Terra Firma

It is still grey in Roma, though in a few hours I am hopping the train to Firenze for the weekend. Not having class on Friday is WONDERFUL because it allows us to take long weekends to explore a little bit. I have only ever spent the afternoon in Firenze and from all the stories from my sister and friends from their study abroad trips I absolutely cannot wait.

Last night we had Mass of the Holy Spirit to formally open term. While...I was already excited because it is usually in a really beautiful church (well, in Italy, is there such a thing as an unfortunate looking one?) but when we pulled up to Sant'Ignazio, I jumped out of the taxi, and started telling everyone that this was THE church...while, no one understood what I meant and my pure excitement prevented me from explaining.

This is Sant'Ignazio (or St. Ignatius) which is so totally appropriate to celebrate opening of term in while attending a Jesuit school...



The photo does no justice to the absolute beauty of this place.
While the ceiling looks like it has a duomo and a very high vaulted ceiling it is all just a trick of the eye...totally flat turned into totally magnificent. Andrea Pozzo's genius is absolutely undeniable.

It celebrates the work of Saint Ignatius and the Society of Jesus in the world presenting the saint welcomed into paradise by Christ and the Virgin Mary and surrounded by allegorical representations of all four continents. Pozzo worked to open up, even dissolve the actual surface of the nave's barrel vault illusionistically, arranging a perspectival projection to make an observer see a huge and lofty cupola, open to the bright sky, and filled with upward floating figures. A marble disk set into the middle of the nave floor marks the ideal spot from which observers might fully experience the illusion.



Sitting through mass was incredibly difficult because I couldn't help but stare upward, getting lost in the work, in the trick of they eye. I wanted to walk around, to lay on the floor, and explain to my friends WHY this was such a big deal to me.
I got to see with my own eyes, something that I teared up at while seeing it on a slide projection. I got to stand under the works of the masters who have lighted a fire beneath my feet...and only to wake up tomorrow to see Ghiberti's Gates, and Michelangelo's David. To wander the halls of the Uffizi...to return to the very first place (standing in front of Botticelli's "La Primavera") that struck the match all those years ago.

Bella Italia.

Sto facendo le mi ossa.