With the ceiling's of churches and palaces, whether arched or horizontal wood-ceilings, a rich field of activity was opened to the genius of artists. The most distinguished masters did not disdain to improve the ornamentation by framing their frescoes with decorations of -their own invention (Fig. 1 and 2). In these ornaments, vegetable and animal motives being mixed, the ground is mostly light, the colours them- selves being cheerful and bright. - Besides these, however, more simple patterns are not wanting. Where figural representations are missing, their place is supplied by painted cassettes or rosettes, edged with geometrical ornaments.  It is noticeable how such coloured ornaments are combined with more or less simple stucco decorations, the latter however being often, as in Fig. 1, strikingly imitated with the brush. The two rosettes (Fig. 11 and 12) certainly belong, in respect of their origin, to a period antecedent to that of Renaissance, but in their formation they already show an evident affinity with Renaissance itself.