Jesuitenarchitektur in Italien (1540 - 1773)

With this second volume, investigations into Italian Jesuit architecture have progressed to such an extent that about three fifths of the entire Italian monuments have been examined to date. All structures built in the territory of the Provincia Mediolanensis in the course of 230 years are dealt with extensively in 37 chapters. The order`s Milan province comprised the western part of Upper Italy, i.e., a major part of Lombardy, Piedmont, and Liguria, as well as Corsica. In terms of historical topography, this territory was made up the following states: the Duchy of Milan, which was under Spanish rule until 1707 and then belonged to the Austrian Habsburg Empire, the Valtellina, which, except for a few years, was governed by Protestant Grisons, the cisalpine part of the Duchy of Savoy, including the County of Nice, and finally the Republic of Genoa, which, until 1768, included the Island of Corsica. The centre of the province used to be the Milan Casa Professa of S. Fedele, but the great political eminence of the ducal court of Turin and of the Serenissima Repubblica di Genova led to a polycentral layout also in terms of architectural achievements. Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596) and Francesco Maria Ricchini (1584-1658) were two leading artist personalities originating in the Lombard metropolis and its architecture. They also played a decisive role in the construction activities of the Society of Jesus and exercised a lasting effect on the architectural traditions of the order`s province. However, also the Republic of Genoa, where also Roman ideas had a major impact thanks to the long-standing activity of Orazio Grassi (1583-1654), saw a distinct architectural development of its own. On the other hand, at the Savoy court in Piedmont evolved a local architectural culture of unique standing,, with architects of the highest renown - first Ascanio Vitozzi, later on Guarino Guarini, and finally Filippo Juvarra and Bernardo Antonio Vittone - being active for the Society of Jesus. Their achievements also shaped the architectural understanding of the Jesuits in Turin and even exercised a considerable influence on large-scale architectural projects of the Turin court. Until now, scholars have still neglected the fact that Andrea Pozzo, the most multifaceted and outstanding among the order`s artist personalities, accomplished the first and decisive phases of his career in the service of the Jesuit province of Milan. In the 1670s he was to be found on the order`s construction sites in Alessandria, Como, Cuneo, Genoa, Milan, Mondovì, Novi Ligure, Turin, and possibly also in Savona. The achievements of Jesuit architecture in the western part of Upper Italy may be regarded as ample proof of the extraordinarily high status assigned to the monuments of the Milan province in the context of Italian Jesuit architecture. Therefore, their exploration for the sake of a general assessment of the research subject in question is of crucial significance.