MICHELE ONGARO, called PANNONIO. — Ferrarese painter, so called perhaps from his place of origin; died before July 1464.
A payment is recorded in 1415 for the painting of a banner for the church of S. Michele degli Unii; in 1427 he painted another banner with daisies and diamonds. There is also evidence of six angels worked in wax, cast in brass in collaboration with Niccolò Baroncelli and sent to be gilded in 1446; of the decoration of the wooden casing for the altarpiece of the ducal Chapel in 1448; and of frescoes executed (1450) in the vault of the sacristy of Ferrara cathedral, depicting the Eternal surrounded by ss. Pietro and Paolo and Cherubim, in the Torre delle ore in the Castello (1452), depicting S. Domenico, s. Tommaso and s. Pietro Martire, and on the Porta del Leone, with the portrait of Lionello d’Este. From 1454 he was court painter and executed other decorative works, such as a curtain of 1460 depicting the Creation of Adam and Eve; it is probable that from 1458 he collaborated with Tura on the decoration of the studiolo at Belfiore. The firmest evidence of his activity remains the allegory of Summer in the Budapest Museum, which reveals the master’s richness of colour and decorative expertise in a deeply moving idealization of virginal beauty. In addition to the Ceres in Budapest, according to Berenson, the master should be credited with the S. Bernardino and S. Luigi in the Pinacoteca of Ferrara, a S. Antonio in a private collection in Milan, the Sposalizio della Vergine and the Adorazione dei Magi in the Chatman collection.
610-42; R. Janin, Michel le Syncelle, in DThC, X, cols. 1710-1711, with an indication of the writings; Krumbacher, p. 166 sgg., 186 sgg.; BHG, nn. 1286-87.