Antonio Molinari (painter)

Antonio Molinari, also known as il Caraccino, (21 January 1655 – 3 February 1704) was an Italian painter of the Baroque era in Venice.

This article is about the painter. For the runner, see Antonio Molinari (runner). For the bishop, see Antonio Molinari (bishop).

Molinari's Adoration of the golden calf (1700-1702) is in the Hermitage Museum.

Biography

The son of a painter, Molinari was apprenticed to Antonio Zanchi in Venice. He was strongly influenced by the vigorous and athletic paintings of Neapolitan painters such as Luca Giordano. He typically painted tumultuous narratives of mythology and religion in large canvases. This would influence his pupil (1697–1703), Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, and his grand manner style.

Works

His works include:

• Feeding of the Five Thousand (1690; San Pantalon, Venice)
• Darius and His Family Before Alexander (1690)
• Judith with the Head of Holofernes (1690)
• Death of Uzzah (c. 1695; Santa Maria degli Angeli in Murano)
• Fight of Centaurs and Lapiths (c. 1698, Ca' Rezzonico).
• The Boy Moses Stepping on Pharaoh's Crown (c. 1690s-1704), Museum Kunstpalast
• Adoration of the Golden Calf (1700-1702), The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
• Adam and Eve (1701-1704), David Owsley Museum of Art
• David and Abigail

Gallery

• 
  Madonna and Child with Saint Maurus Madonna dell'Orto
• 
  David and Abigail
• 
  Darius and his family before Alexander
• 

Sources

• Grove encyclopedia biography on Artnet.
• Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750. 1980. Penguin Books. pp. 349–350.