1596-1669 Italian Pietro da Cortona Galleries Italian painter, draughtsman and architect. He was, together with Gianlorenzo Bernini and Franceso Borromini, one of the three leading artists of the Roman Baroque. As a painter he developed the early Baroque style, initiated by Annibale Carracci, to a magnificent and imposing High Baroque. His fresco decorations set a standard for European Baroque painting until they were eclipsed by Giambattista Tiepolo's works and those of other Venetian masters of the 18th century. As an architect Cortona was far less influential. His imaginative designs for fa?ades and stucco decorations were, however, conclusive and independent solutions to problems central to Roman Baroque architecture.
Madonna and Saints
1626-28 Oil on canvas, 280 x 170 cm Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca, Cortona Pietro da Cortona's oeuvre contains splendid examples of rich altarpieces which are a triumph of his proud and exultant style. Some also provide memorable examples of Baroque taste. This painting was commissioned by the Passerini family for the church of S. Agostino in the painter's home town. In a civilized fashion, it trumpets the fact that some of the Passerini family were members of chivalrous orders. So we see the Knights of St Stephen (notice the cross on the cope of the pope, St Stephen), the Knights of Malta (represented by the figure of John the Baptist and the cloak in the centre) and the Order of Calatrava (St James the Great can be seen behind John the Baptist). Even in this quiet scene, there is an air of great energy and vigour, almost as if the saints were about to burst into song. The colours are also marvelously fresh and vivid.Artist:PIETRO DA CORTONA Title: Madonna and Saints Painted in 1601-1650 , Italian - - painting : religious