Francia, Francesco (Raibolini) (1450-1517)

Italian painter. He was much influenced by Perugino and Raphael Sanzio as well as by Lorenzo Costa, with whom he worked; hiseclectic style can be seen in paintings like Virgin and Child and St Anne and Pietà (National Gallery, London).

He was born in Bologna, originally a goldsmith and engraver of dies for medals (becoming mint master in Bologna), Francia took up painting in middle age when he made the acquaintance of Andrea Mantegna. He was patronised by the humanist Bartolemo Bianchini whose portrait he painted (c. 1485) (National Gallery, London) and the ruling Bentivoglio family for whom he produced Virgin Enthroned with Augustine and Five Other Saints (Bologna Gallery), St Peter Martyr (Borghese Gallery, Rome), and frescoes in the church of St Cecilia, Bologna (where Costs also worked). When the Bentivoglio fell in 1506, some of Francia's works were destroyed and he sought work elsewhere, in Modena and Parma. He eventually returned to Bologna, however, and died there.