Pietro da Cortona

Born Pietro Berrettini in Cortona, Tuscany, on 1 November 1596 or 1597, he took his hometown's name and carried it to Rome and Florence. There he became one of the three architects — alongside Bernini and Borromini — who shaped the Roman Baroque, though fewer of his buildings were realized. What did get built, and what secured his fame, were the interiors: the vault of the main salon at Palazzo Barberini, vast decorative schemes for the Medici in Florence, and paintings for the Oratorian fathers at Santa Maria in Vallicella in Rome. He was as much designer as painter, turning ceilings and canv…