The Aldobrandini Fresco Cycle: Power, Privilege and Punishment in the Baroque Court

Enlightening online lecture from the National Gallery looking at a set of frescos which are usually over a small staircase in the gallery by the first floor shop.

Emma Meehan, a curatorial trainee, talked us through these works by Domenichino and his assistants from from a villa in Frascati near Rome which they were painted for. The villa was a gift from Pope Clement VIII to one of his cardinal nephews and the frescos were part of an amazing sensory garden and pavilion which was full of sculptures and fountains, run on hydraulically powered water and which played sounds as the water came out. Evidently it was all done as a homage to the power of the Counter Reformation church.

She looked at the images themselves and pointed out possible links to the villa they were in. She told us the story of the real courtier, shown in this trompe d’oiel work, who is shown without trousers as punishment for insolence. There is also a nasty comparison being made between his small stature and the fact that Apollo is killing a giant in the fresco.

I’ve walked past these works so often and knew nothing about them. In fact I’d assumed there were part of the decoration of the gallery not art works! I was therefore delighted to find out more about them and have been back to stand and look at them properly.

 

 

 

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