FRANCIA, FRANCESCO, the name by which Francesco Raibolinl is known, and which he wrote upon his works, after the name of his master the goldsmith. Fronde is one of the most celebrated of the Italian painters, and the most perfect iu his style, the imticcemoderno,' or that transition style between the comparatively meagre works of tho most distinguished early masters and the fully-developed form and character of the works of Raffaele and his great contemporaries. Ho was born at Bologna about 1450, and lie died there, according to a document discovered by Calvi, on the 6th of January 1518. Vssari says that he died of vexation upon seeing the St. Cecilia of Raffnele, which was consigned to him in Bologna for the church of San Oiovanui; but, as he wse sixty-eight years of age, there appears to be little necessity for assigning any such cause for his death. Fraucia was by education a goldsmith and a die• and niello-engraver, and he is sup posed to have taken up painting at a comparatively late period : ho must however have had some reputation as a painter in 1490, as he was then employed on extensive works in the I'alazzo Bentivoglio at Bologna. Ile was an admirable colourist, and the greatest master of
Bologna before the Corned. Ile signed himself Aurifex' on his paintings, and 'Pictor ' ou his jewellery. The two pictures by him in the National Gallery are admirabio specimens of his style, and perhaps more perfect individual specimens than any other of the foreign pictures In the collection : they originally formed an altarpiece in the Buonvisi chapel, in the church of San Fridiano, Lucca, whence they !mad into the Duke of Luceie collection, and were eventually purchased for the nation in 1840 for 35001.