Church of the Gesu

The Church of the Gesu is located in the Piazza de Gesu in Rome. This church was actually conceived by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits Society of Jesus. Saint Ignatius was said to have been born of noble origins and become a soldier. During a battle he was hit in the knee with a cannonball and was left crippled. He then devoted his entire life and being to serving Jesus Christ; thus the order of the Jesuits was formed. The Church of Gesu is said to have the first truly baroque facade and helped bring the baroque style into architecture. It has a Latin cross plan with a single aisle, side chapels, and a dome over the crossing of the naive and the transepts.

Michelangelo was actually willing to design the building for free, but was rejected. Instead Cardinal Alessandro farnese funded it and the architects who ended up working on the church were Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Giacomo della Porta. The building was built according to Vignola’s design, and as later taken over by the Jesuit architect Giovanni de Rosis after his death. The revision of Vignola's façade design by della Porta has offered architectural historians opportunities for a close comparison between Vignola's balanced composition in three superimposed planes and Della Porta's dynamically fused tension bound by its strong vertical elements, contrasts that have sharpened architectural historians' perceptions for the last century (Whitman 1970:108)

This church set the precedent for future Jesuit churches leading all the way up to the twentieth century. The ideas for the new design of the church came mostly from the Council of Trent, where it was established a new set of “rules” for architecture in Italy to follow. It called for the simplification of all of the architecture in general.

The interior of the church is even more grand than the outside. The detailing is much more elaborate. On the inside there are many focal points with equally interesting stories. The object that is most prevalent is the largest fresco painting on the ceiling of the naive of the church. The Triumph of the Name of Jesus was completed by Giovanni Battista Gaulli. The first chapel is the Cappella di Sant'Andrea, named after the church that previously occupied the site. In it there were paintings dedicated to Saint Andrew. The paintings were all done by Agostino Ciampelli. The second is the Cappella della Passione with paintings depicting the Passion and six canvases on pilasters. The third chapel, Cappella degli Angeli, has paintings on its ceiling depicting The Coronation of the Virgin.The Saint Francis Xavier Chapel is larger and depicts Francis Xavier being welcome into heaven by angels on a stucco mural.

The Church of the Gesu is one of the most important pieces of history and heritage for the Jesuit order. This church is the foundation to what the Society of Jesus is all about.

"Gesu." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

Whitman, Nathan T. Roman Tradition and the Aedicular Façade. N.p.: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 1970. Print.