Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power (Cortona) Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power (Cortona) The Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power is a fresco by Italian painter Pietro da Cortona, filling the large ceiling of the grand salon of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, Italy. Begun in 1633, it was nearly finished in three years; upon Cortona's return from Venice, it was extensively reworked to completion in 1639. The Palazzo, since the 1620s, had been the palatial home of the Barberini family headed by Maffeo Barberini, by then Urban VIII, who had launched an extensive program of refurbishment of the city with art and architecture.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (to this day) the marble originals of two of Bernini's own angels executed by the master for the Ponte Sant'Angelo. True to the decorative dynamism of Baroque, among Bernini's most gifted creations were his Roman fountains, which were both public works and papal monuments. His fountains include the "Fountain of the Triton", or "Fontana del Tritone", and the Barberini Fountain of the Bees, the "Fontana delle Api". The Fountain of the Four Rivers, or "Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi", in the Piazza Navona is a masterpiece of spectacle and political allegory. An oft-repeated, but false, anecdote tells that one of the