# View of the Sala dell'Udienza del Granduca [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MITELLI, Agostino]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Fresco ## Commentary The architectonical elements of quadratura, or trompe-l'oeil, decoration provide the grand duke's Private Audience Hall with startling illusionistic effects. On its rear wall Mitelli painted a grand double staircase that visually enlarges the actual size of the room through a deceptive perspectival device. The figure of a court official, painted by Mitelli's partner Angelo Michele Colonna \(c. 1600-1687\) is seen in the act of climbing the imaginary stairs, thus adding a sense of illusionary reality. In the Palazzo Pitti commission the Colonna-Mitelli collaboration developed a successful model that the pair was able to translate to other situations. The best example of this is the painting, from a few years later, in the salone of the <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/c/colonna/sassuolo.html'\)" href="/html/c/colonna/sassuolo.html">d'Este summer residence in Sassuolo,</a> near Modena. ## Related artworks - [Ceiling fresco \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()