THE STORY OF THE ELEMENTS
The Air Room, 1661
Mattia Preti (Taverna 1613 – La Valletta, Malta 1699)
When Mattia Preti arrives in Valmontone in 1661, it is up to him to complete the pictorial cycle commissioned by Camillo Pamphilj. Pier Francesco Mola had already worked on the decoration of the vault, leaving it only four-fifths finished. Due to disputes with the prince over unpaid wages, the painter abandoned the site and never returned. We have graphic and documentary evidence of his work, thanks to which we know which subjects were depicted and that the ceiling was divided into five sections.
The solution adopted by Preti results in a harmonious and balanced composition. Breaking away from the more traditional approaches used in the other rooms of the palace, the artist allows the figures to move freely in space, without imposing any obstacle to their rotational movement. Faithfully following Cesare Ripa’s dictates for allegorical figures and eliminating any architectural structure, he elaborates an illusory opening of the vault and inserts the four parts of the day: Dawn, Day, Evening, Night. At the centre, a golden garland supported by the Four Winds encircles Air, who is dressed in transparent garments and armed with lightning bolts and a tambourine, a reference to the sound of thunder.
In the corners of the vault are four allegories: Time in the guise of Cronus, as he devours one of his children; Fame, represented by Mercury holding Pegasus by the reins, at whose feet musicians play long trumpets (serpentoni), alluding to the clamour of notoriety; Love, a blindfolded Cupid with bow and arrow, triumphs over two chained satyrs who embody the sensual sphere of love; finally, Fortune, with the characteristic attributes of the wheel and the sphere, symbols of the instability and randomness with which she intervenes in man’s fate.
The chariot of Aurora, who is scattering flowers, is preceded by two putti: one with a lit torch announcing the light of day, the other intent on pouring drops of dew from a silver vase. Following is the chariot of Day, driven by Apollo, god of the Sun, accompanied by white horses preceded by the two allegories of Midnight and Midday. On the chariot of Evening is Diana, goddess of the hunt, as she admires Endymion, condemned to eternal sleep and accompanied by his dogs. Finally, Night, with a wreath of poppies on her head, a symbol of sleep, at whose feet the slumbering painter with his palette and paintbrushes abandons himself.
When the first cleaning intervention of the ceiling was undertaken in 1995, the fresco was in extremely worrying conservation conditions, covered as it was by layers of soot and incrustations that seriously compromised its legibility. Thanks to a series of careful restorations carried out over time, the extraordinary work of Mattia Preti can be fully appreciated once again.
