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| Andrea Pozzo Perspective Design for trompe-l'oeil Dome and Cupola (Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola, Rome) from the 1719 edition of Pozzo's treatise, originally published in 1693 engraving Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| after Andrea Pozzo Trompe-l'oeil Dome and Cupola (Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola, Rome) ca. 1725 anonymous drawing of Pozzo's installation Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Andrea Pozzo Trompe-l'oeil Dome and Cupola 1685 oil on canvas (restoration) Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola, Rome |
"Andrea Pozzo was an architect, painter, scenographer, and Jesuit lay brother. He worked in a variety of media, including fresco, oil paint, and wooden stage sets. In the service of his major patron, the Society of Jesus, Pozzo decorated Jesuit buildings in Mondovì, Rome, Frascati, Vienna, and elsewhere. One of his greatest legacies is his two-volume treatise, Perspectiva Pictorum et Architectorum [Perspective in Architecture and Painting, first published in 1693], which explores the theory of perspective and reproduces artistic programs that Pozzo designed for Jesuit churches in Rome, including frescoes, altars, and ephemeral architecture."
– from curator's notes at the Art Institute of Chicago
"In 1685 Pozzo painted in the then still-unfinished church of St. Ignazio in Rome an illusionistic cupola which was at first much acclaimed because of its trompe-l'oeil effect, but later, in the 18th century, was less and less admired because Pozzo had employed an unstable technique, using thin canvas as the ground for the painting."
– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)
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| Andrea Pozzo Triumph of St Ignatius Loyola (illusionistic vault fresco in Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola, Rome) 1702 engraving by Girolamo Frezza and Arnold van Westerhout British Museum |
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| Andrea Pozzo Triumph of St Ignatius Loyola 1685-90 illusionistic vault fresco Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola, Rome |
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| Andrea Pozzo Illusionistic Apse Fresco behind the High Altar (Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola, Rome) 1689- engraving by Nicolas Dorigny British Museum |
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| Andrea Pozzo Study for the Altar of St Luigi Gonzaga (Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola, Rome) ca. 1697 drawing Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Andrea Pozzo Chapel of St Ignatius in Chiesa del Gesù, Rome (left transept, with frescoes by Andrea Pozzo) 1697 engraving by Vincenzo Mariotti British Museum |
"Pozzo came to Rome a mature and tested artist; it nevertheless required some time before he was recognized, and even then he was not fully able to silence the principle opponents of his style. There were connoisseurs – and in no small number – who preferred the simplicity of the original ornamental division of the ceiling of the nave of Il Gesù to Pozzo's ingenious illusionistic extension of the vaulting. There is in fact much to be said in defense of the principles these critics represent. The determining factor was of course Pozzo's theoretically based mastery of the art of fusing a given architectonic reality with a visionary appearance; what he had achieved in this respect could not be ignored even by the partisans of the Roman monumental tradition. At the same time, it was not a matter of coincidence that Pozzo spent the remainder of his life in the North, where his illusionistic concept of painting was received with more understanding and his arbitrary treatment of architectonic forms was more readily indulged."
– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)
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| Andrea Pozzo Hercules Hall 1704-08 illusionistic ceiling fresco Liechtenstein Palace, Vienna |
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| Andrea Pozzo Hercules Hall 1704-08 fresco (detail) Liechtenstein Palace, Vienna |
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| Andrea Pozzo Hercules Hall 1704-08 fresco (detail) Liechtenstein Palace, Vienna |
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| Andrea Pozzo Allegory of the House of Austria (sculptors carving statue of Pallas Athena and busts of Hapsburg rulers) ca. 1695-1705 engraving by Johann Andreas Pfeffel after design by Andrea Pozzo British Museum |
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| Andrea Pozzo Catafalque for Emperor Leopold I in the Jesuit Church, Vienna 1705 etching by Johann Andreas Pfeffel and Christian Engelbrecht after design by Andrea Pozzo British Museum |
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| Andrea Pozzo Self-portrait 1703 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |