BACICCIO (GIOVANNI BATTISTA GAULLI)        Italian, 1639-1709        Vision of Saint Ignatius at La Storta, c. 1684-85        Oil on canvas        Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts        Charlotte E. W. Buffington Fund, 1974.298

      By the late seventeenth century, churches dedicated to Saint Ignatius were abundant. Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639-1709), known as Baciccio, painted Vision of Saint Ignatius at La Storta as a model for a large altarpiece, intended for the church of Sant’Ignazio in Rome. He painted this version around 1684-85; by that time Baciccio was one of the leading painters in Rome. Though he never painted the full-scale altarpiece, a very similar painting on the same theme was created about fifteen years later for the high altar in Sant’Ignazio. This painting, and much of the interior decoration of Sant’Ignazio, was designed by Andrea Pozzo, a Jesuit painter.

      In his Autobiography, Ignatius mentions that, after his ordination as a priest, he prayed to the Virgin Mary, asking her to place him with her son, Jesus. Ignatius explains that he experienced this ‘change’ while praying in a small chapel not far from Rome. Ignatius also mentions that two companions were with him on his way to Rome (in 1537): Diego Laynez and Peter Faber. Laynez and Faber are included in the background or margins of Baciccio’s painting (one on the right and one on the left). And Rome looms in the background (though more the Rome of Baciccio’s era than that of the first Jesuits). In addition to Ignatius’ own account, Laynez also later wrote about this experience at La Storta. According to Laynez, Ignatius recounted at that time that he heard the words Ego ero vobis Romae propitius (I will be favorable to you in Rome), and that Ignatius later explained that he also saw Christ with the cross on his shoulder. In Baciccio’s painting, in addition to Christ and the cross, two angels point to the motto Ignatius gave to the Society of Jesus: Ad maiorem Dei gloriam (For the greater glory of God).