A term used to describe ceiling painting that uses fictitious architecture rendered in perspective to arrange coherently the image's figural and compositional elements. Examples are the Farnese ceiling (c. 1598-1600) in the Palazzo Farnese, Rome,by Annibale Carracci, which includes fictive lintels adorned with shelled motifs and supported by herms in grisaille, and Pietro da Cortona's Glorification of the Reign of Urban VIII (1633-1639) in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome, where a large painted architectural framework with a medallion at each corner divides the image into five separate scenes.
Historical dictionary of Renaissance art. Lilian H. Zirpolo. 2008.