GIULIO ROMANO
(b. ca. 1499, Roma, d. 1546, Mantova)

View of the Sala dei Giganti (west wall)

1532-34
Fresco
Sala dei Giganti, Palazzo del Tè, Mantua

On this wall one sees the first moment of the collapse of the right wall. In the corners on the left and right the giants are heaving up boulders, as if they were trying to build a vault over the room. But the view into the open landscape between them reveals in the distance, beyond the river, the destruction of the first group of giants. The giants fleeing from there, swimming through the water, bring the disaster into the foreground. The screaming, boulder-carrying giant on the left seems to be getting into dire straits as well.




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