|
The picture shows the painting on the ceiling vault of the hall in the apartment of Anna Colonna in the north wing of the Palazzo Barberini. It represents the Triumph of Divina Sapientia.
The Palazzo Barberini, residence of the papal family Barberini, set a new standard for Roman palace architecture and its painted decoration. Planning for the expansion of the sixteenth-century structure was first undertaken by Carlo Maderno, then transferred after his death to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who here distinguished himself as an architect for the first time.
The first commission for the painted decor was given to Andrea Sacchi who in 1629-30 painted the ceiling of the largest room in the wing occupied by Anna Colonna, Taddeo Barberini's wife. Sacchi painted here the fresco identified as Triumph of Divina Sapientia (divine wisdom). Sirens in the room corners hold up small sun disks that extend up into the fresco. They anticipate the theme of the ceiling, in which the sun plays a central role.
The design of the ceiling omits architectural elements completely. Viewers find themselves confronted with a startling heavenly vision including, among other things, realistically depicted astronomical bodies - Earth and the sun hand directly above them. The personification of Divine Wisdom is seated on the Solomonic lion throne, crowned by two Barberini bees, before a huge radiating solar disk in yellow-gold. Imaginative cloud formations fill the greater part of the picture surface, creating a perspective pull that graphically suggests the vast distance between the smaller Earth at the bottom edge of the picture and the gigantic sun.
It is obvious that Sacchi's ceiling presents a commentary on the then current issue of Galileo Galilei's heliocentric worldview.
| 
