Full Description
Between Renaissance and Baroque is a stunning achievement - the first book to be written about the original painting commissions of the Jesuits in Rome. Offering a uniquely comprehensive and comparative analysis of the paintings and stuccoes which adorned all of the Jesuit foundations in the city during their first half century of existence, the study treats some of the most crucial monuments of late Renaissance painting including the original decorations of the church of the Gesù and the Collegio Romano, and the martyrdom frescoes at S. Stefano Rotondo.
Based on extensive new archival research from Rome, Florence, Parma, and Perugia, Gauvin Alexander Bailey's study presents an original, revisionist treatment of Italian painting in the last four decades of the sixteenth century, a critical transitional period between Renaissance and Baroque. Bailey relates the Jesuit painting cycles to the great religious and intellectual climate of the period, isolates the new stylistic trends which appeared after the Council of Trent, and looks at the different ways in which artists met the challenges for devotional art made by the religious climate of the post-Tridentine period.
Bailey also succeeds in providing the first ever written reconstructions of the Jesuit churches of S. Tommaso di Canterbury, S. Saba, and S. Apollinare, and the original novitiate complex of S. Andrea al Quirinale, the site of the most complex and original hospital decoration in late Renaissance Italy. Through these reconstructions, Bailey sheds new light on such works as Louis Richeôme's meditation manual on the paintings at S. Andrea, Le peinture spirituelle, a lively and detailed treatise on late Renaissance art that has never before been the subject of a thorough study. Ultimately, Bailey provides us with a new understanding of the stylistic and iconographic strands which shortly afterward were woven together to form the Baroque.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Time without Art?
The Jesuits and the Visual Art, and Art and 'Counter-Reformation'
The Debate over 'Mannerism,' and Art in Rome before the Jesuits
The Directors of the Jesuit Painting Programs
The Novitiate of S. Andrea al Quirinale
The Foundation and Construction of the Novitiate
The Chronology and Authorship of the Novitiate Decorations
Louis Richeôme's Guide to the Novitiate Paintings
The Novitiate Chapel of S. Andrea al Quirinale
The Refectory
The Lavatory and Galleries
The Recreation Room
The Dormitory
The Novitiate Infirmary
Rooms One to Five
Rooms Six to Ten
Rooms Eleven to Thirteen, and the Infirmary Refectory
The Novitiate Infirmary Cycle in Context: Hospital Decoration in Renaissance Italy
The Jesuit Collegiate Foundations of the Collegio Romano, the Seminario Romano, and the German-Hungarian College
Jesuit Teaching and a Brief History of the Roman Collegiate Institutions
The Paintings of the Collegio Romano and the Church of SS. Annunziata
The Paintings of the Seminario Romano
The Paintings of the German-Hungarian College and the Palaeochristian Revival Movement
The Church of S. Seba
The Church of S. Apollinare
The Church of S. Stefano Rotondo: Paintings by Niccolò Circignani and Matteo a Siena
The Subjects of Circignani's Paintings at S. Stefano
The Church of S. Stefano Rotondo: Paintings by Antonio Tempesta
The Church of S. Stefano Rotondo: The Balustrade
The Collegiate Church of S. Tommaso di Canterbury and the Novitiate Church of S. Vitale
The Venerable English College and S. Tommaso di Canterbury
The Novitiate Church of S. Vitale
The Church of the Gesù in Rome: Documents
Overview of the Scholarship of the Gesù
The Foundation and Construction of the Gesù
The General Scheme of the Gesù Paintings
The Artists of the Gesù Decorations
The Nave Chapels: Left Side
The Nave Chapels: Right Side
The Apse and Crossing Area
The West Wall, Sacristy, Confraternity Chapels, and Miscellaneous Minor Commissions
The Church of the Gesù in Rome: Description and Interpretation
The Nave Chapels: Left Side
The Nave Chapels: Right Side
The Apse and Crossing Area
The Sacristy and the Tomb of Ignatius
The Legacy of the First Gesù Decorations
Conclusion: A New Sacred Art for a New Era
Notes
Bibliography
Index
