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E XHIBITIONStonishingly out of joint.Are the fountain and the chapel meresymptoms of a theatrical fad in Western design?Or does that very theatricality arisefrom enduring human preferences? Onlyfunctionalist superstition could cause anydoubts about the answer. But still, somewill wonder whether such flamboyant visualdisplay is as appropriate for a house ofworship as for a public fountain. From timeimmemorial, however, such display hasbeen indispensable to the creation of settingsfor worship exalted above the rudimentarybackground of daily life. And ofcourse profound insight into human modesof perception -- psychological insight, in aword -- hardly originated with the“moderns.” In Hadrian’s Pantheon, too, arich array of color and illusion lay at theheart of the architectural scheme, with thewalls of the great rotunda “dematerialized”in such a way that the skylit domewould seem not to be supported, but tofloat.Bernini, like his Renaissance forebears,was simply building on the artisticachievements of ancient Rome. Where isthe biblical injunction against such endeavor?From the Greeks the Romans hadinherited an architectural canon whose expressivepowers they vastly increased aspart of that great instinctive task of incarnatingthe sense of an ideal life beckoningto us during our earthly sojourns. After thelong medieval interlude, Christian Romeassumed this great legacy for its own artisticpurposes. This was only natural, for thattask is not specifically pagan, nor Christian,but human. And the result was thatthe expressive range of classical architecturewas once again broadened enormouslyover the course of several centuries.The real question, of course, is why themoderns eventually abandoned the classicaltradition. A hint at the answer is perhapsprovided by two enchanting, andquite large, canvases included in the exhibition.They are Panini’s Ancient Rome andModern Rome (1757). Each picture showsconnoisseurs and copyists in a magnificent,luminous gallery. In the first instance, thegallery is replete with great works of Romanantiquity in architecture and sculpture.(The architecture is shown in paintingscovering the gallery’s walls). In thesecond, works of the same kind from theRenaissance and baroque eras are on view.If it weren’t for the pictures’ titles, the casualviewer might well be oblivious to thechronological distinction. For what we encounterin both paintings is the same vesselof forms, to use Spengler’s expression. Or,to put it another way, we encounter thegreat cultural continuity that characterizeswhat Geoffrey Scott called “the Romanroad, which stretched forward and back tothe horizon, sometimes overlaid, but notfor long to be avoided.”Model of the Abbey Church of St. Gall, Switzerland, 1751The burden of historical consciousnesswhich the Enlightenment brought in itstrain accounts for the subject matter ofPanini’s pair of pictures as well as the famousquérelle between the ancients andmoderns, which got underway in Franceduring the 17th century. The utterly misleadingmodern notion of progress in thearts equivalent to progress in scienceproved profoundly disruptive to the classicaltradition. After all, Bernini’s art and architectureessentially involved the discoveryof new facets of an inexhaustibly fertileideal which had existed across the ages.The same applies to Sixtus V’s brilliantscheme of the 1580s for Rome’s spatial integration,which provided the urban frameworkfor major architectural developmentsof the baroque era. But pseudo-scientifictheories and the subjection of esthetics tosociology did away with the idea of designgrounded in the past.The Triumph of the Baroque shows theplastic possibilities of the classical canonbeing grasped far from Rome. Models forchurches in Austria, Germany, and Switzerlanddisplay baroque plasticity and ornamentalexuberance fused with theconical roofs and onion domes of northernEurope. Far more impressive, however, intheir unity of conception, harmonious proportions,figural appeal, and detailing aretwo superb models for ecclesiastic projectsin St. Petersburg. In both cases, Italian architectsincorporated local conventionssuch as the centralized Greek-cross planand the combination of four secondarydomes with a great central dome and alofty entrance bell-tower into theirschemes.The earlier of the two models is of theCathedral of St. Isaac commissioned byCatherine the Great in 1767. St. Isaac’s wascompleted in 1802, then demolished in1818 to make way for a more capaciousbuilding, the ungainly neoclassical pile ofthe same name. The second, and much thegrander, of the two models is of theSmol’ny Convent, which includes a centralchurch, girded by the convent’s residentialwings, chapels, and gardens, plus a greatperimeter wall. The model boasts typicallyRussian blue-and-white polychromy, whilea profusion of gilt ornament suggestsripples of flame running along its domesand towers. The convent’s brilliantly configuredbell-tower entrance, with its veryhigh, onion-domed central lantern perchedabove five orders and two flanking towers,was never built, but the rest of the designwas carried out.The exhibition also includes examplesof commercial, civic, military, and residentialdesign from different parts of Europe. Itserves as a reminder -- if a reminder wereneeded -- that it’s high time we tossed thequérelle aside and got back on the Romanroad.Catesby Leigh is a writer and architecturalcritic residing in Washington, D.C.Photo coutesy the National Gallery of Art30 Fall 2000 Sacred Architecture
B O O K SPONTIFICAL PATRONAGERejoice! 700 Years of Art for the PapalJubilee, edited by Maurizio Calvesi withLorenzo Canova, New York: Rizzoli, 1999.239 pages. $75.00.Reviewed by Michael Morris, O.P.REJOICE! is a very dumb title for a verysmart book. The title smacks too muchof those mindless felt and burlap bannersfrom the trendy 1960’s which look like anembarrassment to us now. But this bookhas the finer arts in focus. The Rizzoli publication,which is a compilation of twentyfouressays by a variety of Italian scholars,looks at 700 years of papal artistic patronagefor the Jubilee Yearsthat brought pilgrimsfrom around the worldto Rome. The superblyillustrated coffee-tablebook covers both artand architecture.Pope Boniface VIIIpromulgated the firstJubilee in the year 1300.His annus iubilaeus wasrooted in the traditionof the Hebrew feast ofthe Jubilee. The feast occurredevery fifty yearsand was dedicated tothe sanctification of society.There was neitherharvesting nor sowing;the land was left fallow.Freedom was restoredto the slaves, propertyreturned to its originalowners. Debts werecancelled. For the Christiansof the MiddleAges, the call to Rome was an opportunityto cancel temporal punishment due to sin.By papal edict, the faithful could gain indulgencesby going on pilgrimage and visitingthe sacred basilicas in the Eternal City.How often these Jubilees would be heldwas a matter not settled for several centuries.One-hundred-year intervals and thirtythree-year intervals (supposedly the lengthof Christ’s time on earth) were tried until itwas finally decided that the Holy Yearwould occur every twenty-fifth year, savefor special occasions when an “extraordinary”Jubilee might be called for specialreasons. Throughout the centuries, thepopes prepared for such events by sponsoringelaborate building programs andcommissioning beautiful works of art. APiazza del Popolo, Rome, Italysweeping view of these achievements is theobject of these essays, and they have beenmasterfully edited by Maurizio Calvesi, aprofessor of art history at the University ofRome.Students of architecture will appreciateespecially the chapter on the Jubilee calledby Pope Sixtus IV in the year 1475. Becausethe Holy Land was controlled by the Mohammedans,Rome took deliberate meansto become a substitute destination for pilgrimswho longed to go to Jerusalem. Thepapacy appropriated for itself and at thesame time confronted the potent symbolismof the Jewish High Priesthood and theglorious Temple of Solomon. The scholarsof this book prove that it is by no mere coincidencethat the dimensions of the SistineChapel are identical to the dimensions ofSolomon’s Temple. An inscription found inthe Chapel reads: “You, Sixtus IV, inferiorto Solomon in wealth, but superior to himin religion and devotion, consecrated thisimmense temple.” In 1500 the Jubilee ofAlexander VI embellished the Church ofSanta Croce in Gerusalemme, reputedlybuilt on the site of the Empress Helena’spalace, which contained the many relics ofChrist’s Passion retrieved from her extraordinaryarchaeological expedition to theHoly Land in the fourth century. He alsohad a group of medieval and ancient buildingshurriedly demolished (including thefabled Meta Romuli, a sepulchral pyramidnamed after the founder of Rome) to createa traffic-friendly avenue that connectedCastel Sant’Angelo with St. Peter’s Square.Running out of time, the pontiff was forcedto mobilize pilgrims to help clear therubble themselves! The conflict betweenthe remains of antiquity and papal buildingprograms continues to haunt the JubileeYear, but today more conservationistminds prevail.The art and illustrations of REJOICE!tend to favor painting and prints over architecture,but throughout the book thevarious art forms tend to complement eachother rather than compete. How else mightthe authors have portrayed the developmentsmade at the Basilica of Santa MariaMaggiore, the Piazza of St. Peter’s, and thePantheon without utilizing the graphicwork of Piranesi?Beautiful photographsrecord thecurrent state ofother Jubileebuildings: the CasinodelBelrespiro, thetwin churches ofthe Piazza delPopolo, the sacristyof St. Peter’s,the Museo PioClementino, andthe churches ofDivina Sapienzaand MariaMediatrice inRome. In comparison,a modelfor RichardMeier’s Churchfor the Jubilee of2000 looks jarringlyout ofplace. This modernistexclamation in the realm of classicismseems less a prediction for the futurethan a faint echo of masterpieces from thecentury past, most notably the Sydney OperaHouse. Yet it is the variety of artisticcommissions recorded in REJOICE! tyingparticular pontiffs with particular monuments,that reinforces in the reader’s mindthe important role of patronage in the advancementof the arts, a noble activity thatnot only dazzles the eye, but feeds the soul.Photo: Calvesi, Rejoice! 700 Years of Art for the PApal Jubilee, 1999Rev. Michael Morris O.P. teaches classes inart and film at the Graduate Theological Unionin Berkeley and directs the Santa Fe Institutefor Catholic Faith and Culture.SacredArchitecture Fall 2000 31
Page 4 and 5: N E W SThe long awaited revision of
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Page 34: The Agency for the CityRome, ItalyT

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