Sheldonian Ceiling

Triumph of Truth and Learning over Envy, Rapine and Ignorance: The Sheldonian Ceiling
Artist: Robert Streater
Date: c. 1667-69
Materials: Oil paint on canvas panels
Photograph: John Cairns
Literature: Anthony Geraghty, The Sheldonian Theatre: Architecture and Learning (New Haven and London, 2013), pp. 75-81, 101-111.

2. Detail from the south side of the ceiling. Showing Envy being expelled by the shield of Pallas. Rapine and Ignorance are concealed by the organ.

3. Detail from the north side of the ceiling. Showing Theology (centre), to the left: Gospel (below) and Divine Poesy (above), to the right: Mosaical Law (below) and History (above). The figures in the flanking triangular panels are Logic (left) and Music (right).

4. Detail from the west side of the ceiling. Showing Medicine (rear centre), to the left: Surgery (below) and Poesy (above), and to the right: Botany (below) and Chemistry (above).

5. Detail from the east side of the ceiling. Showing Law (centre), to the left: ‘Records, Patents and Evidence’ (below) and ‘Power and Punishment’ (above), to the right: Rhetoric (below) and Printing (above).

6. Detail from the south side of the ceiling. Showing the Mathematical Sciences. Central panel depicts Astronomy (centre), Geography (left), unidentified figure holding a lunar globe (right). Left-hand panel shows Geometry (left), Arithmetic (right, above) and Optick (right, below). Right-hand panel shows Architecture (left) and Building (right).