Laurana, Francesco (c. 1430–c. 1502)

Dalmatian sculptor and medallist who worked in Naples, Provence, and Sicily. His work includes a series of portrait busts of women connected with the royal house of Naples, including those of Battista Sforza (Bargello, Florence) and Beatrice of Aragon (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). He sometimes worked in collaboration with Luciano Laurana.

Laurana probably trained in Ragusa (near Dubrovnik) under Pietro di Martino da Milano. The first definite record of him is as one of the sculptors working on the triumphal arch of Alfonso V at Castelnuovo in Naples 1453, after which he moved in 1461 to Marseille and to the court of René of Anjou, for whom he executed several medals in the style of Pisanello. Besides these, he also produced a number of reliefs and worked on the Mastrantonio chapel at the Church of San Francesco in Palermo, Sicily (1468).