NOVELLI, PIETRO, known as il MONREALESE. - Painter, born on 2 March 1603 in Monreale, died in August 1647 in Palermo, where he attended Carrera’s studio and soon turned from the post-Raphaelesque manner towards the art of Van Dick, who stayed in Palermo between 1622 and 1624 and permanently influenced him.
The canvas depicting Christ, the Virgin, and St Anne in the church of the Benedictines in Catania belongs to his first, Raphaelesque manner; to the second belong the Pentecost and the Annunciation in the Museo di Palermo, the frescoes in the refectory of S. Martino della Scala (1629), and those in S. Andrea Corsini (1630). Among the works produced after his return to Sicily from Rome, where he was affected by the Caravaggesque manner of various painters, mention should be made of a Calling of St Matthew at Leonforte, the fine St Benedict Blessing the Loaves in the Benedictine monastery at Monreale, many portraits dispersed among various Italian and foreign galleries, the St Pellegrino in the Corsini of Rome, and the Coronation of the Virgin in the Congregation of the Rosary in Palermo.