Putto con ghirlande (c.1509)

Pinturicchio (c.1454-1513)

Putto con ghirlande (Putto with garlands)
c.1509
Fresco, transferred to canvas and attached to wood panels, 94 × 108 cm
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

This fresco was part of a series which decorated the palace belonging to Pandolfo Petrucci, the ruler of Siena. He commissioned the frescoes to celebrate the marriage of his son to Pope Pius III’s niece.

The ceiling, composed of detached frescoes of mythological subjects set into casts of the original stuccowork, was painted by Pinturicchio and his workshop as part of the decoration of a room in the Palazzo del Magnifico in Siena. The palace was constructed for the ruler of Siena, Pandolfo Petrucci, (1451–1512) called “Il Magnifico,” whose coat-of-arms decorates the center of the ceiling. According to an eighteenth century description, the walls were frescoed with eight allegorical and mythological scenes by Signorelli, Girolamo Genga, and Pinturicchio. Six of these were detached in 1842/44 and are now in the National GalleryLondon and the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena. There was also a wooden framework carved by Antonio Barili, parts of which are preserved in Siena, and a majolica tile floor, sections of which also survive. Some of the tiles are dated 1509, the year Pandolfo Petrucci’s son, Borghese, married Vittoria Piccolomini, and the room must have been painted about this time. Pinturicchio was one of the first artists to explore Nero’s Golden House in Rome, and the decoration of the present ceiling is based on a vault in the Golden House. The frescoes from the ceiling, badly damaged, were detached in 1912. One of twenty-two panels (14.114.1–.22) forming the ceiling from the Palace of Pandolfo Petrucci. The general distribution and partition of the ceiling appears to derive from that of a vaulted and painted ceiling in Nero’s Golden House in Rome. Many of the individual figures also seem to derive from antique works of art– especially sarcophagi. (MET)

This is one of twenty-two panels forming the ceiling from the Palace of Pandolfo Petrucci, called Il Magnifico.

Frescoes from Palazzo del Magnifico, Siena:

Pinturicchio (c.1454-1513)
Ritorno di Ulisse
c.1509
National GalleryLondon

 

 

Signorelli, Luca (c.1445-1523)
Coriolano convinto dalla sua famiglia
c.1509
National GalleryLondon

 

 

Signorelli, Luca (c.1445-1523)
Trionfo della Castità e Amore sconfitto
c.1509
National GalleryLondon

 

 

These paintings in fresco (painted directly on to wet plaster) once decorated the walls of a room in the Petrucci family palace in Siena. Each wall was painted with two frescoes, positioned on either side of a doorway or window. The ceiling, which can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York, contained 20 frescoes of mythological scenes, divided by carved, painted and gilded stucco (plaster), produced by Pintoricchio and his workshop. At the centre was the Petrucci coat of arms, surrounded by flying putti (cherubs).

The frescoes were commissioned by Pandolfo Petrucci to celebrate the marriage of his son to the niece of Pope Pius III. The occasion provided an opportunity to show off his fashionable interest in classical history – through scenes from ancient Greek and Roman literature and history, the frescoes illustrate family values and the virtues important to marriage. (NG)