In a few days, on July 3rd, I will be performing in one of the jewels of Italian Renaissance: the Villa Sacchetti, very kindly opened to the audience by the Marchesa Giovanna Sacchetti.
The villa was designed and built in the very heart of Rome, in via Giulia, by Antonio da Sangallo for himself and his family to live in, and only in 1649 it became the residence of the Marquis Sacchetti. Antonio da Sangallo left Florence very young and had come to Rome to study with Bramante, whose style he followed during his many years working, aboung others, extensively for the Popes. Among other projects, he worked on the cortile of the Farnese Palace, later completed by Michelangelo and, of course, he was the chief architect for the Basilica di San Pietro in 1520.
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| Marcello Sacchetti - Pietro da Cortona (1627) |
I am particularly excited to be performing in a hall frescoed by Pietro da Cortona, who also painted the vault in the main hall in Palazzo Barberini in Rome as well as the Sala della Stufa in Palazzo Pitti for the Medici family in Florence. Interestingly, his young talent was discovered while still in Toscany by Marcello Sacchetti, the papal tresurer during the Barberini papacy, who helped him make a name for himself in Rome. This contact brought him to work closely with Bernini, as well as gave him commissions by the pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) and the Cardinal Francesco Barberini.
