Going for Baroque

Yesterday's Rome wanderings included some of that city's extraordinary baroque churches.  Chiesa Nuova or Santa Maria in Vallicella is a particularly busy example of no surface goes untouched.

Christ gets a little lost in the altar.

A small portion of the ceiling (there's a church term for ceiling, but you get my gist).

Another view of the altar

Although this church photographs well, the overall effect was a bit overwhelming -- I couldn't help but thinking that this was the era when even the church lost its faith and depended on power and control to awe the masses.  You can feel the faith and belief in most gothic and early renaissance churches, but I couldn't feel it here.