[0:00] [music]

Frank Dabell: [0:04] This is the Saint Ignatius Chapel, Saint Ignatius of Loyola. In his memory, before he’d actually been proclaimed a saint fully, the church was dedicated. Then when he was beatified and then canonized in 1622, another entire church was built with his name, Sant’Ignazio, which is nearby.

Dr. Beth Harris: [0:23] Nearby.

Frank: [0:24] This chapel celebrates his relationship to God. It’s an explosion of light, precious material — gold, lapis lazuli, silver, bronze, and precious marbles. What we see is basically a painting enshrined in a great tabernacle. The painting shows Saint Ignatius before God himself.

[0:47] He’s kneeling in his black habit before the figure of Christ, and he’s holding a banner, bright red banner with the name of Jesus on it, as it were presenting or supplicating before God to be admitted to heaven. The most extraordinary thing about this is that it’s actually a theatrical mechanism.

[1:04] In very recent years, this has been restored and is functioning once again. Generally speaking, at 5:30 PM daily, the painting, at the culmination of a 15-to-20-minute sound and light show, lowers itself. The painting slides down gradually like a piece of theatrical machinery into the ground, below the altar, and reveals a full…

Dr. Harris: [1:28] Wow.

Frank: [1:28] …size but much larger than life-size statue of Saint Ignatius. It’s as if to say he has now died and gone to heaven. Above the whole figure, crowned, surrounded by angels, is an image of the Holy Trinity. This is Baroque scenery, Baroque theatricality, at its finest. They called it a “machina” back in those days, a machine.

Dr. Steven Zucker: [1:49] The entire tabernacle is, even on this dim day, is beautifully illuminated. All of the incredibly reflective qualities of the gold, of the semi-precious stones, really reflecting light. If you look at the image itself, it’s so interesting, because below the main scene, you have what seem like the representation of the four main continents, of Africa, of the New World.

Frank: [2:10] The four corners of the world, as they called them then, and then the Church of Saint Ignatius, the church a few blocks from here, we have a similar though much larger painting on the ceiling in fresco of that theme of Ignatius’s work, the teaching and faith of the Jesuits, extending to the four parts of the known world, as they called [them].

Dr. Harris: [2:29] It reminds one that it’s the era of colonialism. A lot of the money that’s coming to the church and to Europe at this time is from the colonies.

Frank: [2:37] Indeed. Colonialism and evangelization. The statue that’s behind is not the original statue. Part of it is, but the great solid silver and gold parts were melted down when Napoleon invaded Italy, 1798, also to pay for the troops.

[2:52] They also burned a lot of the tapestries in the Vatican so they could get the precious gold and silver thread out of them. This was then remade in the early 19th century. It still stands as a piece of absolutely wonderful precious material. I would add that between the gilded bronze shafts of those columns are lots of pieces of lapis lazuli.

[3:13] Lapis is ultramarine blue. It’s one of the richest materials that we know. It’s still the most expensive color in painting. Michelangelo used it for painting “The Last Judgment,” ground up. It comes from Afghanistan, but it is also highly expensive. It’s three times the price of gold. Three times the value of gold.

Dr. Harris: [3:29] Wow. When the painting comes down and the sculpture is revealed, there’s also musical accompaniment.

Frank: [3:34] It’s a musical accompaniment which comes to a crescendo.

Dr. Harris: [3:37] It’s a very sensual experience.

Frank: [3:37] It is.

[3:38] [music]