Italian painter. He was active mainly in Brescia, where he trained with the quadratura painter Tommaso Sandrino (1575-1630). He was one of the leaders of perspective. In addition to churches in Brescia, he decorated the Villa Foscarini in Stra, in collaboration with Pietro Liberi.
The faux architecture on the ceiling was executed by Domenico Bruni, the figures by Pietro Liberi.
At the centre, a space opens up to a light blue sky, in which, derived from Ripa’s Iconologia, Eternity, seated on a celestial sphere, raises up the sun and the moon in her hands. She is surrounded by the winged figure of Fame, holding a trumpet and a laurel wreath, by Glory and Honour, and by Virtue. Beneath Eternity, facing the viewers, is Splendour of the Name, in the form of a mature, bearded man who holds the club of Hercules in his right hand and a lighted torch in his left.
The interior of the foresteria is divided into a large main room, flanked by other spaces, the guest rooms. Frescoes cover the entire wall surface of the main room, executed by Domenico Bruni and Pietro Liberi.
The dimensions of the main room seem greatly expanded by the extraordinary theatrical effect of the illusionistic architecture, which creates the impression of a vast courtyard, open to the sky and surrounded on four sides by monumental loggias. The trompe l’oeil decoration is the work of Domenico Bruni, who signed and dated his undertaking in Latin letters placed on plaques that are painted and inserted into the frieze of the first stringcourse.
Figural compositions are for the most part secondary to the architectural layout, and the only place figures appear, besides the ceiling, is along the two short walls where there are depictions of The Temple of the Arts and Mars Accompanied by Learning, Truth, and Eloquence. These paintings are attributed to Pietro Liberi.
