Raffaello Sernesi (December 25, 1838 – August 9, 1866) was an Italian painter and medallist associated with the Macchiaioli group.

After an apprenticeship to a local engraver, he enrolled at the Accademia of Florence in 1856, where he studied under Antonio Ciseri.

[2] In 1858 his father died, and Sernesi left the Academy in order to help support his family as an engraver and medallist.

[1][2] In 1859 he began frequenting the Caffè Michelangiolo and met the artists of the Macchiaioli, including Odoardo Borrani, who became a close friend.

[3] Norma Broude says these works are characterized by "the azure and terracotta hues typical both of Tuscany's landscape and its fresco tradition" and says they reveal "a taste for rectilinear clarity in spatial and compositional organization".