Andrea Pozzo & the Art of Anamorphosis

Map

The Pozzo Corridor

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On August 31st 1709, Andrea del Pozzo (b. 1642), probably the most famous Italian artist that most people haven't heard of, died in Vienna. 

Pozzo was born in the northern city of Trento, but worked a great deal in Rome, where he painted the jaw-dropping fresco on the ceiling of Sant' Ignazio di Loyola. The church is dedicated to St Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits.

For the last decade of his life St Ignatius lived in a house next to the Chiesa del Gesu, the mother church of the Jesuits. There he died on July 31st, 1554. 

Following a disastrous flood in 1598, the house had to be rebuilt, but the rooms in which Loyola had lived, worked and prayed were preserved for posterity. 

Almost a century later the short corridor leading to the rooms was painted by Fra Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709) with an extraordinary set of frescoes (1681-86). Pozzo uses a technique known as anamorphosis, where an image is distorted in such a way that it becomes recognisable only when seen from a specified viewing point. 

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Anamorphic Fresco by Andrea Pozzo

Frescoes by Andrea Pozzo

Frescoes in the Vault

Entrance to the Pozzo Corridor