Pietro da Cortona
1598-1669
Pietro da Cortona, French Pierre de Cortona, original name Pietro Berrettini (born Nov. 1, 1596, Cortona, Tuscany [Italy]—died May 16, 1669, Rome, Papal States), Italian architect, painter, and decorator, an outstanding exponent of Baroque style.
Pietro studied in Rome from about 1612 under the minor Florentine painters Andrea Commodi and Baccio Ciarpi and was influenced by antique sculpture and the work of Raphael. The most important of his earliest paintings were three frescoes (1624–26) in Santa Bibiana, Rome. In the 1620s he designed the Villa del Pigneto near Rome and possibly another villa at Castel Fusano, both for his patrons, the Sacchetti family.
His fame reached its climax in the 1630s with the design of the church of SS. Luca e Martina, Rome (1635–50), and the ceiling fresco Allegory of Divine Providence (1633–39) in the Barberini Palace there. The design of SS. Luca e Martina derives more from Florentine than Roman sources, resulting in a different type of Baroque architecture from that of either Bernini or Borromini. The ceiling of the Great Hall in the Barberini Palace, now the National Gallery, was conceived as a painted glorification of the Barberini pope, Urban VIII, and is treated illusionistically. Its strong color and steep perspective recall Veronese, whose work Cortona may have seen in Venice in 1637.
Pietro studied in Rome from about 1612 under the minor Florentine painters Andrea Commodi and Baccio Ciarpi and was influenced by antique sculpture and the work of Raphael. The most important of his earliest paintings were three frescoes (1624–26) in Santa Bibiana, Rome. In the 1620s he designed the Villa del Pigneto near Rome and possibly another villa at Castel Fusano, both for his patrons, the Sacchetti family.
His fame reached its climax in the 1630s with the design of the church of SS. Luca e Martina, Rome (1635–50), and the ceiling fresco Allegory of Divine Providence (1633–39) in the Barberini Palace there. The design of SS. Luca e Martina derives more from Florentine than Roman sources, resulting in a different type of Baroque architecture from that of either Bernini or Borromini. The ceiling of the Great Hall in the Barberini Palace, now the National Gallery, was conceived as a painted glorification of the Barberini pope, Urban VIII, and is treated illusionistically. Its strong color and steep perspective recall Veronese, whose work Cortona may have seen in Venice in 1637.
See also:
Malcolm Campbell, Pietro da Cortona at the Pitti Palace : a study of the planetary rooms and related projects; Princeton, N.J., 1977.
Malcolm Campbell, Pietro da Cortona : atti del convegno internazionale, Roma - Firenze 12 - 15 novembre 1997 / Frommel, Christoph Luitpold (Ed.), Milano, 1998, pp. 256-261.
Gustavo Giovannoni, "Il restauro architettonico di palazzo Pitti nei disegni di Pietro da Cortona", Rassegna d'arte antica e moderna, 1920, pp. 290-295.
Malcolm Campbell, Pietro da Cortona at the Pitti Palace : a study of the planetary rooms and related projects; Princeton, N.J., 1977.
Malcolm Campbell, Pietro da Cortona : atti del convegno internazionale, Roma - Firenze 12 - 15 novembre 1997 / Frommel, Christoph Luitpold (Ed.), Milano, 1998, pp. 256-261.
Gustavo Giovannoni, "Il restauro architettonico di palazzo Pitti nei disegni di Pietro da Cortona", Rassegna d'arte antica e moderna, 1920, pp. 290-295.