Chiesa del Gesù

The Church of the Gesù in Rome is the mother church of the Society of Jesus and a landmark in the history of Jesuit architecture. Its broad single nave, shallow side chapels and richly decorated vault shaped a model later adopted in Jesuit churches around the world.

Why it matters

Ignatius of Loyola sought a church for the new religious order in the mid-sixteenth century. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese financed the project and entrusted its design to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, with Jesuit architects Giovanni Tristano and Giovanni de Rosis as collaborators. Giacomo della Porta replaced Vignola's façade design and completed the building, which was dedicated in 1584.

What to notice

Della Porta's two-storey façade, with its pediments and scrolls, became an influential model. Inside, the single broad nave focuses attention on the pulpit and altar. Giovanni Battista Gaulli, known as Baciccio, painted the Triumph of the Name of Jesus across the nave vault in the second half of the seventeenth century. Andrea Pozzo designed the Chapel of Saint Ignatius in the left transept, where lapis lazuli and gilded bronze frame the founder's tomb.

Context and history

The project was first proposed in 1551, and Michelangelo prepared a revised design in 1554 that was not built. Construction began in 1568 and was completed in 1575; the church was dedicated in 1584. The suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773 led to the loss of some furnishings. After the order was restored in 1814, work continued on the interior. From 1858 to 1861, Prince Alessandro Torlonia funded the marble facing of the nave.