Study for the Decoration of a Vault

Baratta’s work represents a last flowering of the exuberant Genoese Baroque style toward the end of the eighteenth century. His steeply foreshortened figures grouped airily within framing architectural elements follow an earlier tradition of illusionistic fresco painting in Genoa. This carefully constructed ceiling design has been connected to Baratta’s fresco in the vault of the chapel of Saint Anne in the now-destroyed church of Santa Maria della Pace, in Genoa, which depicted Saint Anne in a glory of angels. The presence of King David, at lower right with his crown and harp, conflicts with written descriptions of the chapel’s decoration, so the identification remains speculative.

Credit: Purchase, Gifts in memory of Lawrence Turčić, 1988