Everything about Pietro Da Cortona totally explained
Pietro da Cortona, byname of
Pietro Berrettini (
November 1 1596-
May 16,
1669) was a prolific artist and architect of High
Baroque. Cortona is best known for painting fresco ceilings, a pursuit in which he'd ample competition in the
Rome of his day, but he was equally adept and masterful with architectural design. While an influential contemporary and peer of the giants of the Roman Baroque, his present fame, somewhat undeservedly, doesn't match the reverence awarded the likes of
Caravaggio,
Bernini, and
Borromini.
Biography
Berrettini was born to a family of artisans including his uncle
Filippo Berrettini, in
Cortona, then a town in the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He first apprenticed with
Andrea Commodi in Florence. But soon departed for Rome at about 1612, where he joined the studio of
Baccio Ciarpi. In Rome, he'd encouragement from many prominent patrons including the
Colonna. According to a biography, his deft copies of Raphael's Roman frescoes brought him to the attention and patronage (1623) of the Sacchetti brothers, Marcello and Giulio Sacchetti, who became respectively cardinal (1626) and papal treasurer during the Barberini papacy. In the Sacchetti orbit, he met Cardinal
Francesco Barberini, the nephew of
Pope Urban VIII, as well as
Cassiano dal Pozzo.
These three men helped him gain a major commission in Rome (1624-1626), a fresco decoration in the newly constructed
Bernini church of
Santa Bibiana. In 1626, the Sacchetti engaged Cortona to paint for them three large canvases of
Sacrifice of Polyxena,
Triumph of Bacchus, and
Rape of the Sabines (the latter, c. 1629), and to paint a series of frescoes in the Villa Sacchetti in Castel Fusano, near
Ostia, using a team that included the young
Andrea Sacchi. Soon the rising progidy would attract the patronage of the powerful papal
Barberini family. He had already been involved in the fresco decoration of the
Palazzo Mattei. And Cardinal Orsini had commissioned from him an
Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1626) for
San Salvatore in Lauro.
Grand Salon of Palazzo Barberini
Fresco cycles were numerous in Cortona's Rome; most represented framed episodes imitating canvases such as found in the
Sistine Chapel ceiling or in
Carraccis'
The Loves of the Gods in the
Farnese gallery (completed 1601). In 1633,
Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) commissioned from Cortona a large fresco painting for the ceiling of their family palace, Completed six years later, the huge
Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power marks a watershed in Baroque painting. A putative sketch of the plan, of doubtful authenticity, is exhibited in the hall. The fresco is an
illusion with the central field apparently open to the sky and scores of figures seen 'al di
sotto in su' apparently coming into the room itself or floating above it. It contains endless number of heraldic symbols and subthemes.
Cortona's panegyric
trompe l'oeil extavaganzas have lost favor in minimalist times; yet they're precursors of sunny and cherubim infested rococo excesses. They contrast starkly with darker renegade naturalism prominent in
Caravaggisti, and reminds us that the Baroque style wasn't monolithic. Cortona, like Bernini in sculpture, appears reactionary, patronizing; yet if excellence in art is measured by the ability to match style to intent within the limitations of the medium, then Cortona was triumphant. He was among the first of the fresco painters that dispensed with the architectural masonry of the roof, erasing it away with painted integral architecture and a broad, non-framed vista. While rising heavenward, works like the Barberini Allegory are meant to stagger and humble the visitor, as if he (she) stood over, and not below, a looming abyss of mythic power that threatens to overwhelm the viewer.
By this time, Cortona was recognized among the top artists of his generation, and was elected director of the
Academy of St Luke (Rome) during 1634-38.
Frescoes in Palazzo Pitti
Cortona had been patronized by the Tuscan community in Rome, hence it wasn't surprising when in 1637, he was asked to paint a series of frescoes for the Palatine Gallery in the
Palazzo Pitti in
Florence. These were meant to represent the "ages" of silver and gold. The
Grand Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici recalled him in 1641 to paint the 'Bronze Age' and 'Iron Age' frescoes. Intended to represent the four ages of man, they also celebrates to the Medici lineage. Cortona's next decorations for the Pitti were a series of allegorical, stucco framed ceiling frescoes for the grand-ducal apartments, depicting astrological deities such as Jupiter, Mars, and Venus. Pietro left Florence in 1647, and his pupil,
Ciro Ferri, completed the cycle by the 1660s.
Late works
For a number of years, Cortona was involved for decades in the decoration of the ceiling frescoes in the
Oratorian Chiesa Nuova (
Santa Maria in Vallicella) in Rome, a work not finished until
1665 (External Link
). Other frescoes are in
Palazzo Pamphilj in Piazza Navona (1651-4).
Towards the end of his life he devoted much of his time to
architecture, but he published a treatise on painting in
1652 under a pseudonym and in collaboration. He refused invitations to both
France and
Spain.
Cortona and
Andrea Sacchi were involved in theoretical controversies regarding the number of figures that were appropriate in a painted work. These arguments were voiced in talks at the
Accademia di San Luca, the painter's guild. Sacchi argued for few figures, since he felt it wasn't possible to grant meaningful individuality, a distinct role, to more than a few figures per scene. Cortona, on the other hand, lobbied for an art that could accommodate many subplots to a central concept. In addition, he also likely viewed the possibility of using many human figures in decorative detail or to represent a general concept. Sacchi's position would be reinforced in future years by
Nicolas Poussin. Others have seen in this dichotomy, the long-standing debate whether visual art is about theoretical principles and meant to narrate a full story, or a painterly decorative endeavor, meant to delight the senses. Cortona was a director of the Accademia from 1634-1638.
Cortona employed or trained many prominent artists, who then disseminated his grand manner style. Other than Ferri, others that worked in his studio were
Romanelli and Camassei also trained under Domenichino.
Giovanni Maria Bottalla was one of his assistants on the Barberini Ceiling. Sources for (W); while sources for (H). Source for MB is
Architectural projects
Among Cortona's more important architectural projects are the church of
Santi Luca e Martina(completed in
1664, the church of the
Accademia di San Luca, located in the
Roman Forum. While Cortona was
principe or director of the Accademia from 1634-38, he obtained permission to dig in the crypt of the church, which led the likely mistaken finding of remains attributed to the first century Roman martyr and Saint Martina. This discovery led to further patronage for construction of the church. The layout is almost a Greek cross, with four nearly identical wings extending from the striking central dome. Much of the ground structure is undecorated, above intricately decorated. The overwhelmingly vertical decoration of the facade is granted liveliness by horizontal convexity. In his will, this bachelor called this church, his
beloved daughter.
He also renovated the exterior renewal of the ancient
Santa Maria della Pace (
1656-
1667), and the
façade (with an unusual
loggia) of
Santa Maria in Via Lata (appr.
1660).
Another influential work for its day was the design and decoration of the
Villa Pigneto commissioned by the Marchese Sacchetti
(External Link). This garden palace or casino gathered a variety of features in a novel fashion, including a garden facade with convex arms, and highly decorated niches, and elaborate tiered staircases surrounding a fountain.
Anatomical plates
Prior to becoming famous as an architect, Pietro drew anatomical plates that wouldn't be engraved and published until a hundred years after his death. The plates in
Tabulae anatomicae are now thought to have been started around 1618. The dramatic and highly studied poses effected by the figures are in keeping with the style of other Renaissance Baroque anatomical artists, although nowhere does such an approach find any fuller expression than in these plates.
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