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FRANCIA (c. 1450-1517)
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See also:FRANCIA (c. 1450-1517) , a Bolognese painter, whose real name was See also:Francesco Raibolini, his See also:father being Marco di Giacomo Raibolini, a See also:carpenter, descended from an old and creditable See also:family, was See also:born at See also:Bologna about 1450. He was apprenticed to a See also:goldsmith currently named Francia, and from him probably he got the See also:nickname whereby he is generally known; he more-over studied See also:design under Marco Zoppo. The youth was thus originally a goldsmith, and also an engraver of See also:dies and niellos, and in these arts he became extremely eminent. He was particularly famed for his dies for medals; he See also:rose to be See also:mint-See also:master at Bologna, and retained that See also:office till the end of his See also:life. A famous See also:medal of See also:Pope See also:Julius II. as liberator of Bologna is ascribed to his See also:hand, but not with certainty. As a type-founder he made for Aldus See also:Manutius the first See also:italic type.
At a mature age—having first, it appears, become acquainted with Mantegna—he turned his See also:attention to See also:painting. His earliest known picture is dated 1494 (not 1490, as ordinarily stated). It shows so much mastery that one is compelled to believe that Raibolini must before then have practised painting for some few years. This See also:work is now in the Bologna See also:gallery,—the " Virgin enthroned, with See also:Augustine and five other See also:saints." It is an oil picture, and was originally painted for the See also: The same patrons employed him upon frescoes in their own See also:palace; one of " See also:Judith and Holophernes " is especially noted, its See also:style recalling that of See also:Mantegna. Francia probably studied likewise the See also:works of See also:Perugino; and he became a friend and ardent admirer of See also:Raphael, to whom he addressed an enthusiastic See also:sonnet. Raphael cordially responded to the Bolognese master's admiration, and said, in a See also:letter dated in 1508, that few painters or none had produced Madonnas more beautiful, more devout, or better portrayed than those of Francia. If we may See also:trust Vasari—but it is difficult to suppose that he was entirely correct—the exceeding value which Francia set on Raphael's See also:art brought him to his See also:grave. Raphael had consigned to Francia his famous picture of " St See also:Cecilia," destined for the church of S. Giovanni in See also:Monte, Bologna; and Francia, on inspecting it, took so much to See also:heart his own inferiority; at the advanced See also:age of about sixty-six, to the youthful Umbrian, that he sickened and shortly expired on the 6th of See also:January 1517. A contemporary See also:record, after attesting his pre-See also:eminence as a goldsmith, jeweller and painter, states that he was " most hand-some in See also:person and highly eloquent." Distanced though he may have been by Raphael, See also:Francis is rightly regarded as the greatest painter of the earlier Bolognese school, and hardly to be surpassed as representing the art termed " antico-moderno," or of the " quattrocento:" It has been well observed that his style is a See also:medium between that of Perugino and that of Giovanni See also:Bellini; he has somewhat more of spontaneous See also:naturalism than the former, and of abstract dignity in feature and See also:form than the latter. The magnificent portrait in the Louvre of a See also:young See also:man in See also:black, of brooding thoughtfulness and saddened profundity of See also:mood, would alone suffice to See also:place Francia among the very See also:great masters, if it could with confidence be attributed to his hand, but in all See also:probability its real author was See also:Franciabigio; it had erewhile passed under the name of Raphael, of See also:Giorgione, or of See also:Sebastian del Piombo. The See also:National Gallery, See also:London, contains two remarkably See also:fine specimens of Francia, once combined together as See also:principal picture and See also:lunette,—the " Virgin" and " See also:Child and St See also:Anna " enthroned, surrounded by saints; and (in the lunette) the " Pieta," or lamentation of angels over the dead Saviour. They come from the Buonvisi See also:chapel in the church of S. Frediano, See also:Lucca, and were among the master's latest paintings. Other leading works are—in See also:Munich, the Virgin " sinking on her knees in See also:adoration of the Divine See also:Infant, who is lying in a See also:garden within a rose trellis; in the See also:Borghese gallery, See also:Rome, a See also:Peter See also:Martyr; in Bologna, the frescoes in the church of St Cecilia, illustrating the life of the See also:saint, all of them from the design of Raibolini, but not all executed by himself. His landscape backgrounds are of uncommon excellence. Francia had more than 200 scholars. See also:Marcantonio Raimondi, the famous engraver, is the most renowned of them; next to him Amico Aspertini, and Francia's own son Giacomo, and his See also:cousin Julio. Lorenzo See also:Costa was much associated with Francia in pictorial work. Among the authorities as to the life and work of Francia may be mentioned J. A.See also:Calvi, Memorie delta vita di Francesco Raibolini (1812), and especially G. C. See also:Williamson, Francia (two). (W. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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