He was born in
Monreale, and died in
Palermo. He initially trained with his father, a painter and mosaicist. His father died in 1625 from the bubonic plague. 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. The development of his style owed much to
Anthony van Dyck, who visited
Sicily in 1624 and whose altarpiece, the
Madonna of the Rosary in the oratory of Santa Maria del Rosario in Palermo was highly influential for local artists. Also important for Novelli's artistic development was the time he spent in Rome and Naples c. 1630/31–3. In Rome he probably studied the works of
Raphael and
Michelangelo, of
Caravaggio and the Bolognese painters (especially
Giovanni Lanfranco and
Domenichino),
Pietro da Cortona,
Nicolas Poussin and
Diego Velázquez. In Naples he came into contact with the works of
Jusepe de Ribera and with the contemporary Neapolitan naturalist painters, and he was deeply affected by the art of
Andrea Vaccaro and
Massimo Stanzione. A direct influence from Caravaggio can be seen in the fresco of ''Daniel in the Lions' Den'' (Naples, San Martino delle Scale), where the angel is derived from that in Caravaggio's
Nativity (Palermo, San Lorenzo). Novelli returned to Sicily in 1637. Probably soon thereafter he painted
Judith and Holofernes (
Royal Palace of Naples), which shows his close links with
Artemisia Gentileschi and Ribera. The
Trinity Sending the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin (Naples,
Museo di Capodimonte), which also postdates his time in Naples, is an eclectic work in which the elegance and idealism of van Dyck blend with the
naturalism of Caravaggio or Ribera. Other works of the 1630s, which opened the most productive phase of Novelli's career, include the canvas of
St. Benedict Distributing Bread to the Religious Orders (
Monreale, abbey of San Martino), the
Virgin with St. Rosalie and St. John the Baptist (; Palermo, Galleria Regionale della Sicilia) and
St. John the Baptist Preaching (Palermo, San Giovanni alla Guilla). 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 which the influences of
Guido Reni, Lanfranco and, especially, Domenichino are discernible. In the last years of his life he painted for the church of San Matteo in Palermo the
Presentation in the Temple and the
Marriage of the Virgin (1647). 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. ==Gallery==