Pietro Novelli, called Il Monrealese (1603–1647)

• Known as il Monrealese or Pietro "Malta" Novelli to distinguish him from his father, Pietro Antonio Novelli.
• He was an Italian painter.
• He was also nicknamed by contemporaries as the Raphael of Sicily.
• He was born in Monreale, and died in Palermo.

• He initially trained with his father, a painter and mosaicist.

• As a young apprentice he was a fellow pupil with Gerardo Astorino.

• In 1618, he moved to Palermo and apprenticed with Vito Carrera and studied perspective with the mathematician Carlo Maria Ventimiglia. 

• His first dated work is from 1626: St. Anthony Abbot for the church of Sant'Antonio Abate in Palermo. 

• He spent some time in Rome and Naples c. 1630/31–3. 

• Novelli returned to Sicily in 1637.

• At the end of the 1630s and the beginning of the 1640s he produced some fresco cycles (e.g. Life of Viceroy Moncada, 1637–40; Palermo, Palazzo dei Normanni). 

• In the last years of his life he painted for the church of San Matteo in Palermo.

• Novelli was injured during the revolution in Palermo in 1647, and died from his wounds.

• His pupils included Andrea Carreca, Francesco Maggiotto, Francesco Giselli, Michele Blasco, Vincenzo Marchese, Giacomo lo Verde, and Macri da Girgenti.

• He was also an architect and stage set designer. 

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