Fresco (Secular)

Ottavio Vannini
Young Michelangelo showing Lorenzo il Magnifico the Head of a Faun
ca. 1638-42
fresco
Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Paolo Uccello
Monument to Sir John Hawkwood
1436
detached fresco mounted on canvas
Duomo di Firenze

Christoph Unterberger
Punishment of Lichas
1784-86
fresco
Sala di Ercole, Villa Borghese, Rome

Christoph Unterberger
Hercules receiving the Horn of Achelous from the Naiads
1784-86
fresco
Sala di Ercole, Villa Borghese, Rome

Christoph Unterberger
Death of Hercules on the Pyre
1784-86
fresco
Sala di Ercole, Villa Borghese, Rome

Christoph Unterberger
Apotheosis of Hercules
1784-86
fresco
Sala di Ercole, Villa Borghese, Rome

Antonio Viviani (il Sordo)
Genius of Fame
ca. 1585-90
loggia fresco
Palazzo Altemps, Rome

Antonio Viviani (il Sordo)
Putto with Roses
ca. 1585-90
loggia fresco
Palazzo Altemps, Rome

Pietro Benvenuti
Hercules rescuing Dejanira from Nessus
ca. 1817-29
fresco
Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Pietro Benvenuti
Hercules slaying the Hydra
ca. 1817-29
fresco
Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Ottavio Vannini
Selene and Endymion
1632
fresco
Palazzo Galli-Tassi, Florence

Giovanni da San Giovanni (Giovanni Mannozzi)
Apollo and Marsyas
ca. 1634-35
fresco on terracotta
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Anonymous Italian Artist after Perino del Vaga
Ornamental Frieze with Lady and Unicorn
ca. 1545
detached fresco
Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome

Sandro Botticelli
Young Man presented by Venus to the Liberal Arts
ca. 1483-85
detached fresco
Musée du Louvre

Taddeo Zuccaro
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V meeting with Alessandro Farnese
1561-63
fresco
Palazzo Farnese di Caprarola

James Thornhill
Allegorical Scene with the Duke of Marlborough kneeling before Britannia
1716
ceiling fresco
Great Hall, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

Frede Vidar
Department Store
1934
fresco
Coit Tower, San Francisco

from Lapis Lazuli

All perform their tragic play,

There struts Hamlet, there is Lear,

That's Ophelia, that Cordelia;

Yet they, should the last scene be there,

The great stage curtain about to drop,

If worthy their prominent part in the play,

Do not break up their lines to weep.

They know that Hamlet and Lear are gay;

Gaiety transfiguring all that dread.

All men have aimed at, found and lost;

Black out; Heaven blazing into the head:

Tragedy wrought to its uttermost.

Though Hamlet rambles and Lear rages,

And all the drop-scenes drop at once

Upon a hundred thousand stages,

It cannot grow by an inch or an ounce.

– William Butler Yeats (1936)