Luigi Pellegrini Scaramuccia

Who was Luigi Pellegrini Scaramuccia?

Luigi Pellegrini Scaramuccia was an Italian painter and artist biographer of the Baroque period. He was a pupil, along with Giovanni Domenico Cerrini of the painter Guido Reni.

Born in Perugia, he left paintings throughout the peninsula, including Rome, Bologna, and Milan. He is more highly regarded as a biographer or historian than the former. His book Le finezze de' pennelli italiani was one of the earliest compilations of biographies that included baroque artists from Bologna and Milan. Written as a pseudonymous account of travels through Italy, he appears to plagiarize extensively from prior biographers, including Raphaël Trichet du Fresne in his introduction to Leonardo’s treatise in 1651.

In painting, he worked under Carlo Cignani and alongside Lorenzo Pasinelli, Girolamo Bonini, and Giovanni Maria Galli-Bibiena, in the fresco decoration of the ‘’Sala Farnese’’ in the Palazzo d'Accursio in Bologna.