Perspective between representation and AR. The apse of the church of St. Ignatius

This contribution studies the ways in which Augmented Reality (AR) can communicate and disseminate knowledge about our cultural heritage in general and, in particular, Architectural Perspectives (AP). The focus is to increase our knowledge and understanding of perspective technique and how the latter deals with the unique mix between the real architectural environment and an illusory space, in this case the decorations of the presbytery and apse of the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome. The specific objective of the study is the possibility to use the Pozzo’s treatise to “augment” its fruition, accompanied by a virtual visit in order to gather more in-depth information about the perspective construction that creates the effect of spatial expansion thanks to this expedient. This decoration is in fact one of the rare cases of a perspective representation of a pictorial project, in turn also a perspective designed by Pozzo; this design is the “activation” element of an AR experience that immediately illustrates the perspective bravura of its creator.