Ceiling painting (detail)

The Sala dell’Aurora is only 5 m high, and the painted architecture provides the illusion of much greater height. It takes up the floor plan arrangement, but reinterprets it to open up two views above the long sides. Here the imaginary architecture gives way to landscape prospects behind painted balustrades. One view - shown here - takes up the motif of the cypresses and enlivens them with flying putti who hunt birds with switches.

The fictive architecture was painted by Agostino Tassi.