Il Gesù

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Façade of Il Gesù

Il Gesù ( Italian Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di Gesù all'Argentina , German Jesus Church ) is a church in Rome . It is the mother church of Ignatius von Loyola founded in 1534 and Pope Paul III in 1540 . confirmed Jesuit order . Like St. Peter's Basilica , Il Gesù also exerted a significant influence on the architecture of the Baroque era , it is considered the prototype of a Jesuit church. Their building structure was a model for numerous baroque church buildings, especially those of the Jesuits, throughout Europe, such as St. Michael in Munich , St. Ignatius and Franz Xaver in Mannheim and St. Martin in Bamberg .

Construction of the church designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola started in 1568. Although the church was already in use in the Holy Year 1575, it took another nine years until the first consecration in 1584. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese , grandson of Paul III, had a major influence on the shape . and protector of the Jesuit order, who largely financed the construction. He was buried in the church and his name appears prominently on the facade inscription.

Floor plan and exterior view

Floor plan of Il Gesù

Typical of the churches of the Il Gesù type are a barrel-vaulted nave with a light-flooded crossing dome and lower chapels attached to the side of the single nave. One of the models for the wall structure is the church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua , which Leon Battista Alberti started around a hundred years earlier . In the floor plan of Il Gesù (similar to St. Peter's Basilica) the connection between the central space concept of the early Renaissance architecture and a nave can be seen. The building type also became so popular because it met the liturgical requirements reorganized in the Council of Trent in a special way .

Giacomo della Porta , who completed the building as Vignola's successor, created the façade crowned by a triangular gable , which is characterized by the increasing plasticity of the structural elements towards the center and thus pioneering the development of the baroque church façade. The five-axis basement is structured with Corinthian , the narrower upper floor with composite pilasters . Mighty volutes cover the roof zone of the side chapels of the nave. A doubled aedicula frames and emphasizes the main portal of the church.

inner space

Interior seen from the entrance with the ceiling fresco by Baciccia

The interior, lavishly decorated with gold , was redesigned in a highly baroque style from 1668 to 1673 on behalf of Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Negroni . Particularly worth seeing is the ceiling fresco in the nave with the glorification of the name of Jesus by Giovanni Battista Gaulli , called Baciccia: As in a vision, the sky seems to break through the built architecture and penetrate the church.

The monumental grave altar of St. Ignatius of Loyola in the left transept was built by the Jesuit architect Andrea Pozzo between 1696 and 1700. The globe above the altar is said to be made of the largest lapis lazuli ever found .

In the church of Il Gesù is the mummified arm of St. Francis Xavier , who was a founding member of the Jesuit Order and who founded the Jesuit mission in East Asia . In 1621, Michelangelo Cardinal Tonti was buried in Il Gesù.

Il Gesu as a title diakonia

The church is also the title diaconia for a cardinal :

literature

  • Howard Hibbard: Ut picturae sermones. The First Painted Decorations of the Gesù. In: Wittkower, Rudolf (Ed.): Baroque Art - the Jesuit contribution. New York 1972, pp. 29-47.
  • Jacopo Curzietti: Giovan Battista Gaulli. La decorazione della chiesa del SS. Nome di Gesù. Rome 2011.
  • Robert Enggass: La Chiesa trionfante el'affreso della volta del Gesù. In: Giovan Battista Gaulli. Il Baciccio. 1639-1709. Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia. December 11, 1999 - March 12, 2000. Ed. Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco, Dieter Graf a. Franceso Petrucci. Rome 1999. pp. 27-39.

Web links

Commons : Il Gesù  - album with pictures, videos and audio files


Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 45.3 "  N , 12 ° 28 ′ 47.4"  E