Marcantonio Franceschini

Franceschini had a long career painting canvases on religious and mythological subjects for patrons throughout Europe.

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.

He painted the "cartoons" used to make the mosaic decoration of the Cappella del Coro in St. Peter's Basilica.

Knighted by Pope Clement XI, he was founding a member and a subsequent director of the Clementine Academy in Bologna.

Main altar, Visitation by Marcantonio Franceschini, Chiesa della Visitazione in Salò .
Christ and the Woman of Samaria , circa 1700, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston