|
In the second room on the south side of the courtyard of the Palazzo Marucelli-Fenzi, the ceiling fresco presents one of the most successful of Baroque subjects, the Youth between Virtue and Vice. Here Ricci shows the battle for youth between lust and virtue. Almost the entire ceiling is given over to the realm of love and sensual pleasure, while the walls below present famous exempla virtutis (examples of virtue) from antiquity in the form of large-format oil paintings that Ricci painted for this room and which hang in their original locations to this day. The fully three-dimensional stucco figures seated or reclining on the projecting cornice beneath the ceiling enter into the picture's action and supplement it in content.
|
