Half Ground Plan and Half Elevation for a Catafalque for a Queen of Sardinia 1696 - 1756

Giuseppe Galli Bibiena rendered this half ground plan and half elevation for a catafalque for a Queen of Sardinia with pen, black ink, and gray wash on paper. The most striking symbols here are those of transient power and grief. We see this particularly in the elaborate ornamentation and the architectural structure meant to commemorate royalty. This visual language echoes through time; similar motifs appear in Roman triumphal arches, symbols of imperial power, and even in the temporary structures erected during medieval tournaments. Note how the candelabras evoke the fleeting nature of life, their flames a metaphor for existence itself. This imagery appears in vanitas paintings across the ages, where skulls, extinguished candles, and decaying flowers remind us of mortality. The motif has been repeated to create powerful expressions of grief and remembrance. Such symbols engage our collective memory, tapping into deeply rooted emotions about power, loss, and the inevitable passage of time. It is this emotional resonance that allows these visual motifs to transcend time, constantly reshaped and reinterpreted, yet forever linked by their profound psychological impact.