Melozzo da Forlì, An angel playing the lute
Photogallery
Melozzo da Forlì, An angel playing the lute
The 14 fragments with the Apostles and Angel musicians (these too exhibited in room IV) together with the figure of Christ, (now in the Quirinal Palace) were part of the old decoration of the apse of the Church of the SS. Apostoli in Rome illustrating the Ascension of Christ. The fresco, which was destroyed in 1711, was painted by Melozzo da Forlì around 1480, shortly after the works of restoration on the church for cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II (pontiff from 1503 to 1513). The solemn, monumental figures, strongly foreshortened, testify to the full maturity of the great artist from Forlì, a follower of Piero della Francesca, and his skill in the use of perspective.