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

Vault: The Assembly of Gods around Jupiter's Throne

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

From the summit of Mount Olympus, the father of the gods hurls his thunderbolts at the earth, sweeping away the giants and the awkward pile of rocks intended to support their ascent into the heavens. The pantheon of pagan divinities that surround him are for the most part paralysed with fear. The giants are ill-proportioned but muscular, with grotesque, desperate faces, and they are depicted struggling amid or trying to escape the dramatic collapse of rocks and fictive architecture that Giulio Romano imagined.




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