Abstract (englisch)

At first sight, Pietro da Cortona's frescoes in the Chiesas Nuova (Santa Maria in Vallicella) seem to fit comfortably within the conventions of Baroque fresco painting. The tribune (Virgin Mary) and cupola dome (God and Christ) are unified in a dramatic unified space. Although they influenced Baciccio’s frescoes in the Gesu, Cortona’s works are actually rather different. First of all, Cortona utilizes a less radical perspective – alla veneziana – than Baciccio’s di sotto in su. The images belong more comfortably with the decoration of the church than the illusionistically suggested space. Secondly, unlike Baciccio’s glorification of the Order, Cortona utilized only canonical saints (shortly thereafter, he painted Ignatius himself in the transept vault; Ignatius is depicted again in San’Ignazio). Finally, when it came to representing a story of Filippo Neri in the nave – the very fresco that informed Baciccio’s – Cortona was positively conservative. His representation is a Quadro riportato with no connection whatsoever to the rest of the church’s pictorial decoration. This mode of depiction effectively separates the earthly saint, Neri, from the divine host near him. Because the viewpoint for both is directly underneath the fresco, Cortona creates a hierarchy that creates two realms – the earthly and the divine.