MUNARI, PELLEGRINO. — Painter, born at Modena ca. 1465 and died there, murdered in a brawl, in December 1523. In 1509 he painted in his native city an altarpiece for the hospital of S. Maria dei Battuti, which A. Venturi identified with the pleasing, though somewhat cold, Madonna enthroned with ss. Geminiano and Girolamo in the Pinacoteca of Ferrara.
This painting displays distinctly Ferrarese characteristics, partly Robertian, but derived above all from Lorenzo Costa; in the upper section, the affinity of type with the figures and motifs of the so-called « pala Strozzi », in the National Gallery in London, formerly attributed to the mythical Ercole Grandi, is particularly striking. Around 1510 M. went to Rome, where he is mentioned in the years 1513 and 1515 for work in artisan painting. According to Vasari, he was Raffaello’s assistant in the decoration of the Vatican Loggias; his evolution from Padan modes to the Raphaelistic style is evident in an interesting drawing, now in the Accademia of Venice, depicting the Madonna enthroned with ss. Giuseppe and Domenico, which was erroneously attributed to Perin del Vaga. But the most important work he executed in Rome, under the direct influence of Sanzio, is the series of frescoes inspired by the life of s. Giacomo Maggiore, in a chapel of S. Giacomo degli Spagnoli. Extremely deteriorated or altered, partly as a result of an eighteenth-century restoration, they nevertheless reveal the author’s sound chromatic and, above all, compositional qualities, especially in the episodes relating to the Apostle’s preaching. After Raffaello’s death, the Modenese master returned to his native city, where he continued to work for several years; but no certain evidence of his activity has survived.