COLI, Giovanni
(b. 1636, San Quirico di Lucca, d. 1681, Lucca)

Oval ceiling panel

1675-82
Fresco
Palazzo Colonna, Rome

The picture shows an oval ceiling panel in the west end section of the vault of the Grande Galleria in the Palazzo Colonna. It depicts the Allegorical Triumph of the Hero. The scene belongs to the cycle on the ceiling illustrating decisive events from the military career of Marcantonio II Colonna (1535-1584). In its form and composition the narrative cycle borrows from sixteenth-century Venetian painting, which beginning with Veronese had specialised in depictions on ceilings of historical events viewed from extremely low vantage points.

The cycle is a collective work by Filippo Gherardi and Giovanni Coli, the architecture painting and framing is by Johann Paul Schor and his workshop.