Below: Fleur de lis, the Farnese symbol
until I saw the two female figures, one at each corner of the
World Map Room's east wall, each a spitting image of the
sisters, albeit painted in the 16th century.
The overall impression one receives while standing in the Room
of the World Map is one of a celestial blue—that
of the ocean, a slightly
deeper blue as backdrop
of the heavens. At one
end of this chamber is a
huge ovoid map of the
entire world; the separate
continents and the Holy
Land and Italy are painted
on the remaining four
panels. There is something
magical and moving about
ancient
maps,
these
visions of a world in which
there still remained much
to be explored, much
to be delineated by the
cartographer's art. These
renderings are as beautiful
as they are—for their
time—accurate; and we do
know they were painted by
Giovanni Antonio da Varese.
Unfortunately, the painter of
the ceiling, the constellations
and their symbols, is unknown.
There we see a maelstrom of
HYLAND
