“Let Vitriuvius Come Here with all His Successors”. Several Remarks on the Church and the College of Jesuits in Ostróg

Abstract

The paper deals with the Jesuit church and college in Ostróg erected from the foundation of Anna Alojza Chodkiewiczowa in the years of 1629-1653. It analyses the earlier projects of this building, together with those that are presented for the first time here. They are stored in the collections of the Paris National Library and the Getty Research Institute, as well as the sources from the Archivum Romanum Societatis Jesu. In the light of the iconographic sources and archives, the chronology of the Ostróg complex has been made precise, above all some proposals as to its authorship have been put forward. The Jesuit church and college in Ostróg were a “common work” of two religious architects: Giacomo Briano and Benedetto Mollego. Contrary to what we have learnt so far from literature, it was Briano who considerably contributed to the preparation of the project. His participation in the temple's project was almost dominating, and the role of Molle might be defined as supervising the course of construction. The work can be described as a creation of clearly north Italian stylistic references, typical of Giacomo Briano from Modena. This artist continued the work of the artists from the last quarter of the fourteenth century, mainly Pellegrino Tibaldi.