Ceiling in the Foresteria (detail)

1652 · Villa Foscarini Negrelli Rossi, Stra

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At the centre of the ceiling, a space opens up to a light blue sky, in which, derived from Ripa's Iconologia, Eternity, seated on a celestial sphere, raises up the sun and the moon in her hands. She is surrounded by the winged figure of Fame, holding a trumpet and a laurel wreath, by Glory and Honour, and by Virtue. Beneath Eternity, facing the viewers, is Splendour of the Name, in the form of a mature, bearded man who holds the club of Hercules in his right hand and a lighted torch in his left.

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About the Artist

Pietro Liberi

1605 – 1687

Italian painter. He moved to Venice at an early age and studied with Alessandro Varotari (il Padovanino ). Travels from 1628 to 1638 took him to Constantinople, Tunis and several European countries. In Rome from 1638 to 1640, he copied the frescoes of Michelangelo and Raphael, studied the works of the Carracci, Pietro da Cortona and Guido Reni, and also came under the prevailing influence of Gianlorenzo Bernini. His earliest known work, the Rape of the Sabines (1641; Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale), richly reflects this experience of Rome. On his return journey to Venice (c. 1643) he stopped in Bologna and may have seen works by Emilian artists, from Correggio to Reni, in Parma. Liberi was one of the most interesting Venetian artists of the seventeenth century. His nickname was "Il Libertino," because of his gracefully erotic work. His frescoes and major works decorate numerous palaces and churches in Venice (the Doge's Palace, Santa Maria della Salute, etc.), and his oils are in the Hermitage, the British Museum, the Queen's collection in Hampton Court, and the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota.

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