1563
1563 COUNTER-REFORMATION
The final session of the Council of Trent under Pope Pius IV condemns the heresies of the Protestant Reformation and tries to shore up Catholicism by encouraging new artwork conveying Vatican theology. Church commissions stimulate the development of a new Baroque style.
CHURCH OF THE GESU 1584
Although considered plain by later standards, the newly built Church of the Gesù is thought to be the first building with