I was deeply fascinated by Scenes from the Life of Mary (1581-1610) by Cristoforo Casolini and assistants in frescoes in the apse of Madonna ai Monti, Rome. Every detail of the painting relates to the bible story and the Church while it is being produced at a curved ceiling, showing the difficulties of painting it. The design of the painting, other than telling bible stories that I already knew of, ought to show a vast space of the church and be inclusive of the huge space outside of the church. Hence, some paintings even include the painted skies as the background so that people could believe that the church connects to the outside, to nature. From the reading, I discovered that one purpose of the church painting is to not distract people from praying and attending masses. Therefore, even if telling stories, the colors and painting methods used in the church painting were carefully chosen and examined so that they blended well with the rest of the wall, ceiling, and/or window.
I am very surprised about the Envisioning Baroque Rome project. It is very well organized and the front cover drove me in immediately. It was so detailed but simple. The highlighted map showing Falda’s Rome is extremely informative and artistic. The different colors made different sections stand out from each other and were easy for me to distinguish. The four research reports linked below the map has uniform styles and layout, leading to extreme satisfaction in reading them. They also relate to each other because they are referring to similar architectural styles, making all information relative and connected.