Francesco Raibolini, known as Francia, was from Bologna. He was an important artist in his day but fame was overshadowed by the next generation of High Renaissance painters. His soft and graceful mature style was mainly based on that of Perugino, and was popular and much imitated around Bologna.
Francia, first trained by a goldsmith in Bologna, was recorded in the Bologna goldsmiths' guild in 1482. He is first recorded as a painter in 1486. His style was first formed on that of Lorenzo Costa. Vasari, writing in 1568, said that the earlier artists of 15th century Italy had lacked:
''a soft blending of colour, first observable in Francia of Bologna and Pietro Perugino. The people, when they beheld the new and living beauty, ran madly to see it, thinking it would never be possible to improve upon it.''
Francesco Francia
about 1447 - 1517
Paintings by Francesco Francia
(Showing 6 of 7 works)
Bartolomeo Bianchini was a nobleman and humanist scholar from Bologna – his name is written on the letter he holds. This is the earliest known use of a letter as a means of naming the sitter in an Italian portrait.The painted ledge makes it appear that we are looking through a window. Bianchini’s...
Not on display
This altarpiece was commissioned by Benedetto Buonvisi for his family chapel in Lucca. The Virgin Mary and Saint Anne are seated on a throne. The infant Christ leans across his mother’s lap towards his grandmother to reach for the fruit she offers him.The Virgin appears lost in thought, perhaps c...
Not on display
This altarpiece was painted for the Buonvisi Chapel in the church of S. Frediano in Lucca. It shows the Virgin Mary with her mother, Saint Anne, and the infant Christ enthroned and surrounded by saints, from left to right: Saint Sebastian, Saint Paul, Saint Lawrence and Saint Benedict.In the main...
Not on display
After being taken down from the Cross, Christ’s body is laid outside the cave in which he will be entombed. Nicodemus or Saint Joseph of Arimathea kneels with his hands clasped in prayer while Saint John the Evangelist supports the body of the dead Christ. The Virgin Mary stands in a gesture of s...
Not on display
This semicircular painting forms the upper part of the altarpiece painted for the Buonvisi family chapel in the church of S. Frediano in Lucca.The Virgin Mary grieves over the body of her son Christ, laid across her lap, her eyelids red and puffy from weeping. An angel holds Christ’s head; anothe...
Not on display
Francesco Francia and workshop
The Virgin holds the naked infant Christ who stands on a stone ledge and raises his hand in blessing. We do not know the identity of the saints behind them, but the older one may be Saint Jerome or Saint Anthony Abbot.The holy characters are portrayed in the Italian countryside, making them appea...
This painting is a nineteenth-century copy of The Virgin and Child with an Angel by Francesco Francia (Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh). It is highly unusual because it is a forgery, made to deceive.When the painting was bequeathed to the National Gallery in 1924 it was thought to be by the la...
Not on display
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