Andrea dal Pozzo

Andrea dal Pozzo , 1647-1709, Italian painter. Pozzo was a Jesuit priest and leading exponent of the baroque style. He was celebrated for his bold foreshortening and quadratura perspective , in which the lines of focus begin at the corners of the work and converge at a central vanishing point. Pozzo painted church ceilings (e.g., Sant' Ignazio in Rome, 1688) with seemingly endless heavenly vistas. His illusionism influenced Solimena and Tiepolo and his treatise on perspective (1692-97) spread understanding of his techniques throughout Europe.

Pozzo, Andrea (b Trento, 30 Nov. 1642; d Vienna, 31 Aug. 1709). Italian painter and architect, one of the greatest exponents of the Baroque style of illusionist ceiling decoration. He became a lay brother in the Jesuit order in 1665 (he is sometimes give the courtesy title Padre Pozzo) and worked much for Jesuit churches, both as a painter and architect. His masterpiece is the huge ceiling fresco Allegory of the Missionary Work of the Jesuits (1688–94) in S. Ignazio, Rome, perhaps the most stupendous feat of quadratura ever painted. Pozzo worked in several other Italian cities apart from Rome, and from 1703 until his death he lived in Vienna, where he decorated the Jesuit church, the University church, and the Liechtenstein Garden Palace. His influence was spread not only by his paintings, but also by his treatise Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum (2 vols., 1693 and 1700), which was soon translated into several European languages and also (by Jesuit missionaries) into Chinese. As an architect, he designed several churches and numerous altars, but his work in this field was unexciting compared with his paintings and the engravings in his treatise.

Pozzo, Andrea (1642–1709). Italian painter and architect, one of the greatest exponents of the Baroque style of illusionist ceiling decoration. He became a Jesuit lay brother in 1665 (he is sometimes given the courtesy title ‘Padre Pozzo’) and worked much for Jesuit churches, as both painter and architect. His masterpiece is the huge ceiling fresco Allegory of the Missionary Work of the Jesuits (1688–94) in S. Ignazio, Rome, perhaps the most stupendous feat of quadratura ever painted. Pozzo worked in several other Italian cities, and from 1703 until his death he lived in Vienna, where he decorated the Jesuit Church, the University Church, and the Liechtenstein Garden Palace. His influence was spread not only by his paintings, but also by his treatise Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum (2 vols., 1693 and 1700), which was soon translated into several European languages and also (by Jesuit missionaries) into Chinese. As an architect, he designed several churches and altars, but his work in this field was unexciting compared with his paintings and the engravings in his treatise.