The development of the visual arts as ‘psychagogic’ media of the Society of Jesus: techniques and theology of Baroque presentation

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The Jesuit order and the Catholic studia in the context of the success during the Baroque era of artistic media of sacred and theatre building, dramaturgy, perspective and acoustics north of the Alps. The subject of the present research project is the Jesuit centres of education along with their specific infrastructures and their representative function. The focus here lies primarily on the apparatus and equipment for delivering homilies and propagating the faith, which Jesuit institutions, colleges or religious houses possessed: oratories, church spaces, refectories and stages. These were conceived in accordance with the latest techniques and design methods to an extent, which, up to this time, had never been practiced by any other order. The new territory, which it is hoped to access, is the synthesis of scenically depictive design arts and the mathematical sciences. The intention is to discuss below how this synthesis was arrived at and to review the case studies that are to be examined.