Pietro da CORTONA
Cortona 1596 - Rome 1669
Biography
Active as both painter and architect, Pietro da Cortona may be counted, together with Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, as one of the principal artists of the Roman Baroque. He arrived in Rome in 1612 and his first important patrons were the Sacchetti family, for whom he painted several large paintings for the family palace in Rome. The Sacchetti were also the source of the most important secular commission of Cortona’s early career; the decoration of the Villa Sacchetti at Castelfusano, completed in 1629. The success of this project brought the painter to the attention of Pope Urban VIII Barberini and his family. Between 1632 and 1639 Cortona painted several frescoes in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, culminating in the great Glorification of the Reign of Urban VIII. In addition, beginning in 1637 and continuing off and on until 1648, Cortona worked on the extensive decorative program of the Medici granducal apartments in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. On his return to Rome in 1647 he began a long period of work in the Oratorian church of Santa Maria in Vallicella (also known as the Chiesa Nuova), painting frescoes on the dome, apse and vault of the nave; a project that was only completed in 1665. Between 1651 and 1654 he also took charge of the redecoration of the long gallery of the Palazzo Pamphili in Rome for Pope Innocent X.
