Object Annotation 6

ContextThis ceiling fresco is known as the Glorification of Saint Ignatius, was completed in 1685 and is located on the nave ceiling of the Church of Sant’Ignazio in Rome. The fresco was made by Andrea Pozzo, a member of the Jesuit order who is known for his illusionistic ceilings. Although no specific patron, the Order of the Jesuits were the main proponents of this fresco. Produced for the Jesuits in the church, a significant religious order during the Counter-Reformation, it includes several allegorical figures representing the continents and in particular, America’s resistance to Christianity.

SubjectThe fresco represents the ascension of Saint Ignatius, a saint canonized in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV. He was a Spanish Catholic priest who founded the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits, which heavily focused on missionary work and teaching. It pictures the reception of Saint Ignatius into heaven, represented by the sky that opens up beyond the quadratura. Some of the most prominent figures depicted are representations of the continents. It includes Europe, Africa, Asia, and America, the last of which is depicted as actively fighting against missionaries and being attacked by angels.

StyleThe composition of this ceiling fresco is the true masterwork of Pozzo’s work. Pozzo uses a technique called di sotto in su, which refers to an extreme form of illusionistic foreshortening integral to recreating the illusion of a real space within the pictorial plane. The foreshortening of the figures closer to the real architecture, such as the arch at the bottom of this frame, is much less intense than the foreshortening of the figures in the clouds where it appears they are floating. This technique is important to Pozzo in other works as well to achieve the depiction of heaven to “appear present and accessible within our worldly space” (Horn, 223). All these techniques go together to achieve a trompe l’oeil effect, creating an optical illusion that the representations in the ceiling are really there three-dimensionally.

Style cont.The fresco is colorful and polychromatic, covered in various shades of reds and beiges to depict skin, and bright saturation in the sky. Although a two-dimensional art medium, the illusion of three dimensions is created by the various techniques that Pozzo uses. While many of the figures in the heavenly space, higher up, are idealized, the figures closer to the architecture, such as the man in yellow receiving a flower, are more naturalistic.