- Il Gesù, Rome
- (1568-1584)Il Gesù was the first Counter-Reformation church ever built. Financed by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, it was to function as the mother church of the Jesuit Order. Its architect, Giacomo da Vignola, used Leon Battista Alberti's Sant'Andrea in Mantua (beg. 1470) as his prototype. As in Alberti's structure, Il Gesù is an aisleless, barrel-vaulted church with a broad nave, granting an unobstructed view of the altar where the rituals of the mass take place. The façade, which borrows elements from Alberti's façade at Santa Maria Novella, Florence (c. 1456-1470), was completed by Giacomo della Porta, Michelangelo's pupil, in 1575-1584. Here, doubled engaged pilasters define the bays of the lower story and step forward as they move closer to the entrance. The doorway is marked by a triangular and segmented pediment, as well as the pedimented window of the second story. Scrolls provide a rhythmic transition from the narrower upper level to the lower, an amplification of Alberti's idea in the Santa Maria Novella façade. Il Gesù became the standard for all longitudinal churches built in Rome during the Counter-Reformation and for Jesuit churches around the world.
Historical dictionary of Renaissance art. Lilian H. Zirpolo. 2008.