Sant'Ignazio
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Sant' Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio is a Baroque church in Rome. It was built in 1626 and dedicated to Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, who had just been canonized. It was the church of the adjacent Collegio Romano, now moved to another location (see also Palazzo del Collegio Romano).
The Cardinal Deacon of the Titulus S. Ignatii de Loyola in Campo Martio is Roberto Tucci.
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[edit] History and main works
Responsible for the undertaking was Ludovico Ludovisi. The design is by Carlo Maderno and other artists, and was carried out by the Jesuite Orazio Grassi. The church is on the Latin cross plan, with an apse and numerous side chapels: decoration include stuccoes, precious marbles and gilt areas.
The church is best known for its trompe l'œil frescoesspanning the ceiling (1685) by Andrea Pozzo. The painting, of 17 m of diameter, is devised in order to make the observer, if looking from a spot marked by a golden disc set into the floor of the nave, see a lofty vaulted roof decorated by statues, while in fact the ceiling is hemi-cylindrical. Another spot a little distance towards the altar marks a spot for ideal viewing of a second painting above the crossing, which gives a fine effect of a dome. It is said that the residents of the neighborhood where Sant'Ignazio was built didn't want a rather large dome blocking their sun, and therefore a pictorial illusion was provided.
The paintings represent the admission of Ignatius into paradise. He is welcomed by Christ and the Blessed Virgin. The figures around him represent the four continents.
The Baroque altars with scenes from the life of St Ignatius, in the apse, are also by Pozzo. They house the relics of St. Luigi Gonzaga and of St. John Berchmans. The stuccoed frieze with Angels, running over the arcades of the nave, is by Alessandro Algardi.
Other artworks in the church include the marble relief depicting a three dimensional Saint Aloyzius Gonzaga in Glory (1698-99) by the French Pierre Legros and a huge statue of St. Ignatius, in stucco, by Camillo Rusconi (1728). The church houses also the tombs of Pope Gregory XV also by LeGros, completed in the late seventeenth century (over 60 years after Gregory's death), and of Cardinal Bellarmine.
[edit] Image gallery
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 The painted dome from below. |
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[edit] See also
