Francesco Podesti

[2] His precocious talent gained him a stipend to study at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome; this was partly subsidized by the Marquis Bourbon of Monte Santa Maria and by the city of Ancona.

It also gained him commissions for two altarpieces in town: an Annunciation for the church of the Vergine Annunziata, and a Martyrdom of St. Lawrence (1825–1827) in Ancona Cathedral (destroyed during World War II and replaced by a copy).

The Prince Torlonia purchased from him a large canvas of Tasso che legge la sua Gerusalemme alla Corte di Ferrara.

He painted a series of scenes of the Decameron, both original and copies, for patrons including the King of Naples, the Marchese Ala Ponzoni, and the sig.

For the Cathedral of Chiari he painted: Santi Faustino e Giovita; for the Academy of Mexico: The Angel of Justice, for King Carlo Alberto he completed the Judgement of Salomon.

Carlo Alberto of Savoy nominated Podesti to direct the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, but he refused, fearing that the appointment could somehow limit his freedom as an artist.

[8] In 1849, while the brief Roman Republic was established, Podesti joined the battalion of the university defending the city of Rome from sieges by French forces.

The artist chose an episode during the 1174 siege of Ancona by the Austrian Cristiano di Magonza: the large canvas masterpiece depicting the Oath of Anconetani won prizes at the Great Exhibition in London of 1851 as well as the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855.

During the eleven years it took to paint the room, he had a few clashes with the curia, who wanted to delete the depiction of one disgraced priest.

The argument was compelling enough to silence the prelate [10] His wife died in 1865, and Podesti realized the only major work of sculpture for her burial plot in the Campo Verano.

In 1877 he painted for the Earl Ragnini, a historical subject Stamira, portraying the heroine from Ancona that burned the enemy siege machines during the conflict mentioned in the Oath of Anconetani.

The painting was ultimately donated to the city of Bertinoro; to recall the intervention of Aldruda de Frangipani, a native of that town.

He was 80 years old when he ascended the scaffolding to fresco the four evangelists on the spandrels of the dome of the church of the Blessed Sacrament in Ancona.

Il monsignore disse: "Quel ritratto lì ora è un'indegnità; per amor del Pontefice, togliete quella testa!"