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| attributed to Marco Benefial Youth kissing an outstretched hand before 1764 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Marco Benefial Figural Studies before 1764 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Marco Benefial Seated Sibyl 1733 drawing (study for fresco) British Museum |
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| Marco Benefial Self-portrait 1731 drawing Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"Born in Rome in 1684, Marco Benefial was the son of a Gascon tulle weaver. At the early age of fourteen he became a student of the Bolognese painter Bonaventura Lamberti, whose influence was to be important for him. Lamberti was a sort of artistic grandchild of the Carracci and sought to convey to Benefial the admiration for antiquity and for Raphael that was characteristic of the followers of the Carracci. As early as ca. 1705 Benefial received two major commissions, altarpieces for the cathedral churches in Jesi and Macerata; these apparently established him in the Marches, since he also received commissions for further religious paintings from other cities in the region. Despite such early success, Benefial's later career was fraught with disappointments, dissension and ill fortune. . . . While conducting his classes in nude drawing at the Accademia di S. Luca he made some unflattering comments to his students regarding the superficiality of the methods of instruction that had become common practice in Rome, the consequences of which were quite evident in the students' work. His frankness caused a heated reaction from those academicians who felt insulted and who thereupon attempted to stigmatize this troublesome artist and to remove him from his teaching position. . . . The most valuable works of this artist are unfortunately located outside Rome in the smaller towns of the former papal states, especially in Viterbo, Città di Castello, Jesi, Pesaro and Ancona. One gains from them the impression of a strong but quite inconsistent artistic will that was consequently incapable of developing itself to a final, decisive degree of clarity. Benefial's biographer, Giovanni Battista Ponfredi, states that the artist often devoted several hours of his day to declamations against the mannerisms in the painting of his times and against the insufficient study of nature. . . . In contrast to the routine virtuosity of painters such as Sebastiano Conca, Benefial's best compositions possess a gripping immediacy of individuality and vitality that is far closer to modern taste. In addition there is the painterly and chromatic quality of his works, based upon a cool and brittle sense of color that gives preference to light tones, such as soft, bright cinnabar, light blue and a pale and transparent rendering of flesh tones, which are extremely effective against dark backgrounds. . . . Benefial had few actual students, since his irascible temperament made it difficult to remain long in his company. Nonetheless the example he set through his tireless study of nature had a considerable influence on Roman painting. To have spent some time drawing from live models under Benefial was seen as a great advantage in the training of young painters."
– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)
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| Marco Benefial Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1750 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne |
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| Marco Benefial Vision of St Catherine of Genoa 1747 oil on canvas Palazzo Barberini, Rome |
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| Marco Benefial Vision of St Philip Neri 1721 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Marco Benefial Portrait of British painter John Parker 1761 oil on canvas Accademia di San Luca, Rome |
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| attributed to Marco Benefial Portrait of a young woman before 1764 oil on canvas Palazzo Buonaccorsi, Macerata |
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| attributed to Marco Benefial Portrait of an old woman before 1764 oil on canvas Palazzo Buonaccorsi, Macerata |
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| Marco Benefial Baptism of St Tranquillo ca. 1721-25 oil on canvas Museo del Colle del Duomo, Viterbo |
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| Marco Benefial St Catherine of Siena beseeching Pope Gregory XI to move from Avignon to Rome before 1764 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Marco Benefial Study for the head of St Francis 1720 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| attributed to Marco Benefial Raising of Lazarus before 1764 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |