Stunning ceilings of Ferrara

Detail of the Treasure Room ceiling in Palazzo Costabili (aka, Palazzo di Ludovico il Moro), Ferrara. Fresco by Benvenuto Tisi, called il Garofalo, from 1506. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Italy has no shortage of richly painted ceilings (see previous posts about Florence, Siena, Ravenna, and Vicenza for examples), but these frescoed wonders seem especially concentrated in Ferrara, where several Renaissance-era palazzos have opened their doors as public museums. The result is an almost overwhelming presence of densely decorated interiors that compliment, and even compete with, the eye-level displays.

Mirror reflecting one of many frescoed ceilings in Castello Estense, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Ceiling of the Ducal Chapel in Castello Estense, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Ceiling in Palazzo Costabili (aka, Palazzo di Ludovico il Moro), Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Loggia degli Aranci (1560–70), Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Renaissance-Baroque interior of Chiesa di Santa Maria in Vado, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Castello Estense, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of the Treasure Room ceiling in Palazzo Costabili (aka, Palazzo di Ludovico il Moro), Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of a ceiling in Palazzo Costabili (aka, Palazzo di Ludovico il Moro), Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Chiesa di Santa Maria in Vado, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Sculpture in Ferrara, part 1

Detail of Madonna of the Pomegranate (1403–06) by Jacopo della Quercia. Cathedral Museum, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Putto, 1935, by Giuseppe Virgili. Palazzina di Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Niche sculpture in Ferrara Cathedral. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Zingaretta (copy of the Zingara of Villa Borghese, now in the Louvre), 18th century. Collection of the Musei Civici di Arte Antica e Museo Riminaldi, Palazzo Bonacossi, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Display in the Musei Civici di Arte Antica e Museo Riminaldi, Palazzo Bonacossi, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Infant suckled by a goat (Capricorn), c. 1225–30, by the Master of the Months of Ferrara (active in the first half of the 13th century). Cathedral Museum, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Moor by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680). This small bronze sculpture was a model for the figure of the Nile that forms part Bernini’s fountain at Piazza Navona in Rome. Collection of the Musei Civici di Arte Antica e Museo Riminaldi, Palazzo Bonacossi, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.