Innocenzo di Pietro Francucci da Imola


Innocenzo Francucci, generally known as Innocenzo da Imola, was an Italian painter and draftsman.

Biography

The son of a goldsmith named Pietro, he was born in Imola sometime around 1490. After presumably studying with his father in Imola, by 1506 he had moved to nearby Bologna to study painting. According to Carlo Cesare Malvasia he entered the studio of Francesco Francia in 1508. He later went to Florence where in 1510 he worked under the direction of Mariotto Albertinelli.
His earliest known works include The Virgin and Child with Saints Sebastian, Roch, Cosmas and Damian was signed and dated in 1515. The Virgin and Child with Saints John, Apollinaris and Catherine and a Bishop, signed and dated in 1516. This second painting is in Cásola Valsenio, near Bologna.
During his life he produced a series of religious frescoes and altarpieces, painted in a Raphaelesque manner. His only secular paintings are five mythological frescoes in the Palazzina della Viola in Bologna. He trained artists such as Francesco Primaticcio, Prospero Fontana, and Pietro Lamo. The Church of Santa Maria Dei Servi in Bologna has interior paintings by Francucci.
Francucci died in Bologna around 1550.

Known works

and Peter Benedict, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna