Tiepolo’s first commission away from Venice was in 1730-31, for the frescoes on five ceilings for Palazzo Archinto in Milan. This sketch was made in preparation for the frescoes of one of the ceilings. Commissioned by Carlo Archinto, the elaborate fresco program was probably meant to celebrate the marriage of Archinto’s firstborn son, Filippo, to Giulia Borromeo.

Tragically, during World War II, on the night of August 13, 1943, Palazzo Archinto was bombed, and save for a small fragment the frescoes were completely destroyed. Together with some black-and-white photographs, small sketches like this are the only surviving evidence of Tiepolo’s frescoes in the palace.

Carlo Archinto’s erudition is reflected in the iconography of his palace’s ceilings, which can be challenging to interpret. In Greek mythology, the Aethiopian princess Andromeda was sacrificed to a marine monster because her mother, Cassiopea, had claimed her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids, Neptune’s daughters. Here, soaring through the clouds on his winged horse, Pegasus, the hero Perseus has just saved Andromeda, unchaining her from the rocks, as the shackles and chains at her ankles tell us. On the left, the Nereids are still crying for the death of the sea monster, killed by Perseus in order to free Andromeda. Jupiter observes the scene from the sky, as Andromeda’s mother pleads for mercy.

Most of the mythological figures in this scene have the names of stars or constellations. If you look closely, you can see small stars superimposed on some of the figures. A fictive starry sky would have been particularly appropriate for the decoration of a ceiling.