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“This is not the Sistine Chapel, but there are no queues either.” The church, which I came across quite by accident getting lost in the streets of Rome, and which I consider one of the most beautiful in the city.
This is the 17th-century Baroque Jesuit Church of Sant'Ignazio in Rome, also known as the Church of St. Ignatius on The Campus Martius (Sant'Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio), which is located near the Pantheon. The project was designed by several architects at once, and was financially supported by nephew of Pope Gregory XV, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi. However, eventually they faced a big problem - there was a catastrophic lack of money for the construction of the dome.
Fortunately, the architect and painter Andrea Pozzo elegantly solves the problem...
He came up with a brilliant idea. Instead of the dome, there will be its illusion, drawn so professionally that it will be impossible to distinguish it from the real dome from the inside of the church.
That’s why this ceiling is considered the best work of art of the church, a real masterpiece of baroque art. The theme of the composition is "The Apotheosis of St. Ignatius" - the ascension to Paradise of the head of the Jesuit order, Ignatius Loyola.
Baroque art opened the genre of pittura di sotto in sù - "from the bottom up". In this case, the flat ceiling of the church is painted in such a way that an imperceptible transition is created from real architecture to a fictional one invented by the artist. Painting on the ceiling creates the effect of very high building and an open sky above. Andrea Pozzo’ve performed a miracle - he opened the sky over the heads of Christians!
To this day, Andrea Pozzo's work in the church of Sant'Ignazio is considered one of the finest examples of perspective painting ever created. The master himself will go down in the history of art as "Michelangelo of Perspective".
Nowadays, you can find a huge mirror placed in the center of the church. That helps to view the whole picture on the ceiling without looking up.
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15 декабря 2022