[3] Giovanni Battista Gaulli owes a great deal of his success on the ceiling fresco to Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

[4] If not for Bernini's illusionistic merging of architecture and sculpture, in the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa at the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, Gaulli's ceiling fresco may have turned out quite differently.

[5] The illusionistic heavens upon the ceiling of the Gesu emphasizes how the church is seen as an intermediary between the mortal world and eternal salvation.

The subject of Gaulli's ceiling fresco is the Adoration of the Name of Jesus, the story is taken from Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians.

[8] The high vaulted ceiling was not constructed merely for its grand and impressive appearance, but to enhance the experience during mass.

This gives the impression that the heavenly figures above have a true presence in the church, as if they are floating directly over the viewers' heads.

[9] The depth achieved in the fresco extends past the physical ceiling, drawing the blessed upward into the infinite sky.

Gaulli adds a pronounced, stucco, frame around his fresco; emphasizing the illusionistic division of the vault's interior and exterior space.

This adds to the illusion of the scene, making it more believable that there are souls ascending and descending in front of the viewer.

[13] The blessed that rest upon the clouds hang just elbow the frame, giving the illusion that have not yet ascended outside the church into the heavens above.

[14] Gaulli has adapted the Triumph of the Name of Jesus to extend both downward to the viewers and upward into the illusionistic heavens, relying on his friend Bernini to influence and inspire one of his greatest works.