Monday, April 1, 2019

Baldassare Franceschini, called Il Volterrano (1611-1690)

Baldassare Franceschini
Triumphal Entry of Cosimo I de' Medici into Siena
ca. 1637-46
fresco (detail)
Villa La Petraia, near Florence

Baldassare Franceschini
Triumphal Entry of Cosimo I de' Medici into Siena
ca. 1637-46
fresco (detail)
Villa La Petraia, near Florence

Baldassare Franceschini
Sea Supremacy of Tuscany
ca. 1637-46
fresco (detail)
Villa La Petraia, near Florence

Baldassare Franceschini
Sea Supremacy of Tuscany
ca. 1637-46
fresco (detail)
Villa La Petraia, near Florence

Baldassare Franceschini
Sea Supremacy of Tuscany
ca. 1637-46
fresco (detail)
Villa La Petraia, near Florence

Baldassare Franceschini
Sea Supremacy of Tuscany
ca. 1637-46
fresco (detail)
Villa La Petraia, near Florence

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 

Baldassare Franceschini
Portrait of Philippe, Chevalier de Lorraine, as Ganymede
ca. 1660-70
oil on canvas
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Baldassare Franceschini
Hylas with Water Vessel
before 1690
oil on canvas
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart

Baldassare Franceschini
Hylas with Water Vessel
1649-50
fresco
Museo Bardini, Florence

Baldassare Franceschini
Venus and Cupid
1649-50
fresco
Museo Bardini, Florence

Baldassare Franceschini
Bacchus attended by Putti
ca. 1670
oil on canvas
private collection

Baldassare Franceschini
St Sebastian tended by St Irene
before 1690
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Baldassare Franceschini
St Catherine of Siena
before 1690
oil on canvas
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

attributed to Baldassare Franceschini
Wounds of Christ
ca. 1685
oil on canvas
Chiesa di San Felice, Florence