At the end of the 19th century Cesare Maccari was charged to renew the decoration of the lauretan dome, as the water infiltrations had damaged the magnificent frescoes painted by Pomarancio between 1610 and 1614. The iconographic program included in the calotte the glorification of the Virgin, with the representation of the Litanie Lauretane (so called because only the formularies recited in Loreto received the ecclesiastical approval by Pope Sixtus V in 1587). The events related to the religious debate on veneration finally ended with the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception of Mary dogma by Pius IX in 1854: this was reflected in the frescoes of the cylinder of the dome. The painter carried on his assignment from 1891 to 1907. The cartoons, donated by Maccari’s heirs in 1954, are a considerable number of great preliminary studies, all realized with pencil technique and white lead on gray paper, with the purpose to be presented to the client and then re-used to guide the transposition in fresco. The details accuracy and the richness of the composition show the exceptional drawing technique of the author. The wooden model reproduces (1/10 scale) the dome and inside it contains a series of panels painted with tempera on paper, realized between the end of 1888 and 1901, all mounted on a frame. This complete architectonic structure took part in 1904 to the Marian Exhibition in Rome.
Room 1_ MACCARI'S ROOM
