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Home>Exhibitions>Past>2023>Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Past Exhibition

January 29 – July 9, 2023
West Building, Ground Floor, G22

In modern architecture and contemporary interior design, ceilings have lost much of their original, complex meaning, becoming neutral fields or featuring generic decoration. However, in the European tradition that spanned nearly four centuries, ceilings were where the most ambitious, compelling, and meaningful painted compositions appeared.

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800 presents some 30 examples of the evolution of ceiling decoration. These works move from architectural frameworks housing conventional paintings to the illusion of a single, soaring space teeming with figures and dynamic movement during the baroque, and then on to the geometric organization and idealized form associated with neoclassism.

Some of the drawings are vibrant preliminary studies; others are large-scale models that give a sense of the experience of the intended final composition. Studies of single motifs and individual figures reveal how these grand projects enticed viewers to pause and look up.

Explore Selected Works

Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Ferdinando Galli Bibiena, A Grand Illusionistic Ceiling, 1720/1740, pen and brown ink with gray and brown washes over graphite on laid paper, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund and an Anonymous Donor, 1994.73.1
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Pietro Fancelli, Studies of Aurora and Apollo, 1794, pen and brown ink, squared for transfer, William B. O'Neal Fund, 2005.126.1.b
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Andrea Pozzo, Illusionistic Architecture for the Vault of San Ignazio, 1685/1690, pen and gray and brown ink with gray wash on two joined sheets of heavy laid paper, Gift of Robert M. and Anne T. Bass, 1994.16.1
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Johann Georg Dieffenbrunner, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, 1754, pen and black ink with watercolor over traces of graphite on laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.64
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Taddeo Zuccaro, A Man Seen from Behind [recto], c. 1555, red chalk heightened with white on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1972.4.2.a
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Anton Kern, A Ceiling with Apollo Presiding over Military and Historical Learning, 1740s, watercolor, pen and gray ink over traces of black chalk on laid paper, Diane Allen Nixon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce and Professor William B. O'Neal Funds, 2005.80.1
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Felice Giani, A Coffered Dome with Apollo and Phaeton, c. 1787, pen and brown ink with gray, blue, and pink washes over black chalk on wove paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1991.81.1
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Ceiling Studies of a Prophet and a Putto Seen from Below, c. 1602/1607, oiled black chalk or charcoal, heightened with white chalk on blue-green laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.147
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

François Boucher, Aurora Heralding the Arrival of the Morning Sun, c. 1765, brown and black chalk with stumping, heightened with white chalk on buff laid paper, Gift of Dian Woodner, 2006.168.1
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800

Charles de La Fosse, Angels and Putti Flying with a Garland: Design for a Ceiling, c. 1675, red and black chalk with touches of white chalk, squared in black chalk on light gray paper (formerly blue), with later framing line in brown ink, Gift of Donald Stone, 2022.40.23

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

The exhibition is curated by Jonathan Bober, former Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art.

Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required

Banner detail: Andrea Pozzo, Illusionistic Architecture for the Vault of San Ignazio, 1685/1690, pen and gray and brown ink with gray wash on two joined sheets of heavy laid paper, overall: 50.4 x 91.2 cm (19 13/16 x 35 7/8 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert M. and Anne T. Bass, 1994.16.1