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Andrea Pozzo Biography

Andrea Pozzo

(Andrea Pozzo, called Father Pozzo; Trento, 1642-Vienna, 1709) Italian painter and architect.He was one of the most brilliant representatives of the art of fake architecture in the Baroque.He painted the vault of the church of San Ignacio in Rome (1685-1694), with particularly surprising optical effects.From 1702 he worked in Vienna decorating the church of the Jesuits, the order to which he belonged, and the palace of Liechtenstein.He wrote the treatise Perspective of painters and architects (1693).

Detail of a Self-portrait by Andrea Pozzo

From a young age he was passionate about painting and architecture; After a few years of practice, under the influence of the Lombard and Venetian masters, he achieved great skill in drawing and coloring.At the age of twenty-three he expressed a desire to enter the Jesuit order.He became a brother of the Company in Milan in 1665.However, he was able to continue exercising his hobby of painting in the churches of the Order.

In 1679 he was in Mondovi, where he was called to paint the frescoes in the Jesuit church.This work made him known as a creator of extravagant perspectives and rich decorations that are related to the pompous and ornate taste of the century.Exuberant and cordial by temperament, Andrea Pozzo put great fantasy in his works.

The fame of these reached Rome, where, in 1681, Father Oliva called him to continue painting frescoes in important temples.He remained in Rome for many years and there he developed an intense work, returning to that city after some stays in other Italian cities such as Arezzo, Modena, Ascoli and Genoa, where he left samples of his special ability in perspective.His most extensive work has remained in the church of San Ignacio de Roma, in whose vault he painted the Apotheosis of San Ignacio , a fresco in which he exalted the evangelizing work of San Ignacio de Loyola, San Francisco Javier, San Luis Gonzaga, San Francisco de Borja and other figures of the Society of Jesus.

The fame of his talent crossed borders and he was commissioned with projects for foreign countries.At the age of sixty he accepted the invitation of Emperor Leopold I of Austria to go to Vienna; there he decorated the Liechtenstein Palace.He died seven years after his arrival in Austria, and was honored with dignity by that court.

Ceiling of the church of San Ignacio (Rome)

Andrea Pozzo had dedicated to the Emperor Leopold I of Austria his treatise Perspective of painters and architects , published partly in 1693 and partly in 1698.The treatise consists of more than two hundred finely engraved plates, with text explanatory to the side, and that practically teach to draw with perspective, from various points of view, architectural elements and buildings, from the most simple and schematic to the most difficult and complex.

The first part of the work explains the foundations of perspective, and shows the system of representing according to its rules the elements of the different classical orders, the parts of the constructions, the architectural devices for religious solemnities , theaters, domes and soffits.The second part applies a more expeditious method, used by the author for the perspective representation of arches, theaters, domes, altars, stairways, circular and longitudinal churches, schools, fortifications and others.

The book, which ends with a brief instruction on the fresco technique, is, in its "Gradus ad Parnassum" structure, for the special use of fresco decorators, a characteristic document of fantasy Pozzo's baroque whimsical architectural architecture (which was later to meet the severe condemnation of neoclassical critics) and above all of his exceptional virtuosity of perspective.As a result of the mature age of the author, who in the aerial paintings of the church of San Ignacio in Rome reached one of the highest points of decorative and illusionist painting of the 17th century, this work was of great use to perspective painters and "quadraturists" of the eighteenth century, and quickly became famous in Europe, as evidenced by its numerous editions, including in German and English.

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