Molinari, Antonio

Molinari, Antonio a Venetian painter, who flourished in the early part of the 18th century, was a pupil of Antonio Zanchi, whose maxims he afterwards renounced, creating a style of his own. Molinari painted some excellent works for several of the Venetian churches, but his pictures were very unequal in merit. Lanzi says that in his best works, "as the History of Hosea, in the Corpus Domini at Venice, he displays a style no less solid than pleasing, which equally satisfies the Jdgment and the eye. There is a study of both design and expression, ample beauty of forms, richness of drapery, with a taste and harmony of coloring not surpassed by any artist of the time." See Lanzi, Hist. of Painting, transl. by Roscoe, 2:295; Spooner, Biog. Hist. of the Fine Arts, 2:575.