Enquanto na dita Idade Média se erguiam igrejas com planta predominantemente em cruz latina, a partir do chamado Renascimento se encontram nos principais tratados, como os de Leon Battista Alberti (1452) e Sebastiano Serlio (Livro V, 1547), o elogio à perfeição das plantas circulares. Tem sido consenso na historiografia que a censura à construção das igrejas centralizadas e o retorno às formas basilicais foi defendido pelo Concílio de Trento, que teria traçado diretrizes que orientariam o projeto para a matriz romana dos jesuítas, a igreja de Il Gesù (1568). Este trabalho, tendo por objeto a análise do conjunto de igrejas e oratórios construídos em planta longitudinal em Roma, após o Grande Saque de 1527 e nas décadas que antecederam o projeto de Vignola para a casa-mãe jesuíta, se propõe a atenuar tal mito e a demarcar as noções e os princípios que nortearam a construção de tais edifícios sagrados. / While in Middle Ages churches were conceived predominantly in a latin cross plan, the Renaissance brought treaties, such as the one from Leon Battista Alberti (1452) and the other from Sebatiano Serlio (book V, 1547), which praise the perfection of circular plan. It has been consensus in historiography that the return to basilical forms, as advocated by the Council of Trent, is inaugurated with the construction of Il Gesù (1568). This essay, which aims to analyze the set of Roman churches and oratories built in longitudinal plan after de Sack of Rome in 1527 and in the decades that preceded Vignola\'s project to the Jesuit House Church, proposes to mitigate such myth and to investigate the notions and principles that guided the construction of such worship buildings.

The thesis is a performative and sensuous study based on pre-iconographic descriptions of the formal features in the ceiling paintings The Triumph of the Name of Jesus (1674-1679) by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (called Baciccio, 1639-1709) in Il Gesù, Rome and Glorification of Sant'Ignazio (1685-1694) by Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709) in Sant'Ignazio, Rome.  By tracing effects likely perceived by different visitors through eyesight and the movement in the room, the aim is to suggest why these artworks are perceived as powerful. The results show that the power of the illusion in both paintings lie in the questioning of elements a visitor will know devoid of iconography or theological understanding of the narrative. Through elements a visitor will recognize and have bodily and sensuous experience of, different features will make the visitor question reality related to painted fiction. This experience and how it affects a visitor is why the artworks hold a central place in the art historical view on the Baroque, and further, Jesuit Style. The method for this analysis is pre-iconographic descriptions of all the figures in the vaulted naves, that are analyzed by the author using performative theory and a sensuous perspective as the theoretical framework. The research question for the thesis is: How is a visitor affected by the formal features in "The Triumph of the Name of Jesus" by Giovanni Battista Gaulli and "Glorification of Sant'Ignazio" by Andrea Pozzo?