PODESTI, FRANCESCO. - Painter, b. in Ancona on 21 March 1800, d. in Rome on 10 Feb. 1895. Having moved early to Rome, at S. Luca he was a pupil of Camuccini and of Landi, winning, while not yet twenty, the Canova prize which allowed him to make a study trip that was very profitable for him.
Extremely active, he painted a great number of pictures of sacred and profane subjects and of portraits, but above all he acquired fame as a fresco painter. Among his works executed in fresco, those deserving to be remembered are those of the church of the S.mo Sacramento in Ancona, of the basilica of S. Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome, of a hall of the Vatican, where he depicted the dogma of the Conception, of the old Palazzo Torlonia, later demolished, in Piazza Venezia, and of the villa of that princely house on the via Nomentana. After the first Neo-Daedalic expressions, P. oriented himself decisively toward the purist ones of Minardi, continuing to represent almost to the threshold of the 20th century the Roman Sulic and academic tradition in composed and cold altarpieces and in the same fresco decorations, not without sometimes a certain 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 particularly remembered for having built the Palazzo Marignoli al Corso and the complex of buildings constituting the Policlinico in Rome.
Bibliography
Emilio Lavagnino