Sant'Ignazio di Loyola historical timeline

A Jesuit church designed by a Jesuit mathematician, which painted the dome it never built, and then had to paint it again.

Chronology

1. Early 17th century — the church is erected to the design of the Jesuit mathematician Orazio Grassi, on projects by Carlo Maderno and others, at the expense of Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Gregory XV, as the inscription on the façade records. Structural impact: a Latin cross with three intercommunicating chapels a side. What you see today: the plan you walk.
2. The same campaign — the façade is built in imitation of the nearby Gesù, with two orders of pilasters and Corinthian columns, a large window, pedimented niches and cartouches. Structural impact: the front elevation. What you see today: why the two churches look related from the street.
3. Later 17th century — Andrea Pozzo, a brother of the Jesuit Order, paints the vault of the nave with The Ascent of St Ignatius into Paradise. Structural impact: none; the architecture is extended in paint instead. What you see today: the nave ceiling.
4. 1685 — Pozzo completes the false dome at the crossing, a canvas 13 metres in diameter carrying the perspective effect of a fictive architecture. Structural impact: a dome supplied without building one. What you see today: not this canvas.
5. Afterwards — the original painting is destroyed by a fire. Structural impact: the crossing loses its ceiling. What you see today: the reason the present canvas exists.
6. 1823 — the false dome is faithfully reproduced by Francesco Manno, on the basis of the drawings and studies left by Pozzo. Structural impact: a replacement canvas over the crossing. What you see today: the illusion everybody photographs.
7. Late 17th century — the Monument to Pope Gregory XV is made and placed in the space to the right of the apse. Structural impact: none. What you see today: the tomb of the pope whose nephew paid for the church.

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