Baldassarre Franceschini (1611–1690)

• Called Il Volterrano after his birthplace Volterra and, to distinguish him from Ricciarelli.
• Il Volterrano Giuniore was an Italian late Baroque painter and draughtsman active principally around Florence and Volterra.
• He was mainly known for his frescoes, altarpieces and easel paintings for churches and palaces in Florence, Volterra and Rome.
• He was born in Volterra as the son of the sculptor Gaspare.
• At an early age, he worked as an assistant to his father and subsequently apprenticed with the Florentine artist Cosimo Daddi in Volterra.
• The Marquese Inghirami placed him, at the age of sixteen, under the Florentine painter Matteo Rosselli.
• Franceschini received his first major commission from Don Lorenzo de' Medici, who asked him to decorate the courtyard of Villa La Petraia with scenes illustrating the history of the Medici family.
• This project took 12 years to complete, but secured his reputation among the most important Florentine families as the city's most important fresco painter.
• Among his pupils were Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi, Antonio Franchi, Benedetto Orsi, Michelangelo Palloni, Domenico Tempesta, and Cosimo Ulivelli.

• Franceschini died of apoplexy at Volterra on 6 January 1689.

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