Biography

Pellegrini was one of the earliest and most successful Italian exponents of the decorative Rococo style that came to dominate much of eighteenth-century European painting. Venetian by birth, he trained under Paolo Pagani, with whom he moved to Austria for six years in 1690. His style was much influenced by fellow Venetian Sebastiano Ricci. In 1704 he married Angela Carriera, sister of the painter Rosalba. Pellegrini painted mainly Old Testament, classical and allegorical subjects, often incorporated into grand decorative schemes. He was in England from 1708, working for the Earl of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle, the Earl of Carlisle at Castle Howard, Sir Andrew Fontaine at Narford Hall, and the Duke of Portland in London, among others. He competed unsuccessfully for the commission to paint the interior dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. In 1713 he moved to Düsseldorf, painting a cycle of allegorical paintings for the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm. Apart from periodic visits to Venice, most of his later career was spent north of the Alps, in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and, more briefly, in the Low Countries and France. His skills as a painter of ceilings and domes were particularly sought after.