Church of the Gesu

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Image:Il Gesu.jpg The Church of the Gesù (in Italian, Chiesa del Sacro Nome di Gesù, or "Church of the Holy Name of Jesus") is the mother church of the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits, an order of the Roman Catholic Church; it was the model for innumerable Jesuit churches all over the world, especially in the Americas. The Church of the Gesù is located in the Piazza del Gesù in Rome.

First conceived in 1551 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits Society of Jesus, and active during the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent Catholic Reformation, the Gesù was also the home of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus until the suppression of the order in 1773.<ref>The church having been subsequently regained by the Jesuits, the adjacent palazzo is now a residence for Jesuit scholars from around the world studying at the Gregorian University in preparation for ordination to the priesthood.</ref>

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Although Michelangelo offered to design the church for free, the endeavor was funded by Alessandro Cardinal Farnese, nephew of Pope Paul III, who had authorized the founding of the Society of Jesus. Ultimately, the main architects involved in the construction were Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Giacomo della Porta, who helped design the scrolled facade.

Construction of the church began in 1568 to Vignola's design, and, since it set a pattern for Jesuit churches that lasted into the twentieth century, its innovations require enumerating. The Jesuit Mother Church was built according to the new requirements formulated during the Council of Trent. There is no narthex in which to linger: the visitor is projected immediately into the body of the church, a single nave without aisles, so that the congregation is assembled and attention is focused on the high altar. In place of aisles there are a series of identical interconnecting chapels behind arched openings,<ref>The Gesù's scheme of wide arched bays defined by paired pilasters has its origin in Alberti's Sant'Andrea, Milan, begun in 1470.</ref> to which entrance is controlled by decorative balustrades with gates. Transepts are reduced to stubs that emphasize the altars of their end walls.

The plan synthesizes the central planning of the High Renaissance,<ref>The exemplar is Bramante's original plan for St. Peter's Basilica.</ref> expressed by the grand scale of the dome and the prominent piers of the crossing, with the extended nave that had been characteristic of the preaching churches, a type of church established by Franciscans and Dominicans since the thirteenth century. Everywhere inlaid polychrome marble revetments are relieved by gilding, frescoed barrel vaults enrich the ceiling and rhetorical white stucco and marble sculptures break out of their tectonic framing. The example of the Gesù did not completely eliminate the traditional basilica church with aisles, but after its example was set, experiments in Baroque church floor plans, oval or Greek cross, were largely confined to smaller churches and chapels.

Talent has been lavished on this interior: the ceiling fresco is the grandiose Triumph of the Names of Jesus by Giovanni Battista Gaulli. Gaulli also frescoed the cupola. The San Francesco Saverio Chapel, in the right transept, was designed by Pietro da Cortona and has an altarpiece by Carlo Maratta. In the presbytery is a bust of Cardinal Bellarmine by Bernini (1621-1624).

The large St. Ignatius Chapel designed by Andrea Pozzo houses the saint's tomb. The altar by Pozzo shows the Trinity, while four lapis lazuli-veneered columns enclose the colossal statue of the saint by Pierre Legros. The latter is a copy, however: Pope Pius VI had the original melted down, ostensibly to pay the war reparations to Napoleon, as established by the Treaty of Tolentino, 1797.

The Church of the Gesù was the model of various churches of the Society of Jesus throughout the world, starting from the Church of St.Michael in Munich (1583-97) and the Corpus Christi Church in Niasviž (1587-93). Various parishes also share the name of the Church of the Gesù.