Dome

Detail of the head of the main figure in the sculptural group to the viewers' left of the tomb; Pozzo was an architect, history painter, and author and became a Jesuit lay brother in 1665. He was a noted trompe l'oeil specialist by the late 1670s. He was brought to Rome in 1681 to work on the commemorative scheme surrounding S. Ignatius Loyola's rooms adjoining the Gesù, and was engaged on Jesuit projects in and near Rome for the next 20 years. His ceiling frescoes in S. Ignazio, Rome (1688-1694), fused the real architecture of the church and the teeming heavenly scene in an overwhelming display of quadratura illusionism which marked an important step in the development of the Baroque. The work was financed by sales of his immensely successful treatise Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum (vol. 1, 1693). Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 12/2/2007)