At first a successful painter of the Roman Baroque, Pietro (Berrettini) da Cortona (1597-1669) soon emerged as an architect of equal stature. This book is the first to focus full attention on Cortona's buildings and projects and to assess his position in Roman Baroque architecture. The book discusses Cortona's major commissions, particularly SS. Luca e Martina, the Villa del Pigneto, S. Maria della Pace, and S. Maria in Via Lata, as well as the designs that remained unbuilt, such as his plans for the Palazzo Pitti in Florence and the Louvre in Paris. Cortona's great decorative cycles, including Palazzo Barberini, the Chiesa Nuova, and others are also considered as part of his stunning vocabulary of architectural decoration. The book explores Cortona's relationships and rivalries with other outstanding Roman architects to illuminate the competitive climate in which he worked, and it concludes with a review of his influence and reputation into the twentieth century.

This study provides an introduction to the glories of Roman baroque architecture and its three greatest exponents, Bernini, Borromini and Cortona.

At first glance, Borromini's architecture is a flight of Baroque fantasy, the product of limitless imagination. A closer look reveals an almost ruthlessly logical geometry underlying his creation. Blunt shows how the combination of revolutionary inventiveness and intellectual control gives Borromini's work its great appeal.

A monograph on the lavish, whimsical, and inventive era in the history of architecture, from the cathedrals of Rome to the palaces of Russia. It features major styles and trends of Baroque architecture throughout Europe and beyond, and provides an account of how the Baroque developed in relation to the unique urban culture of each nation.