Di sotto in sù

   A ceiling painting technique whereby figures are heavily foreshortened to appear to be floating above the viewer. Andrea Mantegna used the technique on the ceiling of the Camera Picta in the Ducal Palace in Mantua (1465-1474), and Melozzo da Forli introduced the method to Rome in his apse frescoes in the Church of Santi Apostoli (1481-1483; fragments now in Rome, Vatican Pinacoteca and Palazzo Quirinale). In Venice artists learned to exploit the technique to achieve greater veracity. Paolo Veronese showed the underside of the parading horses in the Triumph of

   Mordecai (1556; Venice, San Sebastiano), paving the way for the illusionistic ceilings of the Baroque era, including Giovanni Lanfranco's Virgin in Glory (1625-1627; Rome, Sant' Andrea della Valle) and Pietro da Cortona's Glorification of the Reign of Pope Urban VIII (1633-1639; Rome, Palazzo Barberini).

   See also One-point linear perspective.