Soon after Giorgione introduced the fresco to Venice in the early sixteenth-century, Venetian noble families began to commission the greatest masters of European painting to create grand fresco cycles for the interiors of their city palaces and their splendid villas on the mainland. This superbly photographed volume celebrates one of these frescoes, among the supreme achievements of Italian art and culture, providing an expertly guided tour of the beautiful residences in which these frescoes appear. From complex allegories to Baroque masterpieces to fanciful distant worlds, explores the changing nature of this tradition over the course of three centuries and features work by both major artists such as Andrea Urbani and Giambattista Tiepolo, as well as by lesser-known painters such as Giovanni Antonio Fasolo, Luca Ferrari da Reggio and Jacopo Guarana. This splendid volume will be irresistible to lovers of Italian art and architecture and aficionados of the Veneto alike. A gorgeous production! ~