Loves of the Gods, Palazzo Farnese

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Smarthistory - Carracci's Ceiling of the Farnese Palace

The Loves of the Gods is a monumental fresco cycle, completed by the Bolognese artist Annibale Carracci and his studio, in the Farnese Gallery which is located in the west wing of the Palazzo Farnese, now the French Embassy, in Rome, Italy. The frescoes were greatly admired at the time, and were later considered to reflect a significant change in painting style away from sixteenth century Mannerism to anticipation of the development of Baroque and Classicism in Rome during the seventeenth century.

Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, Pope Paul III's nephew, commissioned Annibale Carracci and his workshop to decorate the barrel-vaulted gallery on the piano nobile of the family palace. Work was started in 1597 and was not entirely finished until 1608, one year before Annibale's death.

His brother Agostino joined him from 1597–1600, and other artists in the workshop included Giovanni Lanfranco, Francesco Albani, Domenichino and Sisto Badalocchio. The Farnese Gallery consists of profusely decorated quadratura and framed mythological scenes.

Annibale Carracci had first decorated a small room, the Camerino (1595-7), in the Palazzo Farnese with scenes from the life of Hercules; the theme was probably selected because of the famous ancient Roman statue, known as the Farnese Hercules, which at that time was also in the Palazzo Farnese. In 1597, he began to decorate the Gallery with mythological themes set within painted frames (quadri riportati) painted on an illusionistic architectural framework referred to as quadratura [1]. Ignudi or painted nudes, putti, and herms help support the painted framework. Gian Pietro Bellori, a famous biographer of artists' lives of the next generation, called it 'Human Love Governed by Celestial Love'.

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