CANUTI, Domenico Maria
(b. 1625, Bologna, d. 1684, Bologna)

Wall and ceiling decoration

1669-71
Fresco
Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna

The picture shows a view of the Salone in the Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande.

The painterly bravura of Canuti is evident in the ceiling and wall painting of the large Salone. Here he worked together with the quadratura painter Domenico Santi (called il Mengazzino). This is the largest salone decoration in a private palace in Bologna, and in it the contributions of the figure painter (figurista) and architecture painter (quadraturista) are combined to grandiose effect. The painted architecture of the concave ceiling rests atop a painted wall arrangement consisting of Ionic columns wound with garlands. Between the columns are niches holding personifications of virtues. In the centre of the illusionistic ceiling system a large oval panel shows Hercules being welcomed to Olympus.