Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona was one of the three giants of Roman Baroque art, with Bernini and Borromini. As a painter he is known for huge, crowded compositions full of movement, warm colour and swirling figures, and for ceilings that seem to open straight into the sky.

He was born Pietro Berrettini in Cortona, in Tuscany, and moved to Rome as a young man. His great work is the ceiling of the main hall of Palazzo Barberini, the Allegory of Divine Providence, finished in 1639. He went on to decorate the planetary rooms of Palazzo Pitti in Florence and the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella in Rome. He was also an architect, designing the church of Santi Luca e Martina and the façade of Santa Maria della Pace.

His easel pictures, such as Laban Searching for His Idols or David Killing Goliath, show the same energy on a smaller scale. He died in Rome in 1669.