Picture
Image Size: 9.851.873.088 Pixel (149.307 x 65.984)
Colour Depth: 16 bit Per Channel
Shooting: February 15, 2007
Shots: 1.188

Data processing: CPU: 4 X AMD OpteronTM 885 Dual Core 64bit
RAM: 16 Gigabyte
DISK: 1.8 Terabyte

Equipment
Camera Body: Nikon D2X
Lens: AF VR Zoom-Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED

Real Time Pictures Acquisition Software: Nikon Camera Control Pro
Real Time Quality Control and Postprocessing Software: Nikon Capture NX
Automatic High Accuracy Pointing Sferical Panoramic Head: CLAUSS Rodeon VR Head

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Technical notes: the safeguard of this piece of work has required the maximum energetic care during the shots; that's why some areas of the cornices have been left slightly unfocused.

 

 

Painter: Andrea Pozzo
Title: Glory of Saint Ignatius
Dating: 1691-1694
Technique: fresco
Dimensions: 17x35 meters
Collocation: Church of Saint Ignatius, Rome


Saint Ignatius vault in Rome was painted by Andrea Pozzo between 1691 and 1694. in the same church the artist had previously painted the extraordinary fake dome in the apse (visible in the left part of the image) that allowed to widen the real space of the church, thanks the the wise use of prospectives. The same method is used for the decoration of the naive vault, where Andrea Pozzo paints the Glory of Saint Ignatius, using the classic theme of apotheosis to celebrate the founder of Jesus Company.

The scene is settled in a heavenly classic temple, totally open through the upper part, where the main action takes place: Saint Ignatius is welcomed in the sky from the three Persons of the Trinity, immersed in a dazzling light. God Father, the dove of the Holy Spirit, and mainly the figure of Christ, being in the highest spot of the ideal dome, are represented summarily, highlighting the idea that they are very distant from the watcher.

From Saint Ignatius' chest are irradiating beams of light that reach the allegories of the four continents painted on the sides: this representation  is symbol of the missionary vocation of the Jesuit Order, to which is referring also the inscription on the left side of the vault. Here Andrea Pozzo painted a group of angels holding a scroll in which is written: "Ignem veni mittere in terram", recalling the diffusion in the whole Earth of the Gospel's fire through the Jesuits work. On the right side of the vault of Saint Ignatius an angel feeds a big brazier, whose fire in the meantime lights the streets of the needy and chases away the wicked from the heavenly vision.

The figures in the vault are painted with great attention to the color and to the brightness changes. The light has a key role in the creation of the sense of vertigo which Andrea Pozzo wanted to make the spectator feel. To do this he uses a technical expedient: on the nave floor there are two bronze circles indicating the exact points from where to watch at best the fake architecture, to best appreciate the spaces. In this way Andrea Pozzo reveals the tricks in his architectonic construction, demonstrating that it works only if watched form a precise spot. Observing the vault the spectator gets the impression of being in the center of a courtyard open in the upper part, but also in the sides through arches, and it seems to involve the watcher as part of the scene.

He was born in Trento the 30th November 1642 and died in Vienna the 31st august 1709. He was an extremely versatile artist, he worked as architect, decorator, painter, art critic and was an important figure of the late Baroque. His life, like his colleagues', has been of multiple activities with many and frequent movements to work in northern Italy cities.

In 1665 he moves to Milan where in church of San Fedele he joins the Jesuit Order, whose celebratory attitude connoted almost his entire artistic production. He didn't chose the Priesthood (connoted with the title of Father) and he remained as brother, following the ancient monastic division that Saint Ignatius from Loyola carried on.

In Mondovì from 1676 for two years he paints with frescoes the church of San Francesco Saverio, said church of the Mission. In this work is possible to notice the beginning of his figurative and prospective vision, all the extravagances that  are typical of his abundant production, that will have the highest expression in the Roman period.

In 1681 he is called in Rome from the general of the Congregation to complete the frescoes in the corridor of the Casa Professa left incomplete by Borgognone. Andrea Pozzo stays in Rome for almost twenty years, until 1702, and he had chance to deepen his prospective knowledge and to improve his painting technique. This allowed him to create real masterpieces, thanks to his skills and inspiration.

Surely the work that took him up the most and that make us remember him as representative element of the roman Baroque is the realization of the frescoes of the nave vault in Saint Ignatius church. This is the peak of his endless prospective and figurative research, expression of the reached artistic maturity. On the flat ceiling he realized a prospective painting with illusory architectures which, widening the range of vision, frame the most expressive icon of the missionary spirit of two centuries of the Jesuit Order. His roman artworks influenced for long the internal decoration style in the catholic European churches of the late Baroque.
In his Roman years he maximized his long and elaborated prospective studies, that make us number him among the best architects of his time. He wrote between 1693 and 1698 a famous treatise titled Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum, published in two volumes. In this treatise he presented the techniques to paint architectonic prospectives. This work has been one of the first manuals about prospective for artists and architects and has been translated from the original Latin and Italian in several languages, like French, German, English and, thanks to Jesuits, Chinese.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century on request of Leopold I, he went to Vienna, where he worked for the king, for the court, for prince Johann Adam von Liechtenstein and for many religious orders and churches. Some of his tasks were decorative and occasional (sceneries for churches or theaters) and were soon destroyed. In 1703 he paints the fake couple in the  Jesuits church. His most significant work in Vienna is the monumental fresco in the Liechtenstein palace about the triumph of Hercules that, according to the fonts,  was very admired by the contemporaries. His compositions of altar paintings and of illusionary ceiling frescoes had many followers in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia and Poland.

Saint Ignatius church is part of the Jesuits Roman College, main location of the Order for the education of young missionaries, founded in 1551 by Saint Ignatius from Loyola. The construction of the church was started in 1626 to replace the previous College chapel, too small to satisfy the needs of the College that at the beginning of the seventeenth century counted thousands of students. In the church Andrea Pozzo paints the big vault with Saint Ignatius Glory, the fake couple dominating the presbytery and some scenes from Saint Ignatius life in the apse. In these works are notable his stunning ability to recreate architectures and three-dimensional views on almost completely flat surfaces. The scientific researches done by the great scholars of the Jesuit Order are fundamental for Andrea Pozzo: the prospective rules adopted to paint the architectures in Saint Ignatius church come from the culture atmosphere in which he lives. Great figures animate the cultural scene in Rome between the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the same years when the scientific theories by researchers like Galileo Galilei, Giovanni Keplero and Giovanni Alfonso Borelli. It's clear in this context the great diffusion of the treatises, some of which composed in the Roman College, explaining in theory and geometry that will be applied in Saint Ignatius decoration. The paintings by Andrea Pozzo on one hand celebrate the evangelic force among the Jesuit missionaries, on the other hand they become example and manifestation of the great cultural work carried on by the Company of Jesus, through its scientists, his researchers and, like in this case, its artists.

1.Trinity
The three persons of the Trinity are represented in the middle of the vault. Andrea Pozzo immerses the figures in a dazzling light that makes almost disappear the features of their faces, which are painted with rapid and brief brushstrokes.

2.Squares  (above the Trinity)
In the sky surrounding the figures in the middle are still visible the lines engraved by Andrea Pozzo to split the surface in squares in order to build the spatial system of the fresco and enlarge the  preparatory study.

3.Four Continents: Europe
Europe is represented as a woman, blond and with white skin, holding a sphere in one hand and  a scepter in the other. The animal connected to her is the horse, painted behind her shoulders near a couple of little angels holding a fruit basket. Here it's interesting to notice the thick line drew to represent the shadows.

4.Four Continents: America
The American continent is represented as an Indian warrior armed with a spear and arrows. She wears the typical feathers head gear of Indian Americans and she is accompanied by tho animals: a puma and a colorful parrot.  


5.Four Continents: Asia
Two chained slaves hold Asia's allegory. It's a woman with richly decorated dresses with pearls and precious stones, that with one arm lifted up turns to admire Saint Ignatius glory. The animal painted with her is the docile camel, whose mantle is realized with darken spots done with sponges.

6.Four Continents: Africa
Africa is painted as a queen with dark skin, represented while overcoming a crocodile. She holds a tusk in one hand and wears rich jewels: the light colors of gold and pearls of the tiara and of the bracelet contrast with the woman's skin who stares the spectator observing the scene.

7.Fake sculptures (between Asia and Africa)
A series of little angels, recalling the common plaster sculpture in Baroque churches, is painted along the ledges of the fake architecture with vegetation motives of leaves and fruits. Among the Continents there are also some medallions imitating the classic bas-reliefs with golden lines to represent shadows

8.Prospective rendering (figure on the upper right of Asia)
Andrea Pozzo is very skilled in painting prospectives. The figures have to be represented according to prospective rules, since they have to be seen downwards. So some characters sitting along the temple ledges are perfectly showing the soles, while the rest of the leg is represented in prospective.


9.Christ's monogram
The initials IHS, abbreviation of Christs name in ancient Greek, is adopted from the Jesuits as its symbol. Here is painted in a  mirror ?ustiorio?, a mirror able to produce a flame through refraction. Here it represents the flame of Faith, that in the fresco is lighted directly from the rays coming from Saint Ignatius heart, reflected in the mirror.

10.Inscription
At the sides of the vault is painted the inscription chosen by Andrea Pozzo to represent the missionary activity of the Jesuits. It can be red from a side: "Ignem veni mittere in terram"; from the other: "et quid volo nisi ut accendatur" («I came to bring fire on the Earth; and how I would like it being already ignited», Luca 12,49).

11.S. Francesco Saverio
Andrea Pozzo paints in the vault with Saint Ignatius some Jesuit missionaries. Stands out, near the allegory of Asia, the portrait of San Francesco Saverio, patron saint of Missions, who pushed his evangelizing activity till India and Taiwan.

Important information for the understanding of the artwork by Andrea Pozzo come from the Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum, the treatise written by the artist between 1693 and 1698. In this fundamental work to study the sixteenth century painting, are showed the main mathematical and scientific rules to represent architectonic prospectives. Andrea Pozzo describes in it the iconography of the decoration of Saint Ignatius:

"While this book was printed for the first time I hadn't already perfected the painting of the vault in  Saint Ignatius. Therefore in that version I proposed just its architecture. Here you have the drawings of the entire work. And in order to make you better understand the meaning of every figure, I  will here add a brief description of it. My idea for this painting was to represent Saint Ignatius and the Company of Christ deeds for the world of Christian Faith. First of all I embraced the whole vault with a prospective building. Then in its middle I painted the three Persons of the Holy Trinity; from the chest of one of them, of Jesus Christ, is coming a nimbus of rays that wound Saint Ignatius' heart, and it's reflection spreads in the four parts of the Earth painted as Amazons. The Amazons sit on the back of wild beasts, that are the Vices, from whom they were tyrannized. Near the Amazons there are the Apostolic Men of the Company courted from the people they converted to faith. Those seculars you can see in the two sides of the vault represent the Zeal of Saint Ignatius, who while sending his fellows to predicate the Gospel says: "Ite, incendite, inflammate omnia"; according to Christ's word: "Ignem veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur". The ones surrounding are the Angels protectors of the Nations. Some of them are making red hot their sword, to overcome the Vices, that are seen with human form or lighted from indignation, or pale for fear. Some other are extinguishing with holy waves the profane love, and light with this fire the divine. The other figures, occupying the remaining space, are symbols of the divine fire, or images of Saint Ignatius' virtues, or ornaments of the work, everyone though alluding to the main Idea, as you will understand."

Production HAL9000 S.r.l. - Novara, Italy Concept & Art Direction Paolo Mira, Agostino Temporelli Diocesi di Novara Ufficio dell'Inventario Shooting Mauro Gavinelli, Vincenzo Mirarchi, Agostino Temporelli Image processing Mauro Gavinelli, Vincenzo Mirarchi, Luca Ponzio, Costanzo Zingrillo	Texts editing Alessandra Barberi, Agostino Temporelli Iconographical Research Walther Ruspi, Agostino Temporelli Special thanks: Diego Brunello Francesco De Luccia Silvia Muzzin Andrea Pilato Ugo Righini Ferruccio Romanin Stefania Santini Marcello Toma
Diocesi di Novara Ufficio dell'Inventario	The Church of St. Ignazio di Loyola is a property of Fondo Edifici di Culto (FEC) Direzione Centrale del Ministero dell'Interno