the chariot, not Apollo. The career of Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669) was
centered in Rome. As Italy’s greatest Baroque painter, his importance is
enormous both as an easel painter and a fresco decorator, but his popular
reputation outside of Italy has never equaled his importance. He was also a
signi¿ cant architect.
Our example is a famous ceiling fresco for the Palazzo Barberini, Divine
Providence (c. 1633–1639). In the 1620s, the rebuilding of an earlier palace
was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Barberini while his uncle, Urban
VIII, was pope. By the 1630s, the new palace was ready for its principal
decoration, the ceiling of the grand salon. The subject for the ceiling is built
around the papacy of the Barberini family. A detail shows the papal coat of
arms, the papal tiara, and three bees in formation—the Barberini emblem.
Giovanni Lanfranco (1582–1647) was born in Parma. He was a pupil
of Agostino Carracci, but he was also deeply inÀ uenced by Correggio.
Our example shows an apse fresco, St. Charles Borromeo Ascending to
Heaven (c. 1646–1647). The architecture and ¿ gures are clear; this is a
splendid example of Baroque illusionism. Lanfranco painted the ¿ rst fully
illusionistic church dome of the Baroque in Sant’ Andrea della Valle in Rome
20 years earlier.
Giovanni Battista Gaulli was known by his nickname, Baciccio
(1639–1709). He was born in Genoa, where the most important inÀ uence
on his development was the art of Rubens and van Dyck, who had worked
there early in the century. In Rome, Baciccio fell under the inÀ uence of
Bernini, who is believed by some to have designed the ceiling decoration
of the Church of il Gesu that Baciccio painted. Our example is Baciccio’s
Adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus (c. 1674–1679). The monogram for
Jesus was IHS, a Greek abbreviation of Jesus. Here the monogram virtually
disappears in the brilliance of the painted light.
With this last work, we have reached a high watermark of the Roman
Baroque and the Counter-Reformation. This represents the nearly complete
rebound of the Roman Catholic Church from its threatened state after the
Protestant Reformation. The Church was richer and more universal than it
had ever been. Ŷ