How did Baroque artists such as Andrea Pozzo use ideas pioneered by Andrea Mantegna?

Baroque artists, including Andrea Pozzo, expanded upon the principles of illusionism pioneered by Andrea Mantegna during the early Renaissance. Mantegna’s development of di sotto in su—a technique involving extreme foreshortening to create the illusion that figures are suspended in space above the viewer—served as a foundational model for later ceiling decoration.123

In his work on the Camera degli Sposi, Mantegna utilized highly realistic architectural elements to transform a flat ceiling into a seemingly concave, open-air pavilion, anchored by a central oculus. Baroque painters adopted this concept of "total spatial illusion," which relies on a single, hypothetical viewpoint for the spectator to blend their physical space with the painted environment. While Mantegna’s early innovations were not fully exploited until the 17th century, Baroque masters like Pozzo and Giovanni Lanfranco utilized these identical concepts to create dynamic, dramatic ceiling compositions that served the Counter-Reformation’s goal of stimulating religious devotion through sensory and emotional appeal.34