Aside from the cheese, there’s another purchase I regret not making.

I saw it at The Gesu, the central Jesuit church in Rome. Now, the Gesu is a fascinating place artistically and historically, of course, and I knew some of what to expect there – St. Francis Xavier’s arm and so on. What I, in my limited art knowledge didn’t expect…was the ceiling:

Click on the link for a bigger version. But even that, as those who have seen it, can’t even come close to the impact of seeing it in person.  The ceiling painting  – The Triumph of the Holy Name of Jesus is by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, aka Boccicio and is a..triumph of the 17th century art of illusion – Jesus, represented by an IHS, sends forth the light that tosses the heretics downward – and it does look as if they are headed right at you as you gaze upward. Moving back to the center, the sky seems to open up, revealing the eternal heavens from which Jesus’ power shines forth.

Here’s an article on the fairly recent restoration of the Gesu from the Jesuit magazine, Company.

There were postcards of course, but they were puny, and had no point, being far too small to capture the power of that ceiling. There was, however, a large poster with a small calendar of Jesuit saints’ feast days along the bottom, which came pretty close and was..3 Euros. But they guy had no tubes in which to put the thing, we were still fairly early in our explorations that day, and I thought.."I’ll come back. I’ll find a tube. I’ll get it." But, of course…I didn’t.

So. Rome people? If anyone wants to go by the Gesu and pick that up for me and ship it…let me know and I’ll reimburse you. Promise.

(Link to image changed – this one should work. And…someone’s offered to get the poster for me. Thanks for the offers!)