Mowbray's Reclining Women

Though women were depicted prolifically inside the bookman’s paradise, they appeared most often as allegorical, rather than historical, figures. In nine of the East Room’s ceiling lunettes, Mowbray painted lounging female figures representing tragedy, comedy, painting, architecture, poetry, history, music, science, and astronomy. He took inspiration from the four sibyls (women prophets) portrayed by Pinturicchio in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. Mowbray told the architects that his color scheme would evoke “the softened harmony and patina of an old room,” with gold accents conveying “the tonal quality of an old Florentine frame.”