PODESTI, FRANCESCO. - Painter, born in Ancona on 21 March 1800, died in Rome on 10 February 1895. Having moved to Rome at an early age, he was a pupil of Camuccini and Landi at S. Luca, winning, while not yet twenty, the Canova prize, which enabled him to undertake a journey of study that proved highly profitable for him.
Exceptionally active, he painted a great number of pictures on sacred and secular subjects, as well as portraits; above all, however, he gained fame as a fresco painter. Among his fresco works, mention should be made of those in the church of the Most Holy Sacrament in Ancona, in the basilica of S. Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome, in a room of the Vatican, where he depicted the dogma of the Conception, in the former Palazzo Torlonia, subsequently demolished, in Piazza Venezia, and in the villa of that princely family on the via Nomentana. After his earliest Neoclassical expressions, P. turned decidedly towards Minardi’s Purist style, continuing to represent, almost until the threshold of the 20th century, the Roman courtly and academic tradition in measured and cold altarpieces and in the fresco decorations themselves, not sometimes lacking in grandeur. As often happens among painters of his rank, he gave his best in portraits, correct and dignified.
GIULIO P., son of Francesco (Rome 1857-1909), was an architect of some merit. He is remembered particularly for having built the Palazzo Marignoli on the Corso and the complex of buildings constituting the Policlinico in Rome.