The Jesuits, 1506–2006 A Visual Celebration

WORCESTER ART MUSEUM Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, and Child with , about 1730, oil on canvas, 132.1 x 85.1 cm, Sarah C. Garver Fund, 1977.129 he year 2006 marks several Jesuits believed that God was present anniversaries for the everywhere in the world, and they would T called the Jesuits work where people were, largely in cities (more formally known as the Society of and towns, but also in far-flung missions ). It is the 450th anniversary of the around the world. They would labor as death of the founder, Ignatius of teachers, preachers, and in many other Loyola (1491-1556), as well as the 500th roles, wherever the needs of people anniversary of the birth of two of the were greatest. other first Jesuits: Saint Formally approved by Paul III in (1506-52) and Blessed 1540, the made its (1506-46). headquarters. Ignatius soon became the head of the new order, and devoted A special installation of three paintings himself to its direction. He was the from the Worcester Art Museum cele- principal author of the Jesuit Constitutions; brates these Jesuit anniversaries. This he responded to requests for Jesuits from guide to the installation also acknowledges bishops, princes, city governments, and the continuing presence of Jesuits in the others seeking their help. From the later city of Worcester, especially at the College , requests for Jesuit teachers and of the Holy Cross. for the Jesuits to found or take over Saint Ignatius was a Basque Spaniard who schools became more and more frequent. lived at the end of the Middle Ages and Soon there were many Jesuit educational the beginning of the modern world. In institutions, ranging in level from what we his age, was the world’s superpower, call middle school, to with with vast territories in Europe as well as a graduate and professional programs. growing in the Americas and else- where. Around the age of thirty, Ignatius underwent a radical conversion from the life of a courtier and knight, to a life spent in the service of God and persons in need. Believing himself called to help people find God in their lives, Ignatius went to the of for an education in philosophy and . There he became friends with an interna- tional group of fellow students who would eventually found with him a new religious order called the Society of Jesus. Unlike monks, the Jesuits would not leave the world to find God in the solitude and of a monastery. Detail: Saint Francis Xavier from Virgin and Child with Saints 3 One particular means Ignatius and his was a better student than Loyola, and the first companions used to help others in former tutored the latter. But Ignatius their relationship with God was what was far more mature in years and in his Ignatius called Spiritual Exercises. These own spiritual journey; Faber was one of exercises—even today central to Jesuit those Ignatius first led in the Spiritual ministries—were designed to help people Exercises. Peter Faber was ordained a focus on the many gifts and graces they on May 30, 1534 and on August 15th of had received from God, and on how they that year joined Ignatius and five other could respond, in gratitude, by putting fellow students in taking a vow of avail- their talents to use for the greater glory ability for ministry, wherever the need of God and the good of other people. was greatest. Faber then traveled to Ignatius understood the Spiritual Exercises to and eventually to Rome, where these first be especially useful in helping persons to Jesuits sought papal approval of their make good decisions about the direction society. Mobility characterized Faber’s of their lives. work: in , , Spain, and For Ignatius, prayer had a strong visual , as a teacher, preacher, and component. To help others to meditate on spiritual director. He taught theology at the meaning of the life of Jesus, Ignatius universities in Rome and in . Pope invited those doing the Exercises to imagine Paul III appointed Faber a theologian for what a given story looked like. By the , but Faber died in such “compositions of place” one could Rome on August 1, 1546, before reaching best enter into contemplation. As the Jesuit Trent. He was beatified (declared Blessed) order grew, its churches also fully developed in 1872. the place of the visual dimension of reli- By the late seventeenth century, churches gious experience. Jesuit churches in Rome dedicated to Saint Ignatius were abun- set a high standard for Jesuit churches dant. Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639- throughout the world. Architecture, 1709), known as Baciccio, painted The painting, and sculpture worked with Vision of Saint Ignatius at as a model preaching and liturgical services to draw for a large intended for the people closer to God. church of Sant’Ignazio in Rome. He Q painted this version around 1684-85; by eter Faber was born in 1506 that time Baciccio was one of the leading in , then an independent painters in Rome. Though he never P duchy and then, as now, a painted the full-scale altarpiece, a very French-speaking region nestled in the similar painting on the same theme was Alps between Italy and . Like created about fifteen years later for the Loyola and Xavier, he went to Paris for high altar in Sant’ Ignazio. This painting, an education. There, he shared a room and much of the interior decoration of with Francis Xavier, and these two were Sant’ Ignazio, was designed by Andrea later joined by . Faber Pozzo, a Jesuit artist.

4 Giovanni Battista Gaulli, The Vision of Saint Ignatius at La Storta, 1684-85, oil on canvas, 71.7 x 35.9 cm, Charlotte E.W. Buffington Fund, 1974.298 In his Autobiography, Ignatius mentions that, need was greatest. He was ordained a after his ordination as a priest, he prayed priest in Venice, in 1537. Very shortly to the Virgin Mary, asking her to place after papal approval of the Society of him with her son, Jesus. Ignatius explains Jesus, Francis Xavier went from Rome to that he experienced this ‘change’ while Lisbon to fulfill a request from John III, praying in a small chapel not far from King of Portugal, who wanted missionar- Rome. Ignatius also mentions that two ies to send to . Thus Francis left companions were with him on his way to Lisbon in April 1541, never to return to Rome (in 1537): and Peter Europe. After more than a year’s journey Faber. Laynez and Faber are included in he arrived in the Indian city of ; by the background of Baciccio’s painting 1546 he was in present-day ; in (one on the right and one on the left). 1549 he moved on to ; and on And Rome looms in the background December 3, 1552, he died while on (though more the Rome of Baciccio’s era route to . than that of the first Jesuits). In addition Xavier had frequently sent letters to to Ignatius’ own account, Laynez also later Ignatius and others. This correspondence, wrote about this experience at La Storta. some of which was published, helped to According to Laynez, Ignatius recounted at create much interest in Francis, especially that time that he heard the words Ego ero after his death. On , 1622, he was vobis Romae propitius (I will be favorable to you canonized a saint, by Pope Gregory XV. in Rome), and that Ignatius later explained (Four others were canonized at the same that he also saw Christ with the cross on his ceremony, including Ignatius, and Teresa shoulder. In Baciccio’s painting, in addi- of Avila, the great mystic and reformer of tion to Christ and the cross, God the the Carmelite order.) More than Saint Father and the Holy Spirit also appear; two Ignatius, Saint Francis Xavier became the present the motto Ignatius gave to object of a popular cult, not only in places the Society of Jesus: where Jesuits went, but also more broadly (For the greater glory of God). among Catholics throughout Europe and Q beyond. Many miracles were said to be due to the intercession of Francis Xavier; he ike Ignatius of Loyola, Francis became a favored intercessor in time of Xavier was born in the Basque plague and other epidemic disease, and at Lregion of northern Spain. the hour of death. In 1525 Francis went to Paris for a university education. From 1529 he Jesuit traveled not only to shared a room with Peter Faber and lands distant from Europe; they also Ignatius; under the direction of the latter, Francis did the Spiritual Exercises and became an enthusiastic participant in developing an idea for a new society devoted to service of God, wherever the

Daniel Seghers’ signature from A Garland of Flowers with the Education 6 of the Virgin and Erasmus Quellinus II, A Garland of Flowers with the Education of the Virgin, about 1645, oil on canvas, 112.5 x 94.0 cm, Eliza S. Paine Fund in memory of William F. and Frances T.C. Paine, 1966.37 Detail: Daniel Seghers and Erasmus Quellinus II, A Garland of Flowers with the Education of the Virgin

went to parts of Europe considered in y the , many parts of need of evangelization. Though not far northern Europe were also well from Rome, southern Italy was one such Bsupplied with Jesuits. The place. Works of art depicting Xavier give Flemish city of , in the Spanish evidence of the spread of devotion to him. , was a wealthy port and Domenico Antonio Vaccaro (1678-1745), trading center, as well as a vibrant center a Neapolitan painter, placed Saint Francis for printing and the arts. It was the home Xavier on a par with Saint Sebastian in his of many important artists including Peter painting Madonna delle Grazie (Madonna of Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Erasmus Graces), or Virgin and Child with Saints. Quellinus II (1607-78), a student and Painted about 1730 as a study for a large collaborator of Rubens, and Daniel altarpiece in the church of Santa Maria delle Seghers, S.J.(1590-1661), a student of Grazie in Marigliano, a town near , Jan Brueghel the Elder, were residents of Antwerp. this painting shows Xavier as an interces- sory saint, calling on Mary and Jesus to Seghers entered the Jesuit novitiate in show mercy to the town, most likely in a 1614, and took his final vows as a Jesuit time of plague. By the early eighteenth in 1625. Though he did not seek century, Francis Xavier had become a very ordination as a priest, Seghers lived in popular saint in southern Italy; his pair- Jesuit communities as a brother, and ing with Sebastian (easily identified by an continued his work as a painter. He came arrow) associates him specifically with to be known especially as a painter of flow- intercession in time of plague. Vaccaro ers and still life. In the Worcester Art not only completed the full-scale altar- Museum’s painting by Seghers and piece—which is still in the church—but Quellinus, Quellinus painted the central produced several other paintings as well portion as a grisaille (shades of gray to resemble sculpture) of the education of the for the same church, including a painting Virgin Mary by her mother, Saint Anne. of Francis Xavier preaching. Close inspection reveals a pentimento: Q Quellinus had first painted an image of

8 the Madonna and Child, and then Jesuits did encourage the foundation of changed it to portray the education of the schools for women, run by religious orders Virgin. Paintings of the Madonna and of women such as the . One Child surrounded with a garland of flow- example was City where by 1640 ers were a theme that had been developed there was a Jesuit school for boys and an by Jan Brueghel, Seghers’ teacher. Ursuline school for girls. It is Seghers, the Jesuit, not Quellinus, Jesuits in the seventeenth century imagined who painted what one might think of as the Mary as a model for all Catholics to follow. more secular part of the work. But was a The Society of Jesus founded so-called floral garland seen as secular in circles Marian congregations in most places where influenced by the Society of Jesus? Jesuits worked; these congregations were Both the theme of Mary—whether as organizations of laypeople formed by the mother of Jesus or as a student—and the Spiritual Exercises, often students and gradu- theme of a floral garland echoed the spiri- ates of Jesuit schools, along with other tuality and pastoral priorities of the Society persons attracted to Jesuit spirituality. In of Jesus. In the culminating of these congregations, devotion to Mary was his Spiritual Exercises, on God’s love, Ignatius linked with works of charity such as visiting speaks of how God dwells in creation, the sick and feeding the hungry. including plants and animals. Ignatius invites those undertaking his Spiritual Exercises Q to pay attention to such created things, and gnatius died in Rome in 1556; to consider how God's love is manifested by then there were about one in and through them. Seghers’ work as a Ithousand Jesuits in the world. flower painter would in no way have Ignatius was succeeded as general contradicted his vocation as a Jesuit; such of the Society of Jesus by Diego Laynez. loving attention to floral beauty was central Under Laynez and his successors, Jesuits to his was of living out . flourished in many parts of the world, Meanwhile, many of Seghers’ fellow Jesuits founding schools, building churches, devoted themselves to education. By the preaching, teaching, and giving the early seventeenth century, Jesuit schools Spiritual Exercises. were multiplying all across Catholic Europe, as well as on other continents, Yet Jesuits never lacked for opponents, where Jesuit missionaries were active. many of them motivated by envy of Jesuit Though Jesuit schools did not admit success and influence. By the mid- women students until the twentieth eighteenth century, governments in century, an image of the education of many Catholic countries sought to bring Mary—such as that by Quellinus—would church institutions under state control. have been seen as a visual promotion of the Jesuits, with their international network importance of education for all Christians. of highly-respected schools, were a special In the era of Quellinus and Seghers, target. In 1773, under intense pressure

9 from several kings and emperors, Pope all but the college was phased out, leaving Clement XIV formally “suppressed” the the Jesuits in Worcester to focus their Society of Jesus. But the Jesuits neverthe- energies on undergraduate education. less managed to survive in some places, The Holy Cross curriculum was directly such as the Russian empire of Catherine inspired by the (or plan of the Great. studies), a curricular blueprint adopted by Jesuit schools from the on. The nineteenth century saw not only the It emphasized classical languages, , of the Jesuits—by Pope Pius and philosophy, but also made room for VII, in 1814—but their growth in numbers sciences and other disciplines. and activity, including in parts of the world where they had previously had little But neither the Jesuits and Holy Cross or no presence. Massachusetts was one nor the city of Worcester lived in an anti- such place. Some two hundred years after quarian bubble. The nineteenth century the founding of a Jesuit college in Quebec, was an age of technological developments; the College of the Holy Cross was founded photography, discovered in England and in Worcester, in 1843, by Bishop Benedict France, crossed the Atlantic. A camera Fenwick, S.J. (1782-1846). It was club for Holy Cross students is but one the first Jesuit school and first Catholic example of interest in photography in college in New England. Offering an nineteenth-century Worcester. As Jesuit education to the sons of Irish and other spirituality had always had a strong visual Catholic immigrants, Holy Cross was dimension, it is no surprise to find that initially both a secondary school and a the camera was welcomed and appreciated college. In the early twentieth century, on the Holy Cross campus.

The College of the Holy Cross Camera Club, about 1898 10 Worcester Art Museum in sponsoring a major exhibition, Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800. Curated by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, the exhibition stimulated reappraisal of the interaction of art, religion, illness and medicine, in past times, and in our own era. PHOTO BY PATRICK O'CONNOR Holy Cross students tour the exhibition Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800 In the seventeenth century, Daniel Seghers celebrated the education of Mary with a By the 1960s Holy Cross was moving to floral garland; much more recently, the update itself to reflect the mainstream of Jesuits of Holy Cross have promoted the American higher education, while at the education of both women and men, giving same time preserving the best of the them a first-rate , as College’s traditions. Jesuits on the well as opportunities to experience the faculty were joined by increasingly diverse spiritual heritage of Saint Ignatius and the colleagues, men and women. Since 1972 Society of Jesus. Just as early Jesuits trav- Holy Cross has admitted female students, eled to many parts of the world to put making perhaps the biggest and most their talents to use, Holy Cross graduates significant change in its history. may today be found across the globe, engaged in the widest array of professions. Visual culture has remained a strong component of a Holy Cross education. Thomas Worcester, S.J. In 2005, the College of the Holy Cross Associate Professor of History collaborated with Clark University and the College of the Holy Cross

Fenwick Hall at the College of the Holy Cross, about 1870s-80s 11 Bibliography

Bailey, Gauvin. Between and : Ignatius of Loyola. Personal Writings. Trans. and Jesuit Art in Rome, 1556-1610. Toronto: University ed. by Joseph Munitiz and Philip Endean. of Toronto Press, 2003. London and : Penguin, 1996. Bangert, William. A History of the Society of Jesus. 2nd Jesuits and the Arts. Ed. by John W. O'Malley and ed. St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1986. Gauvin Bailey. Philadelphia: St. Joseph's University Press, 2005. Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits. Ed. by Thomas Worcester. Cambridge: Cambridge University Kuzniewski, Anthony. Thy Honored Name: A Press, early 2008. History of The College of the Holy Cross. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Cusson, Gilles. Biblical Theology and the Spiritual Press, 1999. Exercises. Trans. by Mary Angela Roduit and George Ganss. St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Lacouture, Jean. Jesuits: A Multibiography. Trans. Sources, 1988. by Jeremy Leggatt. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1995. Diccionario histórico de la Compañia de Jesús. 4 vols. O’Malley, John W. The First Jesuits. Cambridge, Rome: Jesuit Historical Institute; : MA: Harvard University Press, 1993. Universidad Comillas, 2001. The Ratio studiorum: The Official Plan of Jesuit Education. Donnelly, John Patrick. Ignatius of Loyola: Founder Trans. by Claude Pavur. St. Louis: Institute of of the Jesuits. New York: Pearson Longman, Jesuit Sources, 2005. 2004. Schurhammer, Georg. Francis Xavier. 4 vols. Enggass, Robert. The Painting of Baciccio. Trans. by M. Joseph Costelloe. Rome: Jesuit University Park: Pennsylvania State University Historical Institute, 1973-82. Press, 1964. Selwyn, Jennifer. A Paradise Inhabited by Devils: Faber, Peter. Spiritual Writings of Pierre Favre. Trans. The Jesuits’ in Early Modern Naples. by Edmond C. Murphy and Martin E. Palmer. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1996. Silf, Margaret. Companions of Christ: Ignatian Filipczak, Zirka. Picturing Art in Antwerp, 1550-1700. Spirituality for Everyday Living. Grand Rapids: Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987. Eerdmans, 2005. Honig, Elizabeth. Painting and the Market in Early Teza, Laura. “The Worcester Vaccaro: A Modern Antwerp. New Haven: Yale University Modello from Eighteenth-Century Naples”. Press, 1998. Worcester Art Museum Journal 7 (1983-84): 38-45.

Images on pages 10 and 11 are courtesy of the College of the Holy Cross.

Produced in collaboration with the College of the Holy Cross.

WORCESTER ART MUSEUM 55 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA 01609 Wed.-Sun.11am-5pm, Thu.11am-8pm, Sat.10am-5pm 508.799.4406 www.worcesterart.org