Astolfo Petrazzi, “Still Life of Flowers and Winged Animals in a Landscape”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas, 182.5 x 223 cm, Private Collection
Born at the city of Siena in November of 1580, Astolfo Petrazzi was an Italian painter and draftsman of the Baroque period. The Baroque style of art, encouraged by the Catholic
Church as a counter force to the austerity of Protestantism, was a flamboyant style with deep color, grandeur, contrast, movement and dramatic detail.
The son of Lazzaro di Giovan Francesco da Modena, a hatter by trade, and his wife Lucrezia, Astolfo Petrazzi was raised in a family of modest means with connections to local artisan circles. His artwork was firmly rooted in Siena’s artistic traditions. Unlike the art of Florence, Siena’s artists preferred a more decorative style with rich colors and figures that were elegant and dignified. Sienese paintings favored scenes of miraculous events often executed with dreamlike coloration; allegories, classical myths and portraits were not depicted in their work.
Petrazzi was predominantly a student of Late-Mannerist painters and printmakers Francesco Vanni, who had received commissions from Pope Clement VIII, and Ventura Salimbeni, the half-brother 
of Vanni and fresco painter for Pope Sixtus V. He also studied under Pietro Sorri, a Sienese painter known for his portraits and historical scenes. Petrazzi was influenced by other artists from Siena including painter Alessandro Casolani and Vincenzo Rustici whose “Virgin with Child and St. Catherine of Siena” was known to him.
In the second decade of the 1600s, Astolfo Petrazzi traveled in Italy and developed a new style, influenced by the various artworks he encountered. Petrazzi’s work became a blend of naturalism, a derivative of Caravaggio’s work, that was evident in paintings by late-Mannerist artist Francesco Rustici, and the direct realism exhibited in the paintings of early-Baroque Florentine artist Mateo Rosselli.
In the 1620s, Petrazzu traveled to Rome where he studied the classical trends that had emerged in contemporary Roman art. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, classicism had gradually departed from its earlier course of simplicity and emphasis on form. By the first quarter 
of the seventeenth-century, classicism had adopted an overly strong sense of orderliness, predictability, and an emphasis on rigorous teaching methods and discipline.
After his return to Siena in 1624-1625, Astolfo Petrazzi’s work changed, particularly influenced by the work of two Baroque painters: Guido Reni who had worked for many years under Pope Urban VIII, and Domenico Zampieri who, although not as successful as Reni, received many commissions from the Vatican and wealthy patrons over the course of his career. The influence of both painters’ work can be seen in Petrazzi’s 1631 “Last Communion of St. Jerome” and the 1639 “Young John the Baptist Comforted by Angels”.
In his later life, Petrazzi painted a great number of works; however, they were increasingly repetitious in genre and
composition with a progressive decline in quality. His last documented commissions were dated to 1648; these included frescoes from the life of Job for Siena’s Church of Saint Rocco..
Through his life, Petrazzi maintained a productive workshop in Siena, established a drawing academy, and contributed significantly to Siena’s artistic life through both frescoes and murals. Astolfo Petrazzi died on the eleventh of August in 1653 at the age of fifty-two at the Parish of Saint Martino of his native Siena. He was entombed in the Siena Cathedral.
Notes: A more extensive biography of Astolfo Petrazzi can be found at: https://grokipedia.com/page/astolfo_petrazzi
The Stephen Ongpin Fine Art site has a short biography on Astolfo Petrazzi: https://www.stephenongpin.com/artist/241205/astolfo-petrazzi
Top Insert Image: Astolfo Petrazzi, Title Unknown (Standing Figure Placing Scapular(?) on Kneeling Figure), Pen and Brush with Brown Ink, 31,3 x 22.2 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Second Insert Image: Astolfo Petrazzi, “Madonna of the Rosary with the Blessed Saints”, 1640-1660, Oil on Canvas, 254 x 151 cm, Museum of Sacred Art of Val d’Arbia, Buonconvento, Italy
Third Insert Image: Astolfo Petrazzi, “The Figure of Justice Flanked by Two Figures”, circa 1630, Pen and Brown Ink on Paper, 22.3 x 15.4 cm, Private Collection
Bottom Insert Image: Astolfo Petrazzi, “A Shepherd Playing the Catera”, Early 1600s, Oil on Canvas, 122.2 x 93 cm, Private Collection