DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0211
IL FRANCIA.
207
names, we come to that of the greatest painter of
the early Bologna school, Francesco Raibolini.
He was born in 1450; being just four years
younger than his contemporary Perugino. Like
many other painters of that age, already mentioned,
he was educated for a goldsmith, and learned to
design and model correctly. Francesco’s master
in the arts of working in gold and niello* was a
certain Francia, whose name, in affectionate grati-
tude to his memory, he afterwards adopted, signed
it on his pictures, and is better known by it than
by his own family name. Up to the age of forty,
Francesco Francia pursued his avocation of gold-
smith, and became celebrated for the excellence of
his workmanship in chasing gold and silver, and
the exquisite beauty and taste of his niellos. He
also excelled in engraving dies for coins and me-
dals, and was appointed superintendent of the mint
in his native city of Bologna, which office he held
till his death.
We are not told how the attention of Francia
was first directed to the art of painting. It is said
that the sight of a beautiful picture by Perugino
awakened the dormant talent; that he learned
drawing from Marco Zoppo, one of the numerous
pupils of Squarcione, and that for many months he
entertained in his house certain artists who initiated
* For an account of the art of working in niello, and the
invention to which it led, see p. 175.
207
names, we come to that of the greatest painter of
the early Bologna school, Francesco Raibolini.
He was born in 1450; being just four years
younger than his contemporary Perugino. Like
many other painters of that age, already mentioned,
he was educated for a goldsmith, and learned to
design and model correctly. Francesco’s master
in the arts of working in gold and niello* was a
certain Francia, whose name, in affectionate grati-
tude to his memory, he afterwards adopted, signed
it on his pictures, and is better known by it than
by his own family name. Up to the age of forty,
Francesco Francia pursued his avocation of gold-
smith, and became celebrated for the excellence of
his workmanship in chasing gold and silver, and
the exquisite beauty and taste of his niellos. He
also excelled in engraving dies for coins and me-
dals, and was appointed superintendent of the mint
in his native city of Bologna, which office he held
till his death.
We are not told how the attention of Francia
was first directed to the art of painting. It is said
that the sight of a beautiful picture by Perugino
awakened the dormant talent; that he learned
drawing from Marco Zoppo, one of the numerous
pupils of Squarcione, and that for many months he
entertained in his house certain artists who initiated
* For an account of the art of working in niello, and the
invention to which it led, see p. 175.