Sant'Ignazio di Loyola

Andrea del Pozzo's amazing, dizzying ceiling above the nave of the church of Sant'Iganzio, Rome

Andrea del Pozzo's amazing, dizzying ceiling fresco on the nave ceiling of Sant'Iganzio. (Photo by Trismitril)

The "dome" in this church is a masterpiece of trompe-l'oeil

The stage-set of a piazza in front of Sant'Iganzio. (Photo by Francis Wu)

Piazza Sant'Ignazio

Before you even go into this amazingly frescoed baroque/rococo Jesuit church tucked in the heart of Rome, take a moment to sit on the steps and just look around the tiny sqaure before you. It is like being on a baroque stage set.

The Piazza Sant'Ignazio in front of the church of St. Ignazio di Loyola is a theater set of buildings laid out by Raguzzini in a late baroque/early rococo style.

The ceiling fresco

Inside the church—designed by the Jesuit mathematician Orazio Grassi, who modeled it after plans by Carlo Maderno—the sense of theater continues.

First of all, attention must be paid to the ceiling of the nave overhead. It is breathtakingly, dizzyingly, swimmingly decorated in a riotous, colroful, and amazingly masterful tromp l’oeil 1685 fresco depciting St. Ignatius and his Works by perhaps the greatest baroque master of perspective there ever was, Andrea Pozzo (who was himself a lay brother of the Jesuit order).

Tear your eyes away from it long enough to find the first marble disc set in the floor of the nave, then look back up. This is the spot from which the perspective is deigned to all line up and cause the ceiling to literally seem to extend right up into the heavens.

Even if this sort of painting isn't your cup of art-appreciation tea, it is quite impressive simply as a technical feat in of itself.

The "dome" of the church of Sant'Iganzio

Andrea del Pozzo's masterful painted illusion of a dome and cupola above the transept of the church of Sant'Ignazio, Rome.

The "dome" as seen from the nave, looking "correct." (Photo by Sylvain Silver)

Andrea del Pozzo's masterful painted illusion (though from the wrong angle) of a dome and cupola above the transept of the church of Sant'Ignazio, Rome.

Andrea del Pozzo's masterful painted illusion (though from the wrong angle) of a dome and cupola above the transept of the church of Sant'Ignazio, Rome.

The "dome" as seen from underneath, where the perspective is all skewed. (Photo by James Stringer)

Now continue down the nave to the second marble disc set in the floor and take a look at the dome over the crossing up ahead, dimly illuminated by a golden light. Now keep walking toward the transept, but keep your eye on that "dome."

The closer you get, the odder and odder it looks.

That's because it isn't a dome at all.

It's actually another masterpiece of trompe-l'oeil, painted on a flat surface by Andrea Pozzo, on canvas this time.

On sunny days, the illusion is quite effective; if its cloudy outside, the inside of the "dome" with sunlight "streaming in" will look a bit funny.

(Sadly, the original "dome" painting was destroyed in 1891 and this is a replacement; I can only imagine—given Pozzo's talent for this sort of thing—that the original was even more spectacularly illusory).

Pozzo also painted the frescoes of the Apotheosis of St. Ignatius in the apse, and the ceiling Assumption in the left transept.