 |
| Battista Franco Diana and Actaeon ca. 1556 oil on canvas Biblioteca Marciana, Venice |
 |
| Battista Franco Personification of Agriculture with Pomona, Vertumnus, and Ceres ca. 1556 oil on canvas Biblioteca Marciana, Venice |
 |
| Battista Franco Baptism of Christ ca. 1555 oil on canvas (altarpiece) Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna, Venice |
 |
| Battista Franco Baptism of Christ (detail) ca. 1555 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna, Venice |
 |
| Battista Franco The Road to Calvary 1552 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
 |
| Battista Franco The Road to Calvary (detail) 1552 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
 |
| Battista Franco The Road to Calvary (detail) 1552 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
 |
| Battista Franco The Road to Calvary (detail) 1552 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
 |
| Battista Franco The Road to Calvary (detail) 1552 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
 |
| Battista Franco Fifteen Scenes from the Apocalypse ca. 1550 vault frescoes Cappella Grimani, Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna, Venice |
 |
| Battista Franco Fifteen Scenes from the Apocalypse (detail) ca. 1550 vault fresco Cappella Grimani, Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna, Venice |
 |
| Battista Franco Fifteen Scenes from the Apocalypse (detail) ca. 1550 vault fresco Cappella Grimani, Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna, Venice |
 |
| Battista Franco Fifteen Scenes from the Apocalypse (detail) ca. 1550 vault fresco Cappella Grimani, Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna, Venice |
 |
| Battista Franco Fifteen Scenes from the Apocalypse (detail) ca. 1550 vault fresco Cappella Grimani, Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna, Venice |
 |
| Battista Franco Fifteen Scenes from the Apocalypse (detail) ca. 1550 vault fresco Cappella Grimani, Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna, Venice |
"Initially no less close an imitator of Michelangelo, but in a way assertively opposite – concerned with Michelangelo's demonstrations of form but disregarding what he meant to be its human content – was Battista Franco Veneziano (il Semolei). Franco appeared in Rome at the age of twenty and dedicated himself for a span of years to the exclusive study of Michelangelo's art, but as a draughtsman only. . . . The reception given in Rome to this naŃ—ve extreme of the cult of Michelangelo was unsympathetic, and Franco left to practise elsewhere. From about 1545 to 1551 he was mostly in Urbino. . . . By 1554 Franco had returned finally to his native Venice, but even before this he had begun to yield, in Urbino, to influences from the Venetian school. Still, his first Venetian works made propaganda there for a mode of Romanism, though not at a level which, in the Venetian community of the time, could have carried much weight. The process that had begun before his return, of readjustment towards a Venetian style, accelerated rapidly. Franco was by no means the sole painter in Venice to profess a Romanist aesthetic. Nevertheless, the authenticity of his Roman experience, compared with that of Venetian colleagues of similar inclination, made him more distinct than they within a Venetian context and lent his production a measure of authority that theirs did not always have."
– S.J. Freedberg, Painting in Italy 1500-1600 in the Pelican History of Art series (1970)
 |
| Battista Franco after Michelangelo Noli me tangere ca. 1537 oil on panel Dayton Art Institute, Ohio |