Do paintings within paintings reveal hidden messages
Peter's." Considering himself Michelangelo's successor as both architect and sculptor, Bernini directed the building campaign and coordinated the decoration and sculpture within the church as well. The impact of his light and holiness then creates the overflowing turbulence that tumbles out of the sky at the end of days and spreads the word of the Jesuit missionaries: "That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.".Īfter Maderno's death in 1629, his assistant Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) assumed the title "architect of St. It is a stirring reference both to the Jesuit order, dedicated to the Name of Jesus and to the concept that Christ is the Light of the World.
The subject of the ceiling painting is the illuminated name of Jesus-the IHS derived from the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus-in the center of the golden light.
Here, Baroque illusionism achieves its ultimate expression. The nave fresco, with its contrasts of light and dark and sharply foreshortened figures, spills dramatically over its frame, then turns into sculptured figures, combining painting, sculpture, and architecture. As in the Cornaro Chapel, the ceiling is treated as a single unit that evokes a mystical vision. The program, which proved extraordinarily influential, shows Bernini and Gaulli's imaginative daring. A talented assistant, Antonio Raggi (1624-1686), made the stucco sculpture. At the suggestion of Gianlorenzo Bernini, the greatest sculptor-architect of the century, the commission for the ceiling frescoes went to his young protégé Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639-1709). But, after 1670, such frescoes enjoyed a revival in older buildings which reached its peak in the interior of Il Gesù, the mother church for the Jesuit order. Ironically, the new style of architecture fostered by Francesco Borromini and Guarino Guarini provided few opportunities for decoration.