Visual arts as "psychagogic" media of the Jesuits

The idea behind this project is based on the conviction that the achievement of the Society of Jesus that is of relevance for art history does not consist merely of the creation of new typologies for sacred architecture. Rather, the order developed an overall program, borne by theological, evangelising and artistic concepts, which rests inseparably on theories from the natural sciences and on the practical application of the results of work in the field of the natural sciences by the orders own scholars. Of central significance are the disciplines of perspective theory, optics and acoustics, to which, in the 17th century, scholars from the order made decisive contributions that enabled these disciplines to be used in the theatre. The aim is to answer the question as to what extent the construction and decoration of churches and, equally, of theatres was based on identical psychagogic criteria. The subject of the present research project is the Jesuit centres of education along with their specific infrastructures and their representative function. The focus here lies primarily on the apparatus and equipment for delivering homilies and propagating the faith which Jesuit institutions, colleges or religious houses possessed: oratories, church spaces, refectories and stages. These were conceived in accordance with the latest techniques and design methods to an extent which, up to this time, had never been practiced by any other order. The new territory which it is hoped to access within the project is the synthesis of scenically depictive design arts and the mathematical sciences. The intention is to discuss below how this synthesis was arrived at and to review the case studies that are to be examined. Extremely of interest are the different artistic genres above all those based on perspective, in particular fresco and quadratura painting, sculpture and stage design, then choreography and even the art of acting, which cannot be archived. They all were specifically useful to this order and on this account were programmatically supported by it. Thanks to focussed support the Societas Jesu along with other ecclesiastical protagonists influenced by it contributed to the advance of the arts, which the present research project and theological research define using the theological term psychagogic. With targeted examination of the Jesuit sacral and theater buildings in the former Austrian province of the Jesuits (modern East-Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia) and of the former South-German province of the Jesuits (Bavaria, Tyrol, Switzerland) and in comparison with the refined culture of interior in North-Italy (Bologna, Parma-Piacenza) there will be laid open the Jesuit principles of the formative and optical-mathematical arts.

The project was essentially aimed at analyzing two interrelated questions. The core thesis is based on the assumption that artistic media such as architecture, fresco painting and sculpture were actively used by the experts of the Jesuit order to guide the souls of the faithful and ultimately lead them to God (psychagogy). This soul-guiding function of the spatial arts is, in consequence, a general characteristic of Baroque art of the 17th and 18th centuries. However, this theory of Baroque art was not addressed further in the project, but merely an attempt was made to illuminate the role of the Society of Jesus in a pragmatic way. This concept of the guidance of souls was in part the basis for the intensive involvement of members of the order with technical and scientific disciplines such as optics, mechanics or theater-specific techniques, the findings of which were incorporated into the construction and furnishing of sacred spaces and theaters. The exchange of experts and scholars within the Order, i.e. beyond the borders of the individual provinces of the Order, was crucial for the internationally active and globally active Order - and this ties in with the second important set of questions in the project. This transfer of knowledge was examined in the project specifically between the Habsburg-ruled lands and northern Italy, in other words between the Austrian and Upper German provinces of the Order on the one hand and the Venetian and Milanese provinces of the Order on the other. Corresponding research in the state archives and relevant libraries, for example in Parma, Modena or Milan, yielded source results that made it possible to trace this exchange to the north in an exemplary manner. It soon became clear that the Jesuit centers on the Austrian side were in Graz (including the university) and Innsbruck, whereby Munich also played a decisive role as the headquarters (after Innsbruck) of the Upper German province of the order. Research at the Jesuit Central Archives in Rome and the Austrian State Archives rounded off the picture in a valuable way. Valuable finds in the archives, for example on the important college (including the university) in Vienna, are being prepared for publication. The main researcher Paolo Sanvito, together with the Milanese professor Danilo Zardin, developed a conference in Milan in 2022 that dealt with this transfer topic. The Viennese project also has an international presence through its participation in conferences in Barcelona, Lucerne, Paris, Prague and Rijeka. The major international conference developed by the project team (with colleagues from the D-A-CH project in Freiburg) and held in Vienna in spring 2023 produced far-reaching results that form the basis for the overall publication.