- Header
- Pietro de' Pietri
- Also known as
-
Pietro de' Pietri
-
primary name: Pietri, Pietro Antonio de
-
other name: Petri, Pietro Antonio de
- Details
- individual; painter/draughtsman; Roman; Italian; Male
- Life dates
- 1663/5-1716
- Biography
- Painter, etcher and engraver, b. Premia, Piedmont 1663/5, d Rome 1716. Pupil of Maratti in Rome.
According to his biographer Lione Pascoli, de' Pietri came to Rome at the age of 15 and studied with Giuseppe Ghezzi and the Cremonese painter Angelo Massarotti before entering Maratti's (q.v.) studio. He was among the group of young artists who assisted Maratti with the restoration of Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican Stanze (1702-3). His earliest public commission was for an altarpiece of 'SS Peter, Paul and Joseph with Angels' for the Cappella del Santissimo in the church of S. Rocco in his native town. De' Pietri's patrons in Rome included the cardinals Imperiali (ceiling painting, Palazzo Imperiali on the Piazza Colonna), Ottoboni and Pallavicini as well as the abbot of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Padre Calisti (paintings of 'St Lawrence', 'St Agnes', 'St Emerenziana' and a holy pope). Pascoli further observed that a painting of 'St Lucy' resulted in a number of commissions from Marchigian patrons, among them a series of four canvases depicting 'David Beheading Goliath', 'Judith with the Head of Holofernes', 'Jael and Sisera' and 'Delilah Cutting Samson's Hair' for Alessio Simonetti, and a standard with the 'Resurrection of Christ' on one, and the 'Holy Trinity' on the other side, for the Confraternity of the SS Trinità.
The newly elected Pope Clement XI Albani (reg. 1700-21) favoured the artist and commissioned him to paint the altarpiece of the 'Holy Trinity', in the papal chapel, Palazzo Quirinale and, in the course of the restoration of the church of S. Clemente, 'St Clement Bestowing the Veil upon St Flavia Domitilla' (1716), the first painting on the left above the nave arcade.
Among de' Pietri's latest works are the fresco 'Assumption of the Virgin' in the dome of the Cappella Asnaghi (third on the left), S.Maria delle Fornaci (begun 1712) and four upright oval paintings with 'Scenes from the Life of the Virgin' on the side walls of S.Maria in Via Lata. This church also contains two of his best altarpieces, the 'Virgin Enthroned with SS Lawrence, Antony of Padua, Prassede and Venanzio' (c. 1705), on the first altar on the left, and an 'Adoration of the Shepherds' over the second altar on the right.
In his last years de' Pietri turned to engraving. Most of the dozen or so known prints by him are devotional images, such as the signed 'Assumption of the Virgin' and the 'Virgin and Child with Rosary', but they also include a portrait of the singer of the papal chapel, 'Ruggero Giovannelli da Velletri'.
- Bibliography
- Bartsch XXI pp.289-92 (4 nos)
Turner 1999