Ceiling decoration

The great hall of the Villa Farnesina, the Loggia di Galatea, is lined with a cycle of frescoes unprecedented in the completeness of their ancient imagery. The gods and heroes turn up in surprising relationships which can be explained by the translation of the deities back into their stellar and planetary equivalents. Careful positions of these equivalents on the ceiling of the Loggia di Galatea produced the configuration of the heavens above central Italy on the night of December 1, 1466, the presumed birth date of the patron, whose horoscope, complete to the last detail, is thus represented in the ceiling panels.