Francesco Conti (14 March 1681,

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

– 8 December 1760, Florence) was an Italian

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

painter, primarily of religious scenes.

Biography

He was born to Carlo and Umiltà Ciabilli, and was probably a relative of the painter Giovanni Camillo Ciabilli.Biography
from the ''

Dizionario biografico degli italiani The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' () is a biographical dictionary published in 100 volumes by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1960 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biographies of distinguished Italia ...

'', vol. 28, @

Treccani Institute Giovanni Treccani for the publication of the Italian Encyclopedia (), also known as Treccani Institute or simply Treccani, is a cultural institution of national interest, active in the publishing field, founded by Giovanni Treccani ...

When or why he adopted the name "Conti" is unknown. His formative years were spent in the artistic circle of Simone Pignoni then, when he was eighteen, he went to Rome, where he was a student of

Giovanni Maria Morandi Giovanni Maria Morandi (30 April 1622 – 18 February 1717) was an Italian Baroque painter, known for altarpieces and portraits. Biography He was born in Florence. He studied art with Orazio Fidani and Giovanni Bilivert. Very few works dat ...

and

Carlo Maratta Carlo Maratta or Maratti (18 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian Baroque painter and Drawing, draughtsman, active principallly in Rome where he was the leading painter in the second half of the 17th century. He was a fresco and canvas painte ...

. He also painted portraits for the

Albani family The Albani were an aristocratic Roman family from the 16th to the 19th century. They were of Albanian origin and moved from northern Albania to Italy in the late 15th century. The Albani produced many high ranking figures of the Catholic Church ...

. In late 1700, he returned to Florence. He was supported then and throughout his career by the succeeding , who regularly commissioned paintings from him and provided a salary.Federico Berti, ''Francesco Conti'', Edifir, 2010

/ref> He produced his first known canvases in 1709, for the Riccardi pavilion. These depicted the virtues of Fame, Faith, and Peace and are among his very few secular works. Influenced by

Sebastiano Ricci Sebastiano Ricci (1 August 165915 May 1734) was an Italian Baroque painter of the late Baroque period in Venetian painting. About the same age as Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Tie ...

, he abandoned his Classical style in favor of

chiaroscuro In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

. Notable paintings from this period include a

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

for the parish church of Sant'Alessandro a Giogoli (1715), and a Saint Abundius for the (1729). Most of his works were

altarpiece An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, ...

s. In 1736,

Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Gian Gastone de' Medici (born Giovanni Battista Gastone; 25 May 1671 – 9 July 1737) was the seventh and last Medicean grand duke of Tuscany. He was the second son of Grand Duke Cosimo III and Marguerite Louise d'Orléans. His sister, Elect ...

, appointed him master of drawing for the children of his gallery architects, preparatory to the

Accademia delle Arti del Disegno The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno ("Academy of the Arts of Drawing") is an academy of artists in Florence, in Italy. It was founded on 13 January 1563 by Cosimo I de' Medici, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. It was initially known as ...

, of which he was already a member. The appointment was confirmed the following year by the new Grand Duke, François Étienne of Lorraine. Among his pupils was Anna Bacherini Piattoli.Profile of Anna Bacherini Piattoli
in the ''Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800''. His masterpiece is generally considered to be the ''Madonna and Child with Saint Sylvester I, Saint Paul and

Saint Catherine of Alexandria Catherine of Alexandria, also spelled Katherine, was, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess a ...

'' (1738), which was commissioned for the Church of Sant'Andrea by the . In his later years, he was also active in

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

Gallery

Image:004.Francesco Conti - Allegoria della musica.jpg,

Allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

of Music Image:Francesco Conti - Crocifissione.jpg, The

Crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being crucifixion, nailed to a cross.The instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus f ...

, with the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

at the bottom Image:Francesco Conti - Death of King Josiah.jpg, The death of King

Josiah Josiah () or Yoshiyahu was the 16th king of Judah (–609 BCE). According to the Hebrew Bible, he instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Until the 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah’s ...

Image:Francesco Conti - Return to Nazareth from Egypt.jpg, The

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on,Ainsworth, 122 but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de La ...

returns to

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

File:Francesco conti, santa lucia.jpg,

Saint Lucy Lucia of Syracuse ( – 304 AD), also called Saint Lucia () and better known as Saint Lucy, was a Roman people, Roman Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution. She is venerated as a saint in Catholic Church, Catholic, Angl ...

File:Conti francesco-allegoria della scultura.jpg, Allegory of Culture File:Francesco conti, compianto sul cristo morto, 01.jpg,

Lamentation A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

of the dead

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conti, Francesco 1681 births 1760 deaths 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 18th-century Italian painters Painters from Florence Pupils of Carlo Maratta 18th-century Italian male artists