Triumph of St. Ignatius

1734, olio su tela.

The canvas placed in the central altar of the church is signed and dated in the bottom right-hand corner. The author is Giuseppe Mauro, the date of realisation 1734. The realisation of the painting corresponds to the final phase of post-earthquake work on the church, rebuilt according to a project attributed to Rosario Gagliardi.

The canvas is fully in line with the Jesuit ideology that aimed to spread Catholic belief through the universal mission. It presents in the centre, in an elevated position, the holy founder of the order, St Ignatius, suspended on a cloud casting his shadow below. Ignatius is shrouded in a golden aura, shows with his right hand the emblem of the order, a radiating disk with the anagram of Christ, and with his left hand a book with the inscription: Ad maiorem Dei gloriam . On the left, an angel holds a scroll that fully explains the missionary vocation of the order and explains the very meaning of the painting: Coelo affixus sed terris omnibus sparsus (Attached to heaven but scattered throughout the earth).
In the lower register, around a globe placed on a base, are the personifications of the then known continents, Europe and Asia, in the foreground on the left and right, while Africa and America are in the background and in half-light. Europe’s primary role is emphasised by the crown and sceptre that place it as the leader of the world. At its feet, the papal tiara, central and dominant compared to the Habsburg and French crowns, affirms the supremacy of the Catholic Church over temporal power. At his feet, two cornucopias, brimming with fruit and jewellery, indicate the wealth of the two continents. Africa and America reproduce, like the other two continents, the typical attributes described by Ripa’s Iconology. In Africa, nudity indicates the scarcity of raw materials, the elephant’s tusk the typical African animal. America is also naked, with a similar meaning to Africa, and wears typical costumes with arrow and bow. The painting re-proposes, in a reduced and simplified form, themes developed by the Jesuit order in Rome in the mother church where the celebratory and Eurocentric tone prevails.

• Ignatius was born in Loyola in Spain in 1491, in 1534 he founded the Society of Jesus with a missionary purpose and total obedience to the pope. He died in Rome in 1556, was canonised by Pope Gregory XV in 1622.

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