THE PALAZZO DEL TÈ WAS built in the 16th century as a leisure palace for Federico II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua. Italian artist and architect Giulio Romano, who had been a student of Raphael, designed the building. Today it is widely considered to be Romano’s masterpiece. The palace is filled with elaborate decorations and paintings—one room, known as the Sala dei Giganti (Chamber of the Giants), is particularly impressive.

The fresco that covers the walls and the ceiling of this room was painted between 1532 and 1535. It tells the story of the fall of the giants, as described by the Latin poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses. The god Jupiter is pictured on the ceiling, surrounded by the entire Roman cosmogony.