Battista Franco Veneziano

Battista Franco Veneziano (c. 1510 - 1561), baptized Giovanni Battista Franco, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker in etching active in Rome, Urbino, and Venice in the mid 16th century.

He painted an allegory of the Battle of Montemurlo now in the Pitti Palace (1537), and a fresco of the Arrest of John the Baptist for the Oratory of San Giovanni Decollato (1541).

His painting, in the Mannerist style, was heavily indebted to Michelangelo; but his drawings and etchings have far more verve and originality.

He returned to Venice, where he helped fresco the ceiling of the Biblioteca Marciana (library).

He painted a series of panels, including a Baptism of Christ (Barbaro chapel), for the walls and vault of the Grimani chapel in the church San Francesco della Vigna in Venice.