Exterior view

Cortona had more opportunity to work as an architect under Pope Alexander VII, and in his fa�ade for the 15th-century church of Santa Maria della Pace, and the replanning of its piazza, he realized one of the most impressive works of the Roman Baroque. This project ingeniously incorporates ideas analogous to his theatre-like designs.

In the lower storey of the fa�ade, the central part of the church projects far forward into the piazza with a semicircular portico having paired columns, while the set-back upper storey has a slightly convex wall, strikingly fashioned in the manner of Santi Luca e Martina but here crowned with a large triangular pediment enclosing a segmental one. Free-standing columns at the corners of the fa�ade define the walls of the nave, the first bay of which also projects into the piazza. Lateral extensions of the fa�ade begin at the second nave bay, extending straight out at the lower level but connected to the adjoining buildings with concave wings at the upper level. These wings conceal the choir of the adjacent Santa Maria dell’Anima on the right-hand side, the window of which provided the model for the other windows of the upper storey of the fa�ade.

The patron, Alexander VII, had the piazza in front of the church enlarged to a regular trapezoidal area to permit him to arrive in his carriage in front of the church, which contained his redesigned family chapel, the Chigi Chapel. Uniform fa�ades were also added to the adjoining buildings, with the surrounding streets approached through doorways like stage openings. Cortona’s church fa�ade and piazza thus form an extremely successful unity, which contained many highly influential ideas.