Andrea Pozzo, Vault of the Nave of the Church of Sant'Ignazio


1684
Fresco
Church of Sant'Ignazio, Rome

This ambitious work is very much a project of the Counter-Reformation, using the perspective device of di sotto in su to show the whole world rising to the Cross in response to the missionary work of St. Ignatius Loyola and the other Jesuit saints shown here. At what is the bottom of the photo at left, figures rise from allegorical representations of Asia and Africa. Along the opposite side of the composition Europe and America complete the picture – men and women rising toward Christ from every continent, and converging as they do.

Detail images:

Read more about the Cross.

Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.