Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART: Galleria Riccardiana Ceiling (Long Gallery)
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Collection:
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ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART
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Preferred Title:
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Galleria Riccardiana Ceiling (Long Gallery)
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Image View:
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Detail of the north wall with the Underworld; Charon ferries his boat across the Styx
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Creator:
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Luca Giordano (Italian painter, 1634-1705)
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Location:
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repository: Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (Florence, Tuscany, Italy)
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Location Note:
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Via Camillo Cavour, 3
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GPS:
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+43.7752+11.255429
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Date:
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ca. 1682-1686 (creation)
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Cultural Context:
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Italian
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Style Period:
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Baroque
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Work Type 1:
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fresco (painting)
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Classification:
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painting
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Material:
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pigment on plaster
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Technique:
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fresco painting (technique)
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Description:
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Giordano won the commission from Marchese Francesco Riccardi (1648-1719) to decorate both the library and the gallery of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence. He began to work on the vault of the gallery, but then returned to Naples (1683-1684), completing the ceiling between 1685 and 1686. The theme of this iconographically complex ceiling unites an Allegory of Human Progress with an Allegory of the Medici Family, the previous owners of the palace. In the center of the ceiling, in a burst of light, is an Apotheosis of the Medici; along the ceiling’s cove the idea of progress is conveyed through mythological scenes (set in landscapes) that are fresh and idyllic in mood and deeply influenced by Cortona’s radiant frescoes in the Sala della Stufa in the Palazzo Pitti. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/)
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Image Description:
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In the world beyond the grave, the three-headed dog Cerberus awaits the arrival of Pluto. In the background, in a cave lit by fire, Vulcan is working, assisted by the Cyclops, forging Jove’s thunderbolts. Meanwhile Charon ferries his boat across the Styx, while Death scythes down the terrified souls. Behind Death the bad souls are punished, such as Titus, his flesh torn in eternity by the beak of an eagle, or Sisyphus condemned to carry his boulder for ever.
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Collection:
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Adjunct Module A: Italian Art
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Identifier:
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7A1-GIOR-PM-GR-D02
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Rights:
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© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.
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