Prospero Antonio Felice Maria Mallerini (1761 – 1838)

• Was an Italian painter.
• Ancestor of the future Pope Pius XII, the young Prospero Mallarini, born in Carcare in the province of Savona in 1761, was sent to Rome by his family to study law.

• In the capital, however, he discovered his vocation as a painter, and began to frequent various workshops.

• In Rome, he also met the Barberini family, for whom he executed works of architecture and painting.

• He married to Eleonora De Rossi.

• Mallerini also worked in Umbria: in Cannara in 1797 he painted the canvas on the altar of the parish church of San Matteo, depicting the Virgin and Child, St. Anthony of Padua and St. Roch.

• Prospero Mallerini became best known for the Portrait of the Family of Don Carlo Barberini, executed in 1802.

• As an architect he designed a sferisterium that was built in 1837 in Palazzo Barberini alle Quattro Fontane.

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