Andrea Pozzo

@Artists, Birthday and Facts ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Andrea dal Pozzo was a famous Italian Jesuit painter, architect, stage designer and art theoretician Italian Architects Artists & Painters Artists Baroque Painters Sagittarius Celebrities Andrea dal Pozzo was a famous Italian Jesuit painter, architect, stage designer and art theoretician of the late seventeenth century. He is noted for expounding the art of illusionist mural paintings of the Baroque era. Pozzo specialized in ‘quadratura’and ‘di sotto in su’ techniques; i.e. a system of perspective where the focal lines start from the corner and meet each other at the center of the piece (the vanishing point). This system gave the paintings a three-dimensional appearance. This marvelous baroque artist was responsible for the ceiling fresco paintings in Il Gesu and S. Ignazio, two major Jesuit churches in Rome. Several painters emulated his style in a number of Jesuit churches across Austria, Germany and Italy. Pozzo was an advocate of ‘Gesamtkunst’ or the ‘Total Art’. Most of his compositions are based on Catholic and Jesuit themes. However, he also seems to be indebted to the theatre; many of his paintings show the religious figures as actors positioned against traditional stage devices like a curtain and a proscenium arch. He collected his creative ideas on art in the theoretical treatise ‘Perspectiva Pictorum et Architechtorum’. Pozzo is not extensively studied, but his innovations regarding perspective is a major influence on modern design.

Personal Details

Birthday: November 30, 1642 Died on: August 31, 1709 Nationality: Italian Famous: Architects, Artists & Painters, Artists, Baroque Painters Siblings: Giuseppe Pozzo Birth Place: Trento, County of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empire Gender: Male Information Detail Birthday November 30, 1642 Died on August 31, 1709 Nationality Italian Famous Architects, Artists & Painters, Artists, Baroque Painters Siblings Giuseppe Pozzo Birth Place Trento, County of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empire Gender Male Sun Sign Sagittarius Born in Trento, County of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empire Famous as Painter, Architect Died at Age 66

Trento, County of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empire

Andrea Pozzo born at Unsplash Birth Place

Pozzo died in Vienna in 1709 before he could return to Italy to design a new church. He was 67 at the time of his death. Unsplash Personal Life

He was buried with public honors in one of the Jesuit churches that he designed in Vienna. Unsplash Personal Life

His brother, Giuseppe Pozzo was a friar and a painter. He is famous for the design of the high altar of the Church of the ‘Scalzi’. Unsplash Personal Life

Pozzo was born in Trento, Italy, on November 30, 1642. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

From 1661 to 1662, he was a novice in the order of Discalced Carmelites at Convento dell Laste, near Trento. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He studied Humanities at the local Jesuit High School. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

Pozzo showed artistic inclinations from a very young age. At the age of 17, his father sent him for artistic training. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

Records show that he initially trained under Palma il Giovane. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

In 1675, Pozzo designed the frescoes at the Chiesa del SS. Martiri in Turin and also the frescoes at the church of San Francisco Saverio in Mondovi. Unsplash Church Decoration Work

In 1676, Pozzo designed his first large fresco in the San Francis Xavier church in Mondovì. He followed the trompe-l'oeil technique which included false gilding, bronze-colored statues, marbled columns and a dome on a flat ceiling. Unsplash Church Decoration Work

In 1678, he painted the ceiling of the Jesuit church of SS. Martiri in Turin. These frescoes were later replaced by new paintings because of their ruinous conditions. Unsplash Church Decoration Work

In 1681, Andrea Pozzo was called to Rome by the Jesuit Superior General Padre Oliva, superior general of the Jesuits. Unsplash Church Decoration Work

He gained a reputation for his designing of the Roman frescoes portraying the life of St. Ignatius in the ‘Camere di San Ignazio’ (1681-1686) in the corridor which linked the Church of the Gesù to the rooms of the saint. Unsplash Church Decoration Work

Pozzo’s accredited masterpiece is the ceiling fresco painting ‘Allegory of the Missionary Work of the Jesuits’ (1685-94) in the Church of S.Ignazio in Rome. The painting celebrates the missionary activities of the Jesuit sect and their goals of expanding Roman Catholicism. This was symbolic of the high Roman Baroque art and combined architecture and painting to create a breathtaking manifestation. This fresco became an exemplary representation of the Catholic counter-Reformation Art. Unsplash Major Works

His second major work is the ceiling fresco ‘Admittance of Hercules to Olympus’ of the Hercules Hall of the Liechtenstein garden palace. This illusionist painting depicts Olympian Gods who seem to be floating, a magnificent feat in perspective. Unsplash Major Works

Information	Detail
Birthday	November 30, 1642
Died on	August 31, 1709
Nationality	Italian
Famous	Architects, Artists & Painters, Artists, Baroque Painters
Siblings	Giuseppe Pozzo
Birth Place	Trento, County of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empire
Gender	Male
Sun Sign	Sagittarius
Born in	Trento, County of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empire
Famous as	Painter, Architect
Died at Age	66

Andrea Pozzo

Italian

Nov 30, 1642

Biography

Personal Details

Trento, County of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empire