The Semi-Gods Ceiling is a painting work by Italian Renaissance master Pinturicchio

Pinturicchio

Bernardino di Betto, called Pintoricchio or Pinturicchio was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He acquired his nickname, Pintoricchio , because of his small stature, and he used it to sign some of his works....

, dating to c. 1490 and housed in the rigt wing hall of the Palazzo dei Penitenzieri

Palazzo dei Penitenzieri

Palazzo dei Penitenzieri is a palace in Rome, Italy, facing Via della Conciliazione. It is also known as Palazzo della Rovere.The construction of the palace was started in 1480 by cardinal Domenico della Rovere, a relative of Pope Sixtus IV, perhaps under the design by Baccio Pontelli...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It comprises 63 octagonal coffer

Coffer

A coffer in architecture, is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault...

s in gilt wood, decorated with allegoric and mythological figures on a fake mosaic background, and painted on paper.

The work was commissioned by Cardinal Domenico della Rovere

Domenico della Rovere

-Biography:He was born at Vinovo, near Turin, and was a relative of Pope Sixtus IV, and took advantage of the latter's extensive nepotism.In 1478 he was appointed as Bishop of Tarantaise succeeding his brother, Cristoforo. In the same year, on 10 February, he was created cardinal of San Vitale by...

, at the time patron of the young Pinturicchio.

Description

The figures of the ceiling were inspired by medieval bestiaries and libri monstruorum, which contained hybrid figures such as sphynxes, armed tritons, satyrs, dragons, sirens and centaurs. The theme has hidden philosophical and humanist meanings, perhaps suggested by the literates which formed the cardinal's court.

In the center is the genealogical tree of the Della Rovere with two peacocks, which can be seen also at the corners. One of the representation is a nude allegory of Fortune, which rides a dolphin, differently from the contemporary Florentine depictions in which she is portrayed on a small boat. There is also a putto

Putto

A putto is a figure of an infant often depicted as a young male. Putti are defined as chubby, winged or wingless, male child figure in nude. Putti are distinct from cherubim, but some English-speakers confuse them with each other, except that in the plural, "the Cherubim" refers to the biblical...

 on two sea horses going to different directions, a Neoplatonic

Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism , is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, with its earliest contributor believed to be Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas...

 allegory of the human soul, divided between the Good and Evil, according to Marsilio Ficino

Marsilio Ficino

Marsilio Ficino was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance, an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism who was in touch with every major academic thinker and writer of his day, and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin...

's 1475 comments to Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

's Symposium

Symposium (Plato)

The Symposium is a philosophical text by Plato dated c. 385–380 BCE. It concerns itself at one level with the genesis, purpose and nature of love....

. The Weighing of the Soul and the Eagle Defeating the Snake are ancient themes which had been syncretized

Syncretism

Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...

 by the Christian world.

Numerous depictions are of sea creatures, including sirens with two tails, painted while milking, leading pups, painting or executing acrobatic dances. They were perhaps an element inspired by the sea thiasus

Thiasus

In Greek mythology and religion, the thiasus , was the ecstatic retinue of Dionysus, often pictured as inebriated revelers. Many of the myths of Dionysus are connected with his arrival in the form of a procession...

 featured in Roman sarcophagi, and which was also used by Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son in law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality...

, whom perhaps Pinturicchio met in the building of the Belvedere Palace in the Vatican.