ALBANI, FRANCESCO

FRANCESCO ALBANI. — Painter, born in Bologna on 17 March 1578, died there on 4 October 1660. Together with Guido Reni, he first studied under Calvaert and then at the Accademia dei Carracci, becoming a collaborator of theirs. He worked in Rome from about 1600 until 1616, when he returned to Bologna. Albani is particularly renowned for his idyllic and mythological subjects (e.g., *Danza degli Amori* in the Brera Gallery), treated with a certain sugary sweetness and preciosity. Among his sacred paintings, notable for a fresh and serene quality, we may recall *The Baptism of Christ* in the Pinacoteca of Bologna, *SS. Giovanni e Rocco* in the Collegiata of Persiceto, and *The Infant Jesus to Whom the Passion is Announced* in the church of Galliera. In Rome he painted in S. Maria della Pace, S. Giacomo degli Spagnoli, and the Palazzo Verospi gallery. He also engaged in questions of artistic theory and around 1635 began a treatise in collaboration with O. Zamboni; Malvasia, who shared Albani’s theoretical outlook, reported on it, publishing some extracts.