ALBANI or ALBANO, FRANCESCO Italian painter, was born at Bologna. His first master was Denis Calvert, with whom Guido Reni was at the same time a pupil. He was soon left by Calvert entirely to the care of Guido whom he followed to the school of the Caracci. Albani opened an academy in Rome, where he resided for many years. Here he painted, after the designs of Annibal Caracci, the whole of the frescoes in the chapel of San Diego in the church of San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli. His best frescoes are those on mythological subjects, of which there is a large number in the Verospi, now Torlonia Palace. A number of his works are at Bologna, and others at Florence, the Louvre, Dresden and Leningrad.