FURINI, Francesco. — Painter and poet, born in Florence c. 1600 and died in the same city on 15 Aug. 1646. He was a pupil of Passignano and Matteo Rosselli and a friend of Giovanni da S. Giovanni with whom he collaborated on the fresco of La Notte in the Casino Bentivoglio in Rome. A long sojourn in Venice gave his painting softness of shading and elegance of line.
In the first period of his activity he mainly treated mythological and profane subjects such as Nesso and Deianira in the Corsini Gallery in Florence and L’Ira e le Ninfe in the Pitti Gallery, a true masterpiece in which martial echoes are evident in the deep-blue tonality of the sky. From 1633 until his death, having become parish priest of S. Ansano del Mugello, he dealt with religious and allegorical themes in which, however, he could not conceal a certain coldness of feeling, as in the Madonna del Rosario in the church of S. Maria del Pozzo at Empoli (1634) and in the frescoes of a room in the Pitti Palace depicting Stories from the Life of St Lawrence (1636–37). Many of his drawings are preserved in the Uffizi. Various sonnets remain of his poetic activity.