An Early Modern Venetian Ceiling in Silicon Valley

This paper examines the history and iconography of a large ceiling decorated in the style of late sixteenth-century Venice and located in the grand ballroom of a private home south of San Francisco built ca. 1915. The ceiling contains fifteen oil canvases and the heraldic shields of several Venetian families, all ensconced in an ornate wooden frame with Venetian portraits, religious images, and allusions to patrician status. I will describe the patron and his house, and speculate about the identity of the artist.