Background
Pozzo was born on November 30, 1642 in Trento, Italy.
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Pozzo was born on November 30, 1642 in Trento, Italy.
While growing up he studied both art and religion.
Pozzo was encouraged by his Jesuit masters to continue with his painting, as his talent was seen as a gift from God.
His purpose was to enlarge the existing architecture in height and depth by employing the techniques of trompe l'oeil, "deceiving the eye.
In 1675 Pozzo was asked to visit the city of Turin, where he designed, among other things, the frescoes at the Chiesa del SS.
The invitation was encouraged by Carlo Maratti, one of the most prominent painters in Rome at the time and was delivered in 1681.
Maratti had seen Pozzo's work and greatly admired it.
One of the best-known and remarkable of Pozzo's works in Rome are his paintings done using the quadratura perspective for the ceiling and walls of St. Ignatius Church.
Quadratura presented a grand architectural realm beyond the real space of the church, making the picture seem three-dimensional and the space of the church seem larger.
The chief architect of St. Ignatius Church in Rome, Horace Grassi, S. J. , had initially intended to build a cupola at the front of the church over the altar area, but died before he was able to even begin it.
No one else had taken up his goal because the money that had been put aside for the cupola had been used up.
The Jesuit Order turned to Pozzo, known for his perspective paintings, to come to their aid.
The gorgeous ceiling was intended to commemorate two centuries of Jesuit explorers and missionaries.
The effect was tromp l'oil; when looking up at the cupola viewers can see what look like pillars holding up a ceiling, and between the pillars Pozzo painted windows.
In the middle of this, against the ceiling, as it were, that God, Jesus, and Ignatius are floating.
Pozzo also installed a circle of red marble on the floor of St. Ignatius Church to mark the focal point for best viewing the ceiling.
However, no matter where anyone stood, Pozzo's painting drew the eye upward.
Many of those who attended the church the day the painting was unveiled were unable to tell that the ceiling was an optical illusion—that it was a painting and not an actual cupola.
Many other artists have since come to Rome to scrutinize Pozzo's work and have used his technique in their own works on perspective.
After a few centuries of smoke from candle wax, along with water and other damage, the painting became damaged and difficult to see, but was finally restored in 1962.
After his success with the ceiling of St. Ignatius Church, Pozzo was asked to decorate the apse, the nave vault fresco, and the pendentives, the triangular sections of vaulting between the rim of the dome and the adjacent pair of arches that supports it.
For the nave he again used the quadratura technique.
For the nave Pozzo painted an allegory of the Jesuit missions through the agency of St. Ignatius.
perspectivae pictorum et architectorum
Besides his painting and other commissioned works, Pozzo began in the 16906 to write a explanatory book about his experiences with painting and architecture, and especially his work with perspective.
The work, Tractus perspectivae pictorum et architectorum, was published in two volumes, the first of which appeared in 1693 and the second of which appeared in 1698.
In 1704, with his renown growing as a result of his book and his frescoes at St. Ignatius Church, Pozzo was invited by Emperor Leopold I to move to Vienna to work for the royal court.
In that northern city he worked for the emperor, as well as for Prince Johann Adam von Liechtenstein and various religious orders and churches.
He also continued to work for the Jesuit Order, often traveling to other places in northern Europe to fulfill obligations to the Jesuits.
Most of Pozzo's artistic works at this time, unfortunately, were installed in churches and other buildings that have since been destroyed.
The best-known surviving object to reveal Pozzo's efforts in northern Europe is not a religious item at all, but rather a fresco of the Triumph of Hercules, done in the quadratura style, on the ceiling of the Liechtenstein Palace.
This fresco is similar to the one Pozzo created at St. Ignatius Church, but there are a few differences.
His work had matured by this point and he was experimenting with different ways to improve perspective.
In the Triumph of Hercules the figures are smaller, they are not as firmly arranged, and they all appear to be floating, giving the viewer an even greater feeling of distance and space.
While Pozzo is not widely studied, his innovations regarding perspective continue to show their influences, marking them as foundational to much of modern design.
( Influential classic spread Italian baroque style to nor...)
He was a novice at the order of Discalced Carmelites at Convento delle Laste, near Trento from 1661 to 1662, before he moved to Milan in 1665 and became a Jesuit lay brother.
