- NamePietro da Cortona
- Activity/Titlepainter, draughtsman, architect
- Sexmale
- Variant namesnamnvariant: Pietro Berrettini da Cortona
namnvariant: Pierre de Cortone
namnvariant: Pietro Berre
- Nationality/DatesItalian, born före 1597-11-27, dead 1669-05-16
- PlacesPlace of birth: Cortona, Italien
Place of death: Rom, Italien
BiographyPietro da Cortona, painter and architect, was
one of the leading artists of the Roman Baroque.
Born in Cortona, he first studied in Florence
under the direction of Andrea Commodi, with
whom he moved to Rome around 1612. There he
trained under the Tuscan painter Baccio Ciarpi.
He was influenced by ancient sculpture and
the work of Raphael. Among his first important
works was a papal commission for the church of
Santa Bibiana in Rome. In the same period he
painted a series of large canvases for the Sacchetti
family, among them the classically composed
and richly coloured Rape of the Sabine Women
from 1631 (Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome). The
Barberini employed Cortona extensively as both
a painter and an architect. The major commission
given to him during the papacy of Urban
VIII was the highly innovative Allegory of Divine
Providence on the vault of the Palazzo Barberini
in Rome, executed between 1633 and 1639. After
this experience Cortona undertook a series
of fresco ceilings, beginning with work in the
Palazzo Pitti in Florence for the Grand Duke
Ferdinand II, which was started in 1637 and not
completed until 1647. Between 1651 and 1654 he
executed the scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid in the
Palazzo Pamphilj. Cortona’s first architectural
commission was for the Sacchetti, for whom he
designed the villa in Castel Fusano (1625–29). In
1634 he was elected principe of the Accademia di
San Luca and proposed the reconstruction of the
academy church of SS. Luca and Martina (1635–
47). The most distinctive feature of this church is
the interplay of light and shadow through convex
and concave forms. Another theme in Cortona’s
architecture is the theatre-like facades, as in the
papal commission from Alexander VII for Santa
Maria della Pace (1656–59).