Marcantonio Franceschini

Marcantonio Franceschini (Italian pronunciation: [markanˈtɔːnjo frantʃeˈskiːni]; 1648 – 24 December 1729) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mostly in his native Bologna. He was the father and teacher of Giacomo Franceschini.

He was a pupil of Carlo Cignani, with whom he worked on the frescoes in the Palazzo del Giardino in Parma (1678–1681). He worked closely for many years with his brother-in-law, Luigi Quaini, who also was the cousin of Cignani.

Franceschini had a long career painting canvases on religious and mythological subjects for patrons throughout Europe. Franceschini decorated some ceilings in the Palazzo Ranuzzi (1680) and the Palazzo Marescotti Brazzetti (1682) in Bologna. He helped paint in the tribune at church of San Bartolomeo Porta Ravegnana (1690). Franceschini frescoed the ceiling of the Sala d'Onore ("Hall of Honor") in the Ducal Palace of Modena, commissioned in 1696 for the marriage of Rinaldo d'Este to Princess Charlotte Felicity of Brunswick. He painted the altarpiece in the Cathedral of Finale Ligure and the canvas of San Carlo in the church of the same name in Modena.

His massive program of historical and mythological scenes in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of the Palazzo Ducale of Genoa (1701–1704) were destroyed by a fire in 1777. These had been completed with the help of Tommaso Aldrovandini, Quaini, and Antonio Meloni. In addition, his decorations of the pendentives and lunettes of the Piacenza Cathedral were removed in the late 19th century. He decorated the church of Corpus Domini (1688–1694) in Bologna.

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