quadratura

quadratura. A type of illusionistic decoration in which architectural elements are painted on walls and/or ceilings in such a way that they appear to be an extension of the real architecture of the room into an imaginary space. It was common in ancient Roman art, was revived by Mantegna in the 15th century, and reached its peaks of elaboration in Baroque Italy. The greatest of all exponents of quadratura was probably Andrea Pozzo, in whose celebrated ceiling in S. Ignazio, Rome, architecture and figures surge towards the heavens with breathtaking bravura. Especially when applied to ceilings, quadratura demands formidable skill with perspective, for the painted architecture can all too easily look as if it is collapsing, and the illusion may be convincing only when the spectator stands at a particular point. Ellis Waterhouse writes of Pozzo's S. Ignazio ceiling: ‘From most points of view—and especially from the sides of the church—the effect is wholly unnerving. Columns fall inwards or sideways and the spectator feels as Samson must have felt after he had started work on the Temple at Gaza. But there is one point in the centre of the nave (marked by an indicator on the floor) from which all this nonsense appears in correct perspective—and the effect is extremely impressive.’ Unlike Pozzo, many artists relied on specialists—called quadraturisti—for this part of their work. Agostino Tassi, for example, painted the architectural setting for Guercino's celebrated Aurora, and Giambattista Tiepolo worked much in collaboration with the brilliant quadraturista Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna (c.1688–1766).