Portrait of a woman, half-length, in a yellow dress and red wrap, with pearl earrings

A painter whose work embodied the flamboyance of the Rococo period, Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini travelled tirelessly in Europe, decorating private houses and ecclesiastical institutions for many of the great patrons of the eighteenth century. Combining the High Renaissance style of Paolo Veronese with the fresco tradition of Luca Giordano and Pietro da Cortona, he created an elegant style, and many have considered him as the precursor of Giambattista Tiepolo. Venetian by birth, he was a pupil of Paolo Pagani and Sebastiano Ricci, and later married the sister of the great pastellist, Rosalba Carriera. He fulfilled important commissions in Venice but is chiefly celebrated for his work in England where he stayed between 1708 and 1713, painting for the great aristocratic families. He was active in Germany, where this portrait is likely to have been executed, The Netherlands, Austria, and France and played a key role in the international Rococo movement.