FRANCESCO PODESTI. — Painter, born in Ancona on 21 March 1800, died in Rome on 10 February 1895. Having moved early to Rome, he was a pupil at the Accademia di S. Luca under Camuccini and Landi, winning, while still not twenty years old, the Canova Prize which enabled him to undertake an extremely profitable study trip.
Very active, he painted a large number of works on sacred and profane subjects and portraits, but above all he gained fame as a fresco painter. Among his frescoed works worthy of note are those in the church of the Santissimo Sacramento in Ancona, in the basilica of S. Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome, in a hall of the Vatican where he depicted the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, in the old Palazzo Torlonia (later demolished) in Piazza Venezia, and in the villa of that princely house on the via Nomentana. After his initial neoclassical expressions, P. decisively oriented himself toward the purist style of Minardi, continuing almost to the threshold of the 20th century to represent the Roman academic and classical tradition in measured and cold altarpieces and in fresco decorations, not without occasional grandeur. As often happens among painters of his standing, he gave his best in portraits, which are 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 on the Corso and the complex of buildings constituting the Policlinico in Rome.