GUERCINO
(b. 1591, Cento, d. 1666, Bologna)

Ceiling painting

1621
Tempera
Casino dell'Aurora, Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi, Rome

The ceiling painting in the Sala della Fama, the central hall on the second floor, is entirely allegorical. The central picture is designed as a fictive opening with only a few figures. In the centre hovers the personification of Fame in billowing robes, holding in her outstretched hands an extremely long trumpet and an olive branch as a symbol of peace. Flying in front of her is the brightly feathered phoenix of myth, which is reborn out of its own ashes every five hundred years and was therefore considered a symbol of eternal renewal, but was understood also as a link to virtue. In the lower part of the picture space personifications of Honour (Honos) and Virtue (Virtus) are seated on a dark gray cloud. Amor Virtutis in the form of a putto turns toward them with laurel wreath and crown.