Ceiling decoration

1530 · Camera dei Semibusti, Villa Imperiale, Pesaro

religious

Raphael's solution for ceiling decoration, stretching a velarium, or awning, across the illusive opening in the ceiling and using it as an autonomous support for the painting, found widespread application. Analogous solutions are found in later works, such as in the Villa Imperiale. The picture shows the ceiling of the Camera dei Semibusti in the Villa Imperiale.

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About the Artist

Girolamo Genga

1476 – 1551

Italian painter and architect. Vasari stated that he was first apprenticed to Luca Signorelli, probably when the latter went to Urbino in 1494. From c. 1498 until 1501 he was active in Pietro Perugino 's workshop, where he probably met Raphael. He later went to Florence, remaining there for some years, according to Vasari, before going to Siena, though the sequence of his movements between 1501 and c. 1513 is disputed. His career is unlikely to have followed the neat progression implied by Vasari, and it is more reasonable to consider the artist as relatively mobile, moving between different artistic centres.

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