Pier Maria Baldi (circa 1630 - 9 November 1686) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

painter and architect.

Biography

Born around 1630 in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, Pier Maria Baldi trained under

Baldassare Franceschini Baldassare Franceschini, called Il Volterrano after his birth place Volterra and, to distinguish him from Ricciarelli, Il Volterrano Giuniore (16116 January 1689) was an Italian late Baroque painter and draughtsman active principally around ...

, known as ''il Volterrano''. He worked along with fellow pupil

Cosimo Ulivelli Cosimo Ulivelli (1625–1705) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence. He was a pupil of the painter Baldassare Franceschini Baldassare Franceschini, called Il Volterrano after his birth place Volterra and, ...

in Franceschini's projects, decorating rooms in the Palazzo Giraldi, now Taddei, on via de' Ginori. In 1667 the

Grand Duke Ferdinando II Ferdinando II de' Medici (14 July 1610 – 23 May 1670) was grand duke of Tuscany from 1621 to 1670. He was the eldest son of Cosimo II de' Medici and Maria Maddalena of Austria. He was remembered by his contemporaries as a man of culture an ...

recommended Pier Maria to

Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

and

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

in Rome. From September 1668 to March 1669 he was a chamberlain to the future

Cosimo III de Medici Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdina ...

, while the latter traveled through Europe, including France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, England, the Netherlands and Belgium. He documented painted and drawn

vedute A ''veduta'' ( Italian for "view"; plural ''vedute'') is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, more often, print of a cityscape or some other vista. The painters of ''vedute'' are referred to as ''vedutisti''. Origins This genre ...

of this trip, conserved in two volumes in the

Biblioteca Laurenziana The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze ...

of Florence. This is a fascinating collection of the skylines of European towns in the 17th century. Among his painted figure pieces are a ''Madonna of the Rosary and Saint Domenic'' (circa 1684) for the main altar of San Domenico al Maglio (now belonging to the Scuola di Sanità Militare) and a lunette frescoed with the ''Baptism of St Augustine'' in the first cloister of Santo Spirito.

Work as an architect

He had trained as an architect under

Ferdinando Tacca Ferdinando Tacca (1619–1686) was an Italian sculptor and architect, active during the Baroque period in Florence. Biography He was the son of Pietro Tacca, a sculptor active for the Medici in Florence. After Pietro's death in 1640, Ferdina ...

, and joined Tacca's team enlarging the

Palazzo Medici Riccardi The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a Renaissance palace located in Florence, Italy. It is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum. Overview T ...

, which had been purchased by Gabriello Riccardi in 1659. From 1670 to 1684 Baldi designed for him the northward extension of the palazzo along Via Larga. The lobbying of Riccardi, helped obtain in 1670 the appointment of Baldi in 1670 to chief architect to the court of

Grand Duke Cosimo III Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdina ...

. In 1673 Baldi designed the Fountain in Piazza Santa Croce. He added the final touches to Tacca's Chapel of the Princes in San Lorenzo. In 1679 he designed for the Grand Duke the church of Santi Quirico, Lucia e Pietro d'Alcantara and its attached convent of the Reformed Friars Minor. The church is near the Medici Villa dell’Ambrogiana and connected to it by a passageway. In 1680, Baldi is recorded as superintendent of the buildings and fortifications of Livorno. He was buried in the cloister of the above convent.Palazzo Medici biography

Notes

*Wikimedia commons contains Baldi vedute of

Alcalá la Real Alcalá la Real is a city in the province of Jaén, Spain. According to the 2006 census (INE), the city has a population of 22,129. Geography Alcalá la Real is situated from the provincial capital, Jaén, and from Granada, on the slopes of L ...

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

(above), Montilla, Spain, Las Cinco Llagas, Lisbon,

Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish city in the Community of Madrid. Straddling the Henares River, it is located to the northeast of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated municipality. ...

Guadalajara, Spain Guadalajara (, ) is a city and municipality in Spain, located in the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. It is the capital of the Province of Guadalajara. Lying on the central part of the Iberian Peninsula at roughly metres above se ...

(above),

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the ''Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the Rías Baixas in Galicia. It is also the capital of its own municipality wh ...

(above), and

Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the ti ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldi, Pier Maria 1630 births 1686 deaths 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Florence 17th-century Italian architects Architects from Florence Italian Baroque architects Italian engravers