Ceiling decoration

The picture shows the ceiling fresco in the reading room of the library of the Accademia dei Lincei in the Palazzo Corsini.

The shape of the frame alludes to Pietro da Cortona's ceiling in Santa Maria in Vallicella. This frame, especially characteristic of Rome, was popular both in sacred and secular contexts, and was also frequently used in horizontal-format compositions. The ceiling in the library of Palazzo Corsini, painted by the Florentine Vincenzo Meucci, is a good example. Befitting the stature of the Corsini family, which supplied a pope in Clement XII, the pictorial program combines motifs alluding to the function of the library (church fathers and scholars) with the personification of Ecclesia, angels, putti, virtues, and vanquished vices.