Stairs in the Main Assembly Hall, Basilica and Dean's Offices, Palazzo del Bo, Padua University

Padua

Realized works

In the entrance to Palazzo del Bo, the ancient building housing the university Rectorate, one can find this large fresco by Gio Ponti, surrounding the grand staircase. The high curved wall, cut in half by the flight of stairs, is transformed by the fresco into a sort of large sheet, on which the painted figures are set against a void. The steps of the staircase white when seen from above, colored when viewed from below are part of the effect of lightness. The painted sheet unfolds around Arturo Martini's Palinurus in white marble- his last statue. Gio Ponti executed the fresco with the assistance of the painter Fulvio Pendini and of his own daughter Lisa.