Pietro Antonio Magatti (Varese, 20 June 1691 – Varese, 22 May 1767) was an Italian painter of the 18th century, one of the main interpreters of Lombard Baroque and a significant figure in the shift of European painting during the Settecento.

Born in Varese in 1691, Magatti trained in Bologna in the workshop of Giovan Gioseffo Dal Sole, absorbing the Emilian lesson of full Baroque. Returning to Lombardy, he worked in Milan, Varese and in the Canton of Ticino, distinguishing himself in the production of altarpieces and frescoes of sacred subjects, but also refined paintings for private collections. His commissions came both from religious orders and from families of the Lombard high nobility, consolidating his position as an esteemed and sought-after painter.

Magatti’s style combines the Bolognese Baroque language with a soft and sentimental colorism, anticipating Rococo solutions and making him an original interpreter of Lombard figurative culture in the 18th century. His sacred compositions show theatricality and intense emotional participation, while his profane and mythological subjects reveal a cultured and refined taste.

• Cain and Abel (oil on canvas, private collection)
• Sacrifice of Isaac (private collection)
• Cycles of frescoes in churches and palaces of Lombardy and the Canton of Ticino, including the Palazzo Mezzabarba in Pavia.

• Städel Museum (Frankfurt)
• Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan)^[1]
• Museo Poldi Pezzoli (Milan)
• Castello di Masnago
• Pinacoteca Malaspina
• Biblioteca Ambrosiana

The figure of Magatti, one of the masters who marked the turning point of Italian painting in the 18th century, was the subject of critical re-evaluation with the first monographic exhibition dedicated to him in Varese. The volume accompanying the exhibition gathers essays retracing his career, from his Bolognese beginnings to his maturity, delving into his relations with religious and private patrons. Forty-five catalogued works, either of high quality or recently reattributed, outlined a solid and coherent corpus, confirming Magatti among the protagonists of Italian figurative culture of his time.

Some scholars have pointed out affinities between the production of Pietro Antonio Magatti and that of the Venetian painter Giambattista Pittoni, with whom he shares chronology and sacred and historical themes. In particular, compositional similarities have been noted that suggest Magatti may have looked at Pittoni’s models, reworking them according to a more intimate and sentimental Lombard sensibility. The comparison with Pittoni places Magatti within the broader panorama of 18th-century European painting, in dialogue with the great Venetian school.

The market for Magatti has experienced significant growth in the 21st century, particularly for works with sacred and historical subjects.

• Maria Teresa Fiorio, La pittura lombarda del Settecento, Milan, Electa, 1993.
• Francesco Frangi, Pietro Antonio Magatti e la pittura del suo tempo, Exhibition catalogue of Varese, Skira, 2000.
• Giovanni Testori, Il Barocco in Lombardia, Milan, Feltrinelli, 1965.

• Baroque
• Giambattista Pittoni

• Record in the General Catalog of Cultural Heritage