CHURCH OF JESUS

When you are facing the nave of Jesus your gaze is inevitably attracted by the light that coming down from the dome illuminates the great paintings of Baciccia, who painted the basin and the arch of the apse, the pendentives of the dome, the dome itself, the vault of the chapel of St. Ignatius and the vault of the nave.

We must give credit to the Jesuits who had the courage and insight to entrust to a single artist and moreover young, a series of paintings of that commitment.

The theme of the basin of the apse is the Glory of the Mystic Lamb, in the vault of the presbytery Baciccia painted Musical Angels glorifying the Name of Jesus, in the pendentives of the dome are depicted Prophets, Evangelists and Doctors of the Church, in the dome the Paradise praises Jesus, in the vault of the nearby chapel of St. Ignatius, the Saint leans towards the light coming down from the dome.

To observe the illusionistic effect created by Baciccia in the pendentives where the figures come out from the frames to turn toward the dome.

But it's in the vault of the nave that Baciccia expressed all his spectacular visionary qualities.
The fresco “The Triumph of the Name of Jesus” has in the center the light of God that attracts groups of saints and blessed souls and rejects the damned souls. Using a trick illusion  the different groups of figures break through the frame, with divergent effects, to enter, as the group of St. Ignatius, and get out the rebellious angels, who seem to fall down.

Baciccia also designed all the stucco of the vault, to get the accomplished synthesis between painting and sculpture.

Using the navigable photos below you can see the extraordinary cycle of paintings of Baciccia:

Apse, vault, pendentives of the dome, vault of the chapel of St. Ignatius	The Triumph of the Name of Jesus

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