Il Gesù, Ceiling and Dome Frescoes(Rome, Italy) : Nave fresco: Triumph of the Name of Jesus (Detail showing figure of St. Ignazio)

Creator:

Gaulli, Giovanni Battista, 1639-1709

Published/Created:

Rome, Lazio, Italy
1672-1683

Date Depicted:

ca. 1990's
1500 AD - 1699 AD

Materials:

fresco

Notes:

On 21 August 1672 Gian Paolo Oliva, the Father-General of the Jesuit Order, signed a contract with Gaulli commissioning him to fresco the dome, the pendentives and the nave and transept vaults of the church of Il Gesù, Rome. This enormously important commission was won in competition with Giacinto Brandi, Ciro Ferri and Carlo Maratti, and with the support of Bernini, to whom Oliva turned for advice. The nine large frescoes (1672-1683) constitute the greatest achievement of the artist's career and his chief claim to fame. The cloud-borne Vision of Heaven (1672-1675) in the huge dome is badly damaged, but the frescoes on the pendentives (1675-1676) have survived in almost perfect condition. Two of these four, the Four Evangelists and the Four Doctors of the Latin Church, represent the New Law; the other two, the Leaders of Israel and the Prophets of Israel, the Old. Just as the pendentives form the physical transition that carries the weight and thrust of the dome to the ground below, so the paintings on the pendentives form the metaphysical transition between the vision of heaven in the dome and the congregation on the floor of the church. The style so successfully developed for the pendentives was transferred to the vault of the great nave and reinterpreted, with still more dramatic compositional devices and on a very much larger scale, in the fresco representing the Triumph of the Name of Jesus (1678-1679).

Topics:

Architecture -- Italy -- 17th century -- (YVRC)

Period/Style:

Baroque

Culture:

Italian

Accession Number:

1A2-I-R-G-3-D1

Genre:

paintings (AAT)

Format:

Image

Content Type:

Paintings & Drawings

Rights:

Copyright Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc
The use of this image may be subject to the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) or to site license or other rights management terms and conditions. The person using the image is liable for any infringement.

Access Restrictions:

Yale Community Only

Digital:

cycles or series; New Testament; Old Testament and Apocrypha; Jesuits; Jesus Christ fresco painting (technique) visual works; paintings (visual works); frescoes (paintings) Ignatius, of Loyola, Saint, 1491-1556; fresco

Source Creator:

Gilchrist, Scott

Source Title:

Archivision Base Collection

Source Created:

2878 Chamonix, Montreal QC
Archivision, Inc.
ca. 1990's

Source Note:

Purchase, Visual Resources Collection, May, 2011; photographer Scott Gilchrist

Yale Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Digital Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Local Record Number:

4152

OID:

10095609

PID:

digcoll:1864928