(b Rome, 1679; d Rome, 1759). Italian painter. A pupil of Carlo Maratti and, later, of Francesco Trevisani, his official religious works unite Maratti’s classicism with Rococo grace. His decorative works include the vault frescoes in the sacristy of S Onofrio, Rome, and the vast ceiling fresco in S Maria Maddalena, Rome (before 1739). He sent paintings to Bassano, to Turin and to Hungary, where three signed and dated altarpieces have survived: the Virgin Appearing to St Bernard (1725; Vác Cathedral), the Virgin and Child (1727; Vácratot, parish church) and the Crucifixion (Budapest, Mus. F.A.). The altarpieces of the Virgin, St Joachim and St Anne (Rome, S Giuseppe alla Lungara) and the Assumption of the Virgin (before 1717; Rome, S Maria Maddalena) have been attributed to him. Pesci’s relatively small religious works for private patrons are softer and more intimate, their decorative quality enhanced by landscape, flowers and garlands, as in Bathsheba Bathing (1732; Brno, Morav. Mus.) and Susanna and the Elders (1744; Vizovice Castle). Pesci also worked for foreign, especially English, visitors to Rome and is remembered as a portrait painter. His Self-portrait (c. 1724; Stockholm, Nmus.) was painted for Nicola Pio.