Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title:
Galleria Riccardiana Ceiling (Long Gallery)
Image View:
General view of half of the gallery looking towards the west wall (entrance)
Creator:
Luca Giordano (Italian painter, 1634-1705)
Location:
repository: Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (Florence, Tuscany, Italy)
Location Note:
Via Camillo Cavour, 3
GPS:
43.7752 11.255429
Date:
ca. 1682-1686 (creation)
Cultural Context:
Italian
Style Period:
Baroque
Work Type 1:
fresco (painting)
Classification:
painting
Material:
pigment on plaster
Technique:
fresco painting (technique)
Description:
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.oxfordart online.com/)
Collection:
Adjunct Module A: Italian Art
Identifier:
7A1-GIOR-PM-GR-N02
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Galleria Riccardiana Ceiling (Long Gallery)