Jesuit Art
In Jesuit Art, Mia Mochizuki considers the artistic production of the pre-suppression Society of Jesus (1540–1773) from a global perspective. Geographic and medial expansion of the standard corpus changes not only the objects under analysis, it also affects the kinds of queries that arise. Mochizuki draws upon masterpieces and material culture from around the world to assess the signature structural innovations pioneered by Jesuits in the history of the image. When the question of a ‘Jesuit style’ is rehabilitated as an inquiry into sources for a spectrum of works, the Society’s investment in the functional potential of illustrated books reveals the traits that would come to define the modern image as internally networked, technologically defined, and innately subjective.
Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America, 1542-1773
Through a sweeping look at Jesuit activities in Japan, China, Mughul India, and Paraguay, Bailey finds evidence of artistic hybridization as a means of communication and argues in favour of a paradigm of artistic exchange.
The Jesuits and the Arts, 1540-1773
Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque
In this provocative revisionist work, Evonne Levy brings fresh theoretical perspectives to the study of the "propagandistic" art and architecture of the Jesuit order as exemplified by its late Baroque Roman church interiors. The first extensive analysis of the aims, mechanisms, and effects of Jesuit art and architecture, this original and sophisticated study also evaluates how the term "propaganda" functions in art history, distinguishes it from rhetoric, and proposes a precise use of the term for the visual arts for the first time. Levy begins by looking at Nazi architecture as a gateway to the emotional and ethical issues raised by the term "propaganda." Jesuit art once stirred similar passions, as she shows in a discussion of the controversial nineteenth-century rubric the "Jesuit Style." She then considers three central aspects of Jesuit art as essential components of propaganda: authorship, message, and diffusion. Levy tests her theoretical formulations against a broad range of documents and works of art, including the Chapel of St. Ignatius and other major works in Rome by Andrea Pozzo as well as chapels in Central Europe and Poland. Innovative in bringing a broad range of social and critical theory to bear on Baroque art and architecture in Europe and beyond, Levy’s work highlights the subject-forming capacity of early modern Catholic art and architecture while establishing "propaganda" as a productive term for art history.
The Liberal Arts and the Jesuit College System
The Jesuit educational system, with its successful applications in all parts of the world for several centuries, is one of the most durable, influential, and far-reaching experiments in the history of education. In this monograph Aldo Scaglione explores the complex genesis of the system, which it regards essentially as a heritage of Renaissance Humanism; the impact of both Reformation and Catholic Counter-reformation on it; and its conflicts with the secular traditions and systems with which it competed through the centuries.
