Dawn
The goddess of dawn scatters flowers above the clouds with putti, in Diziani's painting for a bedroom ceiling in a Venetian palace. Full commentary ↓
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Dawn is an oil painting by Gaspare Diziani in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 198.1 × 240 cm.
In the pictureInside a gilded frame, a goddess with a billowing red cloth rides on clouds while putti fly around her carrying flowers and garlands. The sky is bright on the left and dark on the right, marking the moment when night retreats. The photograph also takes in the white stucco figures and green wall decoration outside the frame.
BackgroundAurora, goddess of the dawn, drives away the night and summons the sun, and she was often painted on bedroom ceilings. Gaspare Diziani was an 18th-century Venetian decorative painter, and this painting is said to have been made for the ceiling of a bedroom in the Palazzo Sagredo in Venice. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has moved that bedroom itself into its galleries, so the painting is still in place on the ceiling.
Puzzle tipBecause the photograph includes the frame and the ceiling decoration, the pieces fall into three kinds: the green wall outside, the gilded frame, and the painting inside. Lay the straight frame pieces around first, then fill the painting starting with the red cloth and the bright clouds. The white stucco figures outside have distinct shapes, so they are easy to place even at the end.
- Artist
- Italian, Belluno 1689–1767 Venice
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 198.1 x 240 cm
- Credit line
- Rogers Fund, 1906
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
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