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| Baldassare Franceschini Triumphal Entry of Cosimo I de' Medici into Siena ca. 1637-46 fresco (detail) Villa La Petraia, near Florence |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Triumphal Entry of Cosimo I de' Medici into Siena ca. 1637-46 fresco (detail) Villa La Petraia, near Florence |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Sea Supremacy of Tuscany ca. 1637-46 fresco (detail) Villa La Petraia, near Florence |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Sea Supremacy of Tuscany ca. 1637-46 fresco (detail) Villa La Petraia, near Florence |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Sea Supremacy of Tuscany ca. 1637-46 fresco (detail) Villa La Petraia, near Florence |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Sea Supremacy of Tuscany ca. 1637-46 fresco (detail) Villa La Petraia, near Florence |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Sea Supremacy of Tuscany ca. 1637-46 fresco (detail) Villa La Petraia, near Florence |
"The preeminent fresco painter in Florence in the latter half of the 17th century, Baldassare Franceschini, known as Il Volterrano after his birthplace, studied with Matteo Rosselli and Giovanni da San Giovanni. His first significant independent commission came in 1636, when he was entrusted by Prince Don Lorenzo de' Medici with the fresco decoration of the courtyard of the Medici villa of La Petraia, near Florence. The cycle of scenes from Medici history was not completed for another twelve years, however, as other commissions interrupted the project. Volterrano painted frescoes, altarpieces and easel pictures for numerous churches and palaces in Florence, Volterra, and Rome. His large-scale, crowded fresco compositions reflect an adaptation into a Florentine idiom of the Roman Baroque manner, derived from Pietro da Cortona's frescoes in the Palazzo Pitti, where Volterrano himself also worked, decorating the ceiling of the Sala di Vittoria della Rovere. His painting also shows the influence of Correggio, whose work in Parma he studied extensively. . . . Undoubtedly one of the finest draughtsmen of the Florentine Seicento, Volterrano, as one modern scholar has noted, 'can take his place alongside the other major draughtsmen of the Baroque era; there is nothing provincial about any aspect of his drawing.' Both of the artist's biographers, Filippo Baldinucci and Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri, owned several of his drawings, and they were also popular with collectors."
– from biographical notes published by Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, London
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| Baldassare Franceschini Portrait of Philippe, Chevalier de Lorraine, as Ganymede ca. 1660-70 oil on canvas Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Hylas with Water Vessel before 1690 oil on canvas Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Hylas with Water Vessel 1649-50 fresco Museo Bardini, Florence |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Venus and Cupid 1649-50 fresco Museo Bardini, Florence |
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| Baldassare Franceschini Bacchus attended by Putti ca. 1670 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Baldassare Franceschini St Sebastian tended by St Irene before 1690 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims |
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| Baldassare Franceschini St Catherine of Siena before 1690 oil on canvas Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |
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| attributed to Baldassare Franceschini Wounds of Christ ca. 1685 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Felice, Florence |