 |
| Battista Franco Striding woman in classical dress beckoning to a man ca. 1530-60 drawing British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco Standing Philosopher ca. 1557 drawing British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco Seated nude youth ca. 1530-60 drawing British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco Sibyl ca. 1530-60 drawing British Museum |
"But since his earnings were scanty and the expenses of Rome very great, after having executed some works on cloth, which had not much success, he retturned to his native country of Venice, thinking by a change of country to change also his fortune. There, by reason of his fine manner of drawing, he was judged to be an able man, and a few days afterwards he was commissioned to execute an altar-piece in oils for the Chapel of Mons. Barbaro, Patriarch-elect of Aquileia, in the Church of S. Francesco della Vigna; in which he painted John baptizing Christ in the Jordan, in the air God the Father, at the foot two little boys who are holding the vestments of Christ. . . . Not long afterwards, when as has been related above, three pictures were given to each of the best and most renowned painters of Venice to paint for the Library of S. Marco, on the condition that he who should acquit himself best in the judgment of those Magnificent Senators was to receive, in addition to the usual payment, a chain of gold, Battista executed in that place three scenes, with two Philosophers between the windows, and acquitted himself very well, although he did not win the prize of honor."
 |
| Battista Franco Standing female martyr ca. 1530-60 drawing British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco Old man seated warming his hands ca. 1530-60 drawing British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco Seated old man ca. 1530-60 drawing British Museum |
"After these works, having received from the Patriarch Grimani the commission for a chapel in S. Francesco della Vigna, which is the first on the left hand entering into the church, Battista set his hand to it and began to make very rich designs in stucco over the whole vaulting, with scenes of figures in fresco, laboring there with incredible diligence. But – whether it was his own carelessness, or that he had executed some works, perchance on very fresh walls, as I have heard say at the villas of certain gentlemen – before he had that chapel finished, he died, and it remained incomplete."
– from the Life of Battista Franco (ca. 1510-1561), published in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Painters in 1568, translated by Gaston du C. de Vere and published in English in 1912
 |
| Battista Franco Standing nude man with torch and classical props ca. 1530-60 engraving British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco St Jerome in penitence ca. 1554-61 etching British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco St John the Baptist in the wilderness ca. 1530-60 etching British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco Bacchantes with Apollo and Daphne ca. 1530-60 etching British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco Young men conducting mysterious ritual ca. 1530-60 etching British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco Allegory of Wisdom ca. 1530-60 etching British Museum |
 |
| Battista Franco Three figures from an ancient cameo ca. 1530-60 engraving British Museum |