 His sister was married to an attendant to the household of the Marchese Marcello Sacchetti, who noted the boy Pietro’s affinity for drawing.As a boy he was placed in the apprenticeship of a painter J. Triga, but then passed on to work in the school of the Genoese Giovanni Battista Gaulli.In 1707, at age 13, he won a drawing competition sponsored by the Accademia di San Luca.