Semi-Gods Ceiling

It comprises 63 octagonal coffers in gilded wood, decorated with allegoric and mythological figures on a faux-mosaic background, and painted on paper.

The work was commissioned by Cardinal Domenico della Rovere, at the time patron of the young Pinturicchio.

One of the representations is a nude allegory of Fortune, who rides a dolphin, differently from contemporary Florentine depictions in which she is portrayed on a small boat.

There is also a putto on two sea horses going in different directions, a Neoplatonic allegory of the human soul, divided between Good and Evil, according to Marsilio Ficino's 1475 comments to Plato's Symposium.

They were inspired by the sea thiasus featured in Roman sarcophagi and which was also used by Andrea Mantegna, whom perhaps Pinturicchio met in the building of the Belvedere Palace in the Vatican.