Allan Doig
Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, Great Britain
Stated contentiously, the proximate cause of the Reformation was architectural, insofar as it was the rebuilding of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome that gave rise to the sale of indulgences on an industrial scale, which in turn sparked reforming protest. A prime example of the Roman Catholic Church ‘coming off the back foot’ to return to the religious and cultural offensive, is the early history of the Jesuit Order. The theology and politics of this ‘Catholic Reformation’ addressed the matter of indulgences and related abuses, and art and architecture were key instruments in communicating and effecting transformation in the life of the Church and spreading it around the globe.
In architectural terms, the Classicism and balance of St Peter’s gave way at Sant’Ignazio to fluidity and deliberate dramatic visual instability. The narrative and stylistic content of Sant’Ignazio’s great nave fresco by Anrdea Pozzo, points towards a number of bases for the artistic, political and theological shift. Both Andrea Pozzo and the architect of Sant’Ignazio, Orazio Grassi, were Jesuits and, as indicated by the dedication, so was the church itself. An exploration of the artistic narrative and stylistic features of the Church of Sant’Ignazio and its decorative programme will reveal the explosive energy being released in the theological, political and cultural ideals of Counter-Reformation Rome. These things often reveal more than originally intended when subjected to a close and contextual reading. The problem is, to align the rhetoric and the reality, the heroic drama of the artistic monument and the reality of its political and theological circumstances.