The Jesuits first came to the Quirinal Hill in 1566, when they built a small church to train novices. They quickly outgrew it, and in 1647 they almost received a new church: Cardinal Francesco Adriano Ceva would have built a church designed by Borromini, but Pope Innocent X blocked the project because he didn’t want a large building rising up across the street from the Quirinal Palace, where the popes had summered for generations. However, Innocent X soon died, and Alexander VII took over. In 1648, Alexander VII decided that a church across the street from the Quirnal Palace would be useful, since the chapel in the Quirinal Palace was regularly overflowing with parishioners. Camillo Pamphilj, nephew of Innocent X, was to pay for the new church, and although Borromini would have been the natural choice for the project, since he already had plans for it, both Alexander VII and Camillo Pamhpilj found it difficult to work with Borromini. Bernini, the obvious alternative, was chosen to design it.
Bernini brought his initial plans to the pope on September 2nd of that year. The Jesuits had requested five altars, a main altar dedicated to St Andrew and four smaller altars dedicated to Jesuit saints, so Bernini naturally first thought of a pentagonal church. However, Alexander VII thought it would make the church too close to the street and that it was an awkward shape for the land it was on. So about two weeks later, Bernini came back with his second plan: an oval shape with its long axis parallel to the street (FIG. 1). This plan was accepted by the pope, Camillo Pamphilj, and the Jesuits. The foundation stone was laid on November 3rd, and exactly one year later, construction on the masonry shell was finished.
After the shell was completed, the controversy that had been brewing between the Jesuits, Camillo Pamphilj, and Bernini reached its climax. Most of the Jesuits wanted a simple church, without marble or intricate stuccoing, that would better reflect their dedication to simplicity and poverty. They noted that a church down the street had been built (by Borromini) for less than 12,000 scudi, a more reasonable price for a church. They were also nervous because wealthy patrons often ordered expensive decoration and then failed to pay for it; Camillo Pamphilj was particularly notorious for this, and over the course of the project he did miss payments and allow the church to fall into debt. On the other side of the debate, Camillo Pamphilj, Bernini, and a minority of the Jesuits wanted a church that would be in Camillo’s words “both rich and beautiful” to better proclaim the glory of God. Since Bernini was designing and Camillo was paying, this side won the argument. For this kind of a controversy to end this way was not at all uncommon in Jesuit churches. G. P. Oliva, the general of the Jesuit order at the time, remarked that great churches were often forced on the Jesuits, but could be justified because by virtue of some one else paying the churches were only being lent to them, rather than the Jesuits actually owning them, so the elaborate churches didn’t conflict with their dedication to simplicity.
After the controversy was decided, the church was decorated and completed. In 1661, the oculus at the top of the dome was opened. For the next five years after that, the 138 stucco figures in the church were carved and placed. The façade was designed and begun in 1670, and from 1673 to 1706 the side chapels were filled. The main altar, dedicated to St Andrew, was made around 1668.
The façade of S Andrea (FIG. 2) was designed in 1670, after the rest of the church was mostly complete. The original façade would have been dominated by a rectangular portico supported by paired pilasters, but Bernini must have felt something more inviting and reflective of the shape of the church was needed. This new façade, the one we currently see, is also very simple. There are no windows visible from the outside, and the low dome is hidden behind tall walls. The face of the church is framed by two Corinthian pilasters; its main decoration is the semi-circular portico and steps that flow down like rings of water. Cammillo Pamphilj’s crest is also displayed prominently on the front above the portico, topped with a crown to signify his status as a prince. Curved walls sweep from either side of the main entrance. Critics have extolled Bernini for his skillful composition on this church façade since it was originally built, and it is easy to understand why. First, the contrast between the concave outer walls and the convex portico creates an appealing and welcoming symmetry that Bernini used to funnel people into the church from the street outside. Their shape also reflects the shape of the interior of the church, without spoiling the surprise. Finally, the simplicity of the exterior portrays some of the Jesuit ideas and makes discovering the inside truly a joy.
Bernini designed the church of S Andrea al Quirinale to be an active experience. The church itself is oval shaped, with the long axis parallel to the street and the entrance and main altar on the short axis. Since the altar and entrance are so close together, the overall experience of the church is very intimate; the audience is able to connect themselves to the drama unfolding on the main altar if only because they are very close to it. The inside of the church is richly decorated with pink and white marble on the main floor of the church and gold leaf and white stucco on the dome, creating an overall aura of unearthliness. Indeed, this is probably what Bernini intended to create – from the façade to the dome, the church sweeps people from the earthly realm of the street with its curved walls, into the intermediate realm of the church, where the pink marble looks like clouds at sunset alight with a heavenly glow, into God’s realm of heaven in the gold and white dome. Thus Bernini’s church is not merely a passive building. It actively captures the mind and souls of churchgoers.
S Andrea al Quirinale, as its name implies, honors St Andrew, one of Jesus’ first Apostles and the brother of St Peter. The story of St Andrew is important since Bernini made S Andrea basically to be a stage on which St Andrew’s martyrdom and ascension is replayed to create an active experience for the audience. After Jesus ascended into heaven, St Andrew traveled around Greece and the Black Sea preaching. Eventually the Romans caught him and were going to crucify him, but he requested that he be tied on an X-shaped cross instead of nailed to a Latin cross because he didn’t consider himself worthy to be crucified in the same way as Christ. After he had been hanging there for several days, his supporters were able to convince the Romans to let him down, but by that point St Andrew had decided that it was time he join Jesus in heaven. He prayed to God to let him die, and when the Romans tried to cut him down their arms were paralyzed. However, they persevered, so God enveloped St Andrew in a blinding white light, and when it vanished St Andrew was dead. St Andrew’s martyrdom and assent into heaven is the predominate theme of the church because the Jesuits, a relatively new order, were still trying to connect their saints to revered Catholic figures.
The Crucifixion of St Andrew hangs behind the main altar of the church. It was painted under Bernini’s supervision by the Jesuit painter Guglielmo Cortese and depicts St Andrew’s death. The colors of the painting are dark and earthy, and St Andrew hangs heavily on the cross. But he looks up to an all-white stucco sculpture of St Andrew ascending, which was carved by one of Bernini’s students, Antonio Raggi, based on his design. This stucco sculpture in turn looks at the dove at the center of the dome, which represents the Holy Spirit. In this way, Bernini has created a play to put on his stage of a church: the audience watches St Andrew being crucified, dark and heavy with earthly burdens, then ascending as a white and floating figure towards heaven, looking towards God as he did when he was crucified. With the colors, symbolism, and play of light and dark, Bernini has created a masterpiece in true Baroque style (FIG. 3).
There are also four side chapels in S Andrea al Quirinale. These chapels are all similarly shaped and very dark so that they don’t draw attention away from the main altar. Their main purpose is to connect Jesuit saints, who died in ecstasy of the faith, with St Andrew, a martyr of the faith. Going counterclockwise, the first chapel depicts St Francis Xavier, one of the first two Jesuits to be canonized, in three paintings: preaching, administering baptism, and dying. The second chapel holds a painting of the Pieta entitled The Deposition from the Cross by Giacinto Brandi from 1682. The third holds the remains of St Stanislaus Kostka, whose piety and devotion to Mary earned him three rooms in the back of the church. Last is the chapel of St Ignatius Loyola, who was canonized with St Francis Xavier in 1622. The two men were the founders of the Jesuit faith.
St Stanislaus Kostka, whose remains are housed in an urn in the third side chapel, was a young Jesuit novice with a tragic story. He was the son of a Polish nobleman born around 1550 and was sent away to a Jesuit school in Vienna with his older brother. He was in top of his class, and consequently his brother constantly teased him and beat him up. After years of this treatment, Stanislaus got fed up and asked the Jesuits to take him on as a novice, but they refused on the grounds that they didn’t want to anger his father, who would not support Stanislaus’s religious endeavors. The Jesuits in Vienna suggested that he might have better luck if he tried to become a novice in Rome, so Stanislaus walked on foot to Rome from Vienna, relying on charity for food and shelter. Finally, he made it, and the Jesuits of Rome accepted him as a novice and sent him to the old S Andrea for training. Unfortunately, Stanislaus was not very healthy. He suffered constant fevers and collapses, sometimes brought on by religious experiences, sometimes not. Through it all, he prayed to the Virgin Mary and often had visions of her. One day, after he had been at S Andrea for only 18 months, he succumbed to illness. When the first S Andrea was destroyed, so were the original rooms in which he had lived and died, but Bernini designed a series of three apartments that the Jesuits dedicated to him. The first two rooms house sketches by a Jesuit artist of scenes from the saint’s life and a letter written about him by a superior. The final room contains an altar to him and a statue of him on his death bed. The statue was made by Pierre Legros around 1700 out of black granite for his garments and white marble for his skin. At the head of the statue is a painting of the Virgin Mary welcoming St Stanislaus to heaven, and to the statue’s left is the altar (FIG. 4). On the other side of the room is a mini-shrine with a painting that is a copy of the Virgin and Child in St Maria Maggiore by Francis Borgia – it is said that St Stanislaus was particularly attached to this painting and would often pray in front of it.
S Andrea al Quirinale is one of the most beautiful churches in Rome, and Bernini regarded it as his only perfect work. During the later years of the project, Bernini refused payment and instead asked for a loaf of bread each day from the novitiate’s bakery. His son reported that he often came to the church alone to sit and admire the intensely dramatic scene he had created: this was the only piece he ever did that brought him solace. Even now, almost three and a half centuries after Bernini’s death, S Andrea is still admired as a “jewel box” among Roman churches and a defining example of the beauty of the Baroque era.
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ReplyDeleteGreat informative post, I'm writing an essay about this church and have found your info really useful. Just wondering if you could tell me the source where you got all the info about the church? that would be really helpful
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Marcus