Altar of St Ignatius Loyola

Although it was carried out in the last years of the 17th century, the Saint Ignatius altarpiece is one of the high points in Roman Baroque sculpture. Father Pozzo provided the drawings for the ensemble and called on a number of specialists to carry out the work. The altar gleams with vivid colours of lapis lazuli, which covers the travertine of the columns, gilded bronze, silver, coloured alabasters and marbles. The sculptural decoration creates powerful effects of movement. On the urn, a masterpiece by Algardi, stands the statue of St Ignatius, not the original, but a version reworked in 1814 under Canova’s direction.