Faking It

Today I stopped into Saint Ignatius. It was a very strange church in terms of the ceiling. The main ceiling was a great example of perspective, and made the space feel as if it went a lot higher than it did. The window at the bottom of the picture is where the ceiling ends.


Then there was the dome over the center space. Most churches have a giant dome with a cupola at the top which lets in light. This church at first glance appeared no different, that is while you were standing towards the back in the center of the aisle. As you approached the front, however, it turns out that the dome doesn't exist. It is painted on in false perspective, so it looks really twisted from any other angle.


In the front of the church there is a giant model. It is not of any one particular church, but was apparently supposed to represent all the Jesuit churches around the world uniting into one giant Jesuit church. I'm not entirely sure about the details because it was all in Italian. There is a large circular church in the center surrounded by a bunch of small miniature churches. Each miniature church corresponds to a different country.