The complex and ambitious Italian tradition of illusionistic painting applied the Renaissance confidence in handling perspective to projects for ceilings and overcame the problems of applying linear perspective to the concave surfaces of domes in order to dissolve the architecture and create illusions of limitless space.

Painted and patterned ceilings were a Gothic tradition in Italy as elsewhere, but the first ceiling painted to feign open space, was created by Andrea Mantegna a master of perspective who went to Mantua as court painter to the Gonzaga. His masterpiece was a series of frescoes that culminated in 1474 in the Camera degli Sposi ("bridal chamber") of the Ducal Palace. In these works, he carried the art of illusionistic perspective to new limits. He frescoed the walls with illusionistic scenes of court life, while the ceiling appeared as if it were an oculus open to the sky, with servants, a peacock, and cherubs leaning over a balustrade, seen in strongly foreshortened perspective from below—di sotto in su. This was the prototype of illusionistic ceiling painting that was to become an important element of Italian baroque. The Lamentation over the Dead Christ Tempera on canvas, 68x81 cm, 1490 Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan Andrea Mantegna (c. ... The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708. ...

Correggio at Parma took the illusionistic ceiling a step farther in his frescos of Christ and the Apostles for the cupola at the San Giovanni Evangelista and in the Assumption of the Virgin in the dome of the cathedral of Parma, which is Correggio's most famous work (1520–24); in these frescos Correggio treats the entire surface as the vast and frameless vault of heaven in which the figures float. Clouds and figures protrude into the realm of architecture where the spectator stands. Antonio Allegri da Correggio Jupiter and Io, 1531 or 32 Antonio Allegri da Correggio (Correggio, Italy August 1489 – March 5, 1534) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. ... Parma is a medieval city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, with splendid architecture and a fine countryside around it. ...

Roman times

In Rome, the long-standing tradition of frescoed ceilings received a push from the grand projects in Palazzo Farnese under the guidance of Annibale Caracci and his team, but the figural subjects were still enclosed within multiple framed compartments, and the perspective of subjects seen from below was not consistently taken into consideration. A mid-18th century engraving of Palazzo Farnese by Giuseppe Vasi Palazzo Farnese, Rome (housing the French Embassy), is the most imposing Italian palace of the sixteenth century (Sir Banister Fletcher) (1). ... The Flight into Egypt (1603) Oil on canvas, 122 x 230 cm Galleria Doria_Pamphili, Rome Annibale Carracci (November 3, 1560, in Bologna - July 15, 1609, in Rome) was an Italian painter, etcher and engraver. ...

From 1625 to 1627 Giovanni Lanfranco, a native of Parma who knew Correggio's dome, painted the enormous dome of the church of Sant' Andrea della Valle with an Assumption of the Virginthat overwhelmed contemporary spectators with its exuberant illusionistic effects and became one of the first high baroque masterpieces. Lanfranco's work in Rome (1613-1630) and in Naples (1634-1646) was fundamental to the development of illusionism in Italy. Giovanni Lanfranco (born: 26 January 1582, Parma, Italy - died: 30 November 1647, Rome) was an Italian baroque painter. ...

Pietro Berrettini, called Pietro da Cortona, developed the illusionistic ceiling fresco to an extraordinary degree in works such as the ceiling (1633-1639) of the gran salone of Palazzo Barberini. From 1676 to 1679 Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Baciccio, painted an Adoration of the Name of Jesus on the ceiling of the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit headquarters in Rome. From 1691 to 1694 Andrea Pozzo painted the Entrance of Saint Ignatius into Paradise for the ceiling of Sant' Ignazio, Rome, with theatricality and emotion. Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berettini) (November 1, 1596- May 16, 1669) was a prolific High Baroque artist active mainly in Rome. ... In Palazzo Barberini, which still dominates Piazza Barberini, Rione Trevi, Rome, three great architects worked to create a harmonious whole: Carlo Maderno, who began it in 1627, his nephew and assistant Francesco Borromini, working on his first important commission, and a young sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. ... Baciccio, Il Baciccio, and Baciccia redirect here. ... The Church of the Gesù. The Church of the Gesù is home to the famous painting of Madonna Della Strada, venerated by millions of Roman Catholics. ... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... Andrea Pozzo S.J. was an extremely versitile Italian painter who was bart of the Baroque movement. ...

External links

• Trevor Hunt, "From Mantegna to Michelangelo: illusionistic ceiling paintings of the Renaissance pave the way for Baroque excess"
• RomeArtLover: Baroque ceilings