![Sample our Museum and Heritage Studies journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5945/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Museum-Heritage-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
Mariano Rossi's fresco of the Roman hero Camillus, commissioned by Prince Marcantonio Borghese IV, is a late eighteenth-century example of the Baroque tradition in Italian ceiling decoration. Its iconography elegantly condenses a complicated historical narrative, enhancing the painting's moral message with carefully arranged allegory. A contemporary description permits a thorough reading of the work, while panegyrics link its content to a preeminent family ancestor, Pope Paul V, the former Camillo Borghese. At the same time, the fresco seems to have been intended as a Speculum principis for the patron's young heir, Prince Camillo.