, the chapels are dim. The diameter of the dome is equal to the width of the nave. Vignola accomplished this by having the chapels in the form of a continuous row into the piers of the crossing. The dome seemed to rest on surrounding walls, not on the three dimensional piers. The small chapels formed a passage in-between the nave and the transept.

Original Use: Il Gesu is the Roman mother-church of the Jesuit Order

Construction History: On June 26, 1568 the foundation stone was laid out, although it took years to finally decide on its situation, shape and size. Nanni di Baccio Bigi had submitted a design for the church in 1550, and Michealangelo was called in to design it in 1554, but Vignola?s designs were approved. The construction finally started when Cardinal Alessandro Farnese made a large financial contribution in 1586.

Giovanni Tristano, a Jesuit father, and an architectural expert, who worked on other Jesuit churches prior to Il Gesu, directed the building. It is assumed that by 1571, Vignola?s plans did not satisfy Tristano, because Giacomo della Porta was called to design the fa?ade. The ground plan of the church was Vignola?s plans, while the vaulting of the nave and the fa?ade were Porta?s.

In the early 17th century, the tunnel-vault over the nave was stuccoed in plain with. In the middle of the 17th century, the vault was decorated with polychrome stucco and frescos. In the 19th century, the twin pilasters were faced with marble.

Historical Significance: Saint Ignatuis Loyola, a friend of Michelangelo founded The Society of Jesus in 1540, yet Vignola?s plans were approved. The influence of Vignola?s Il Gesu was so great, that it became almost a standard type of church plan and church fa?ade. The architectural ideas of Il Gesu contributed greatly to forming the type of the Baroque longitudinal church.

Resources

Wolfflin, Heinrich (1964). Renaissance and Baroque. pp. 20-21, 42, 48, 113-14, 161.

Murray, Peter (1969). The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance. pp. 9, 198, 200, 204, 219, 148-51.

Lotz, Wolfgang (1974). Architecture in Italy. pp. 120-121, 140-141, 167.

Gromort, Georges. Italian Renaissance Architecture. pp. 111, 113.