Pellegrini was born in Venice. His father, also called Antonio, was a
shoemaker from
Padua. Pellegrini was a pupil of the Milanese painter
Paolo Pagani. He travelled with his master to Moravia and Vienna in 1690 and was back in Venice in 1696 where he painted his first surviving works. The work of fellow Venetian
Sebastiano Ricci had an important influence on his work. He was in Rome from 1699 to 1701.
Michael Levey, describing Pellegrini's paintings on the staircase at Kimbolton, says that, although painted directly into the wall in oil, "they have all the spontaneity and lightness of
fresco. In London he worked at
31 St James's Square for the Duke of Portland, where
George Vertue noted in his notebooks "the hall and Staircase and one or two of the great rooms". He became a director of
Sir Godfrey Kneller's Academy in London in 1711. He submitted designs for decorating the interior dome of the new
St Paul's Cathedral, and is said to have been
Christopher Wren's favourite painter. He did not win the commission, losing out to
Sir James Thornhill. Pellegrini subsequently travelled through Germany and the Netherlands, collecting Northern paintings as he went and completing works in many European cities. In 1713-4 he was in Düsseldorf, where he painted a series of allegorical scenes of the life of the elector,
Johann Wilhelm. ==Notes==