Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque

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. This study 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. "This is a subtle, intelligent, and deeply learned recasting of a whole range of issues central to art history: the place of the Baroque in the construction of modern art histories; the peculiar aesthetics of propaganda as a distinctively institutional mobilizing of images and forms; the role of the Jesuits in constructing (and then deconstructing) the relation of architectural style and ideology. Evonne Levy's careful readings of key monuments in the Catholic Baroque shed light not only on those works, but on the whole evolution of art historical understanding—and misunderstanding—that has made the Baroque so central and problematic for the discipline of art history."—W. J. T. Mitchell, editor of Critical Inquiry and author of Iconology and Picture Theory "One of the most original and provocative books in the field of Baroque studies to emerge in the last twenty years, Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque at once presents a wealth of new materials and radically rethinks what has long been known about the Jesuit Order as a patron of the arts. Through the lens of propaganda, Evonne Levy illuminates her subject in an unprecedented way."—Steven F. Ostrow, author of Art and Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Rome 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…