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| Pietro Testa Allegorical Figures of Reason and Wisdom ca. 1630 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Pietro Testa Bacchanal with Shepherds before 1650 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Pietro Testa Allegory of Truth or Virtue before 1650 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Pietro Testa Landscape with Satyr and Putti before 1650 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"In Rome by the late 1620s, Pietro Testa drew hundreds of antiquities for engravings and for various patrons. In 1631 he entered Pietro da Cortona's studio, but Cortona threw him out because of his difficult personality. After an interlude in Lucca, Testa returned to Rome vowing to study coloring. In fact, he continued to concentrate on drawing and etching, where his greater skills lay. Another stay in Lucca six years later failed to attract new patrons. Back in Rome, Testa began a treatise on painting, rejecting Baroque illusionism and the concept of copying nature like those 'dirty and ridiculous apes of nature,' the Dutch Italianates. He also transformed his imagery, replacing poetic mythologies with ancient history themes and employing a more severe, monumental style anticipating Neoclassicism. After career setbacks, he grew preoccupied with tragic themes and finally drowned in the Tiber River, probably a suicide."
– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum
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| Pietro Testa Allegory of Fortune before 1650 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Pietro Testa Bacchanal with Putti ca. 1640 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Pietro Testa Allegory of Penance and Death before 1650 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Pietro Testa Allegorical Figures on Mount Parnassus (sketch for etching The Triumph of Painting) ca. 1642-48 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Pietro Testa Landscape with Classical Figures before 1650 drawing British Museum |
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| Pietro Testa Study for Allegorical Figures of Virtues ca. 1642-44 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Pietro Testa Diana before 1650 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Pietro Testa Ornamental Nudes Embracing before 1650 drawing Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Achenbach Foundation |
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| attributed to Pietro Testa Standing Prophet before 1650 drawing Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Achenbach Foundation |
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| Pietro Testa Standing Figure supporting Shield before 1650 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |