The history of this church began in the second half of the 16th century, when Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, established the Roman College, a center of cultural and spiritual formation for the Jesuits. The school was located in several buildings in the area now partly occupied by the Church of Sant'Ignazio. Originally, annexed to the College was the small church of the Annunziata, which soon proved insufficient to accommodate the large number of students. Thus, Pope Gregory XV, a former student of the Roman College and the man who canonized Saint Ignatius in 1622, suggested the Roman College be built. His nephew, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, commissioned a new church dedicated to the founder of the Society of Jesus.

Entering the church, one is literally overwhelmed by the magnificence of the frescoes that completely cover it. In the central nave, the most important is "The Glory of Saint Ignatius," painted by Andrea Pozzo between 1691 and 1694, as a celebration of the apostolic activity of the Society of Jesus throughout the world. In this fresco, Pozzo expresses all his virtuosity in the art of perspective: the columns and arches of the actual church seem to continue in the painted architectural elements, rising up to the open sky dotted with angels and allegorical figures.

The "breakthrough" effect The ceiling's height makes the vault appear higher than it actually is, simulating the perspective of a second, three-dimensional church that "rests" directly on the real one.

At the center of the scene depicting the Glory of Saint Ignatius is Jesus Christ the Savior carrying a heavy cross, a symbol of his saving sacrifice. A beam of light radiates from Christ's side, illuminating Ignatius, from which it in turn radiates toward the other Jesuits, a clear reference to the missionary commitment of the order he founded. Note the detail of the shield supported by angels bearing the trigram of Christ "IHS"—the symbol of the Society of Jesus— and which reflects the light diffused in the sky.

On both sides of the nave, Pozzo also inserted the Allegories of the Four Continents known until then, to which the missionary work of the Society of Jesus was directed: Europe appears as a queen on horseback, with her other hand resting on the globe, symbolizing Europe's control of the known world at that time; America, in the guise of an Indian woman with one breast exposed, sits on a tiger; Africa is represented by a dark-skinned woman sitting on a crocodile; Asia is a woman dressed in fine fabrics, symbolizing silk, and is sitting on a camel (symbol of the caravans that carried those silks to Europe).

The ideal point from which to contemplate the vault was indicated by Pozzo himself with a yellow marble disk inserted into the floor at the center of the nave.

The visitor, advancing into the central nave after admiring the frescoed vaults, inevitably focuses his attention on the "dark area" in the middle, which one senses as a dome, dark because it is not illuminated.

Another mark on the floor, a little further forward towards the altar, marks the ideal observation point of the dome. Here one can admire another of Pozzo's masterpieces: the illusion of a dome that is actually a canvas on the flat ceiling that reproduces the image of a dome. The original painting by Pozzo, completed in 1685, was destroyed by fire, but was faithfully reproduced by Francesco Manno in 1823. Claude is an AI and can make mistakes. Check your answers.