Gewelfdecoratie uit Pallazzo Barberini 1692 - 1762

This ceiling decoration from the Palazzo Barberini was made by an anonymous artist using etching and engraving. It is part of a series of prints depicting similar scenes. Such art was central to the self-representation of powerful families, and a source of their cultural legitimacy. The Palazzo Barberini in Rome was a grand urban palace built by one of the wealthiest families in seventeenth-century Italy. In this artwork, the family promotes an image of themselves as virtuous and powerful. We can understand this print as a political tool, and it’s no accident that the family chose to adorn their palace with images of heavenly glory. Historical sources such as family papers, building accounts, and inventories can help us to understand the iconography of ceiling paintings and their place in the construction of elite identity. By placing this object back into its original social and institutional context, we can learn to read the image as a statement about power.