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Home>Exhibitions>Past>2023>Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

# Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Past Exhibition

## January 29 – July 9, 2023West Building, Ground Floor, G22

In modern architecture and contemporary interior design, ceilings have lost much of their original, complex meaning, becoming neutral fields or featuring generic decoration. However, in the European tradition that spanned nearly four centuries, ceilings were where the most ambitious, compelling, and meaningful painted compositions appeared.

*Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800* presents some 30 examples of the evolution of ceiling decoration. These works move from architectural frameworks housing conventional paintings to the illusion of a single, soaring space teeming with figures and dynamic movement during the baroque, and then on to the geometric organization and idealized form associated with neoclassism.

Some of the drawings are vibrant preliminary studies; others are large-scale models that give a sense of the experience of the intended final composition. Studies of single motifs and individual figures reveal how these grand projects enticed viewers to pause and look up.

## Explore Selected Works

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Ferdinando Galli Bibiena, *A Grand Illusionistic Ceiling*, 1720/1740, pen and brown ink with gray and brown washes over graphite on laid paper, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund and an Anonymous Donor, 1994.73.1

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Pietro Fancelli, *Studies of Aurora and Apollo*, 1794, pen and brown ink, squared for transfer, William B. O'Neal Fund, 2005.126.1.b

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Andrea Pozzo, *Illusionistic Architecture for the Vault of San Ignazio*, 1685/1690, pen and gray and brown ink with gray wash on two joined sheets of heavy laid paper, Gift of Robert M. and Anne T. Bass, 1994.16.1

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Johann Georg Dieffenbrunner, *The Stoning of Saint Stephen*, 1754, pen and black ink with watercolor over traces of graphite on laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.64

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Taddeo Zuccaro, *A Man Seen from Behind [recto]*, c. 1555, red chalk heightened with white on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1972.4.2.a

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Anton Kern, *A Ceiling with Apollo Presiding over Military and Historical Learning*, 1740s, watercolor, pen and gray ink over traces of black chalk on laid paper, Diane Allen Nixon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce and Professor William B. O'Neal Funds, 2005.80.1

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Felice Giani, *A Coffered Dome with Apollo and Phaeton*, c. 1787, pen and brown ink with gray, blue,  and pink washes over black chalk on wove paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1991.81.1

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Giulio Cesare Procaccini, *Ceiling Studies of a Prophet and a Putto Seen from Below*, c. 1602/1607, oiled black chalk or charcoal, heightened with white chalk on blue-green laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.147

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
François Boucher, *Aurora Heralding the Arrival of the Morning Sun*, c. 1765, brown and black chalk with stumping, heightened with white chalk on buff laid paper, Gift of Dian Woodner, 2006.168.1

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Charles de La Fosse, *Angels and Putti Flying with a Garland: Design for a Ceiling*, c. 1675, red and black chalk with touches of white chalk, squared in black chalk on light gray paper (formerly blue), with later framing line in brown ink, Gift of Donald Stone, 2022.40.23

**Organization**                        Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington                    

The exhibition is curated by Jonathan Bober, former Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art.

**Passes** Admission is always free and passes are not required

**Banner detail**: Andrea Pozzo, *Illusionistic Architecture for the Vault of San Ignazio*, 1685/1690, pen and gray and brown ink with gray wash on two joined sheets of heavy laid paper, overall: 50.4 x 91.2 cm (19 13/16 x 35 7/8 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert M. and Anne T. Bass, 1994.16.1

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