Flora's triumpf 

Gaspare Diziani created this pen and brush drawing, titled ‘Flora's Triumph’, sometime in the first half of the 18th century. Here, Diziani deploys the conventions of classical allegory, popular amongst his Venetian patrons, to communicate a message about the flourishing of nature. The goddess Flora sits atop her chariot as putti cavort around her. But the way this image creates meaning also has to do with the social function of art at the time. Diziani was a successful painter, who depended on commissions from powerful institutions. This drawing may have been a preparatory sketch for a larger ceiling fresco. Its lightness and dynamism would have translated into the kind of theatrical spectacle that was so popular with the Venetian aristocracy. To understand the painting better we would want to know more about Diziani's patrons, the networks of power in which he was operating. We might also want to compare this drawing with the finished fresco, to see what changed in the process of its making.