This is the interior of Santa Maria Maggiore. It's a panoramic shot that shows lots and lots of ceiling.
I have a whole bunch of shots like this and you'll see them all eventually. Why? Because whatever else you might think about the Renaissance church, they sure knew how to decorate a building—and I love getting lots of that in a single picture. I also overexpose almost all of these pictures, which makes them brighter than they are in real life. But really, who needs a bunch of dimly lit decorations? I'd rather show them off so you can admire them.
That perspective makes it look like it's the length of a football field.
I'm guessing the acoustics are great.
Artificial lighting--mounted at the base of the windows?
Wikipedia lists a length of 302 feet. I suppose that measured on the outside. The inside might be reasonably close to football field size, though.
Clearly, they were also really good at scaffolding. (I can still see Charlton Heston, lying on his back, getting paint on his beard and face, with Rex Harrison yelling from down below "Are ya done yet?")
I would say that they knew how to overdecorate a building.
I've been hoping somebody would say that.
They don’t make anything like that anymore… well, maybe Putin would.
Talk about infrastructure spending!
Very nice photo! They put the contributions of the poor to highly decorative use. The widows’ mites and tithes and ceremony fees for baptisms, marriages, and funerals. Oh, also prayers for a speedy voyage through Purgatory. Religious authorities are good at raising funds for their own self-indulgence.
Private mansions may be very self-indulgent, but I wouldn't say that about accessible spaces like this. They are crowd-pleasers.
Crowd-pleasers or dick measuring contests to see who’s god is the most powerful?
Love it, excellent shot.
Haysoos there looking at the decorations and thinking "What Have I Done!!!"
Why can't airport departure lounges look like that?
It's like the inside of the Pope's hat.
God really isn't packing them in like he used to. He's just cruising on the Oldies circuit. Can a PBS fundraiser be far away?
FYI, at it’s core it’s a fifth century church, not a renaissance or baroque building. The foundational structure and design, the columns, the mosaic series are all late Roman/early Christian. Everything else is just later embellishment. But it’s essentially a 5th century building with later stuff just tacked on. The mosaics within are of enormous historical and artistic importance.
Stitched? It's interesting to see zero deformation vertically (columns are perfectly straight) but the ceiling and floors are stretched with exaggerated barrel distortion.