Michael Murphy - What’s Up? The Jesuits and Ceiling Painting in Early Modern Rome

            Baroque ceiling painting comes from a long tradition of ceiling decoration originating in the Gothic period. By the time of the Italian Renaissance, artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael were producing some of their most spectacular masterpieces on fresco-covered ceilings. The advent of linear perspective, one of the most important inventions in Renaissance art, allowed artists to create trompe l’oeil paintings that, when viewed from the correct angle, gave the illusion of a greater space beyond the physical surface of the painting. This kind of perspectival illusion very naturally lent itself to the theatricality and drama that would rise to prominence in the Baroque period, and usage of illusionistic ceiling painting in combination with architectural design became a popular artistic element in many buildings, especially Catholic Churches. Two very famous Baroque ceilings occupy the naves of the two most important Jesuit churches in Rome; Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola and the Jesuit mother church of Il Gesù. These frescoes, featuring differing trompe l’oeil techniques, each use imagery and illusion to promote the mission of the Society of Jesus and the ideals of the Catholic Counter-Reformation.

Andrea Pozzo's Glorification of Saint Ignatius seen from the ideal viewpoint

The ceiling of the nave of Sant’Ignazio is decorated with a massive fresco by Andrea Pozzo, depicting the Glorification of Saint Ignatius. The ceiling is a spectacular example of the technique known as quadratura, a distinctly Baroque type of trompe l’oeil that uses illusionistic painting to create the appearance that the actual architecture of the building extends past the surface of the painting and into a fictive space beyond. This style of painting expands upon the Renaissance idea of the painting as a window and plays into the heightened sense of drama and theatricality that are so much a part Baroque art and architecture. The Glorification focuses its perspective on the figures of St. Ignatius and the Blessed Trinity. The light of heaven radiates not from God but from out behind Ignatius as he is welcomed into paradise. Situated “beneath” this group is an elaborate fictive atrium that perfectly matches the architectural design of the real church, which when seen from directly below the vanishing point makes it near impossible to distinguish painting from reality. Because of this, the painted figures depicted hovering on angelic wings or painted climbing upon both the fictive and physical architecture seem to occupy a physical space within the room.

Example of quadratura (Pozzo's fictive dome for Sant'Ignazio)

             The painting as a whole is intended as an allegory for the mission of the Society of Jesus. The edges of the ceiling are decorated with allegorical figures representing each of the four continents known at the time: Europe, Africa, Asia, and America. Each of the continents are surrounded by angels fighting back giant figures representing ignorance and rejection of the church. This both reflects the important role the Society played in early evangelical and missionary works. Just as the angels triumph over the giants, the Jesuits sought to triumph over ignorance and expand Catholic doctrine to, as the fresco suggests, all corners of the world.

 

Additionally, at one end of the ceiling hovers an angel holding a silver shield emblazoned with the Holy Name of Jesus, to which the Society is dedicated. The shield reflects the light of the heavens and uses it to light a fire representing divine love. On the other side of the nave, more angels can be seen attacking the damned souls of those who turn away from God. Both of these scenes reflect the influence of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The church had invested itself in the reaffirmation of Catholic faith and the fight against the spread of Protestantism, and the actions of these angels reference just that.

Detail of Glorification showing angel holding the shield

Detail of Glorification showing angels attacking damned souls

              The Adoration of the Name of Jesus, painted on the ceiling of the nave in the Chiesa del Gesù, similarly uses perspective to create the illusion of a ceiling opening to the heavens, although this fresco does not make use of quadratura as does the Glorification of Saint Ignatius. Painted by Giovanni Battista Gaulli – known by his nickname, Baciccio – the vaulted ceiling of the nave consists of a massive fresco set within an ornate architectural “frame”. This treatment of the ceiling around the fresco could be considered a grand form of quadro riportato, a technique by which a ceiling fresco is made to appear as a framed easel painting, usually without any form of illusory perspective. This style is subverted not only by Baciccio’s use of perspectival illusion, but by the addition of painted panels that extend beyond the edge of the fresco and into the space of the viewer, heightening the overall tromp l’oeil effect of the painting. These panels are given the illusion of further depth by the addition of painted shadows on the physical architecture of the vault, making the extensions appear farther away from the ceiling than they are in reality. This interaction between painting, sculpture, and architecture is, like quadratura, characteristic of the Baroque tendency toward the theatrical.

Example of quadro riportato (Guido Reni's Aurora)

Baciccio's Adoration of the Name of Jesus

The fresco depicts the monogram of the Holy Name of Jesus, from which the church takes its name, radiating divine light onto worshiping angels and saints. The choir of angels extends from the surface of the ceiling and onto the panels that extend over the “frame” on either side of the fresco. Consequently, when standing directly below the Adoration, these angels appear to be floating out of the physical space of the church and toward the heavenly realm where Christ’s Name is emblazoned and causes the viewer to feel as though they, too, might ascend alongside them. Looking towards the entrance of the church, however, the viewer is confronted by a cascade of sinners and demons that also extends past the painting’s edge, quite literally falling away from God’s light and tumbling down into shadow and towards hell.

The imagery of the Adoration of the Name of Jesus, while still relating to the Jesuit mission, is more closely tied to the Counter-Reformation than the imagery in Pozzo’s Glorification. The fresco makes no direct reference to the Society’s missionary work, although it is implied through the overall theme, and instead focuses on actively combatting the growth of Protestantism rather than just referring to such ideas through imagery. The scenes of angels and the dramatic sense of rising into heaven and towards the Name of Jesus is meant to reaffirm the beliefs of worshippers with the promise of heaven and life everlasting. The plummeting sinners and devils serves as a warning against turning away from the Church and a condemnation of Protestantism and other beliefs declared as heretical.

Detail of Adoration showing illusory shadow of a cloud

Detail of Adoration showing sinners and demons falling

Above all, the sense of theatricality shared by the Glorification of Saint Ignatius and the Adoration of the Name of Jesus is clear. While Pozzo and Baciccio have each used a different method of achieving their trompe l’oeil effect, both of their frescoes exemplify the drama and grandeur of the Baroque. The highly elaborate compositions create a bridge between the physical world and the painted realm of the spiritual world, drawing the eye towards the heavens and immersing the viewer in an almost supernatural experience. No doubt the messages these masterpieces contained were imparted to every seventeenth-century worshiper gazing up at them, as even today visitors to Sant’Ignazio and Il Gesù are filled with awe at the grand tableaus above them.