Volterrano

Born in Volterra (Volterra 1611-Florence 1690), but Florentine by adoption and of art education, Baldassarre Franceschini was the main Baroque painter of the seventeenth-century Florence, the only one who knew how to interpret, in an original and not slavish, the language "modern" came to Florence from Rome with Pietro da Cortona. Protected by the Medici and the main families of Florence and Tuscany, in the time (and the most important religious orders), the Volterra had a long career, which lasted sixty years, crowned with important commissions, and public recognition. First of the Tuscan Grand Duchy in the capital to introduce the magnificence and grandeur of the Baroque capitol, the artist was able to develop its own version, do not forget the local tradition that saw a moment in the drawing creative imperative. The Volterra came under the Medici, receiving from Don Lorenzo, the brother of Grand Duke Cosimo II, the important task of decorating the courtyard of the villa Petraia. Since then, the career of the painter never stopped, studded with study trips in major art capitals (Parma, Bologna, Venice, Rome), in constant search of a language is always new and updated. The fruits of these multiple experiences are verifiable in both large complex frescoes, easel is in the works, in which the artist gave proof of a solid understanding of the sources of literature, history, myth, sacred texts