Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Decorative Frescoes on Palace Ceilings I

Giuseppe Maria Crespi
Apotheosis of Hercules, with The Four Seasons
ca. 1700
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna

Giuseppe Maria Crespi
Apotheosis of Hercules, and The Four Seasons (detail)
ca. 1700
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna

Giuseppe Maria Crespi
Assembly of the Gods and the Parcae
ca. 1700
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna

Giuseppe Maria Crespi
Asembly of the Gods and the Parcae (detail)
1700
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna

Giovanni Luigi Valesio
Putti on Balustrade
1621
ceiling fresco
Casino dell'Aurora, Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi, Rome

"Frescoed ceilings in galleries and loggias, salons and parlors, became typical of the decoration of aristocratic palaces in Rome at the end of the cinquecento and remained so through the ensuing century. The fresco won favor thanks to its modest cost when compared to precious tapestries and thanks also to its narrative potential. It rendered walls and ceilings eloquent, and it complemented the surrounding architectural elements. ... In a palace's decorative scheme, frescoes played a conservative function: they exalted the family, tied together the sequence of rooms, and provided a colorful frame for all the visual elements that fleetingly graced the spaces beneath, as owners, tastes, and fashions shifted."

 Francesca Cappelletti in Display of Art in the Roman Palace, 1550-1750, edited by Gail Feigenbaum (Getty Research Institute, 2014)

Giovanni Lanfranco
Council of the Gods
1624-25
ceiling fresco
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Giuseppe Nicola Nasini
Jupiter subdues the Giants
1691-92
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence

Pietro da Cortona
Mythological scene
1642
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Pietro da Cortona
Mythological scene
1643-44
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Gregorio de Ferrari
Summer
1687-88
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Rosso, Genoa

Giovanni Andrea Carlone
Allegory on the life of Man
1691-92
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Rosso, Genoa

Louis Dorigny
Ballroom ceiling 
1695-98
fresco
Palazzo Zenobio, Venice

Louis Dorigny
Ballroom ceiling (detail)
1695-98
fresco
Palazzo Zenobio, Venice


Louis Dorigny
Ballroom ceiling (detail)
1695-98
fresco
Palazzo Zenobio, Venice

Louis Dorigny
Corridor ceiling (detail)
1695-98
fresco
Palazzo Zenobio, Venice