Giorgio Vasari’s Celestial Utopia of Whimsy and Joy: Constellations, Zodiac Signs, and Grotesques

This study elaborates on the decoration of the ceiling in the refectory of the former Monteoliveto monastery in Naples, today part of the church of Sant’Anna dei Lombardi. It consists of three parts: an explanation of the ceiling design with its geometrical configurations of circles, octagons, hexagons, ovals, and squares; an iconographical analysis solely focusing on the ceiling decoration, which consists of grotesques, constellations, and zodiac signs; and a discussion of some of the literary and visual sources employed in the decoration. The Florentine Mannerist painter Giorgio Vasari, aided by several assistants, renovated and painted the ceilings between 1544 and 1545. Don Giammateo d’Anversa, the Abbot General of the Monteolivetan Order in Naples, composed the iconographical program with the assistance of insightful suggestions from the Florentine Monteolivetan prior Don Miniato Pitti, who was Vasari’s patron and friend as well. This oversight inspired Vasari to paint a celestial utopia of hilarity and whimsicality on the Neapolitan ceiling, thus leavening the other imagery, which combined both religious and secular representations of moral virtues and divine laws.