03 — ARTWORK
Aurora
- MEDIUM
- Fresco
- TYPE
- Mythological
PALETTE
HOVER OR TAP A SWATCH FOR NAME, SHARE AND HEX. SAMPLED FROM THE IMAGE — INDICATIVE, NOT A PIGMENT ANALYSIS.
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- FILE
- 1826 × 800 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
This ceiling painting represents Apollo-Helios on the Chariot of the Sun Led by Aurora Followed by the Horae.
A narrative scene painted on a wall as a framed picture was referred to as a "quadro riportatoThe simulation of a wall painting for a ceiling design in which a painted scene is produced in a panel resembling a composition on the surface of a shallow, curved vault. The plural form is quadri riportati.," which to seventeenth-century thinking suggested that a framed panel paintingPainting on wooden panels. Until the introduction of canvas in the 15th century, wooden panels were the standard support in painting. had been translated into the medium of frescoWall painting technique in which pigments are applied to wet (fresh) plaster (intonaco). The pigments bind with the drying plaster to form a very durable image. Only a small area can be painted in a day, and these areas, drying to a slightly different tint, can in time be seen. Small amounts of retouching and detail work could be carried out on the dry plaster, a technique known as a secco fresco.. If a picture with the perspectiveThe method of representing three-dimensional objects on a flat surface. Perspective gives a picture a sense of depth. The most important form of perspective in the Renaissance was linear perspective (first formulated by the architect Brunelleschi in the early 15th century), in which the real or suggested lines of objects converge on a vanishing point on the horizon, often in the middle of the composition (centralized perspective). The first artist to make a systematic use of linear perspective was Masaccio, and its principles were set out by the architect Alberti in a book published in 1436. The use of linear perspective had a profound effect on the development of Western art and remained unchallenged until the 20th century. of a panelTerm in painting for a support of wood, metal, or other rigid substance, as distinct from canvas. Until the adoption of canvas in the 15th century nearly all the movable paintings of Europe were executed on wood, and even up to the beginning of the 17th century it is probable that as much painting was done on the one support as on the other. Painters who worked on a small scale often used copper panels (Elsheimer is a leading example), and in the colonial art of South America copper and tin and even lead and zinc were used. On a larger scale, slate has occasionally been used as a support, notably by Rubens for his altarpiece for Sta Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome; the picture he originally painted was said to reflect the light unpleasantly and slate was used for the replacement to produce a more matt finish. For wood panels the Italian masters of the Renaissance preferred white poplar, while oak was the most common wood used in northern Europe. Many other types were used, however; analysis of the contents of art galleries has yielded a long list, including beech, cedar, chestnut, fir, larch, linden, mahogany, olive, and walnut. In the 20th century cedar, teak, and dark walnut are favourites, and modern painters have also used plywood, fibre-board, and other synthetic materials as supports. painting is shifted to the ceiling, it is called a "quadro finto" (fictious picture). In such a case the painted architectural framing is replaced by a painted or three-dimensional picture frame; Guido Reni's Aurora in the Casino Pallavicini-Rospiglioso is a clear example of this approach. Here the monumentality of the figures, meant to be seen up close, largely eliminates the picture space, which is only suggested as a horizon.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rbcfdada4e53640,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Aurora by RENI, Guido},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/reni-guido-r79595e922f5954/aurora-rbcfdada4e53640},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
