FRANCESCHINI, MARCANTONIO

born 1648, Bologna, Papal States died 1729, Bologna Italian painter, a leading artist of the Bolognese school of the Baroque period. Franceschini worked in Genoa, Modena, and Rome as well as in Bologna and worked extensively for patrons in Austria and Germany. He was made director of the Clementina Academy in Bologna in 1721. Franceschini was the last important representative of the tradition of the Carracci; the works of Lodovico Carracci and Francesco Albani are the main sources of his style. His figures, brushwork, and colouring are unimaginative and unoriginal, but he had a gift for skillfully arranging an elaborate composition and demonstrated considerable talent as a decorator. His paintings in both oils and fresco are numerous, though little known; the most famous frescoes, which were done for the Church of Corpus Domini, Bologna (168794), were destroyed during World War II.