Self-portrait

This self-portrait, likely a workshop copy or later version, preserves the likeness of Pietro da Cortona, who was by the mid-seventeenth century recognized as one of the three great masters of Roman Baroque painting alongside Bernini and Borromini. Cortona was also a distinguished architect whose church of Santi Luca e Martina and facade of Santa Maria della Pace rank among the finest buildings of the Roman Baroque. His position alongside Bernini and Borromini as one of the three great creators of Roman Baroque style gave him access to the most prestigious commissions in 17th-century Rome, and his approach to illusionistic ceiling painting defined the grandest ambitions of the era.

The self-portrait presents the artist with directness and dignity, the warm palette and confident brushwork characteristic of the Cortona tradition. The format follows conventional Baroque self-portrait conventions, emphasizing the artist's intellectual authority.