Niccolò Franchini (1704-1783) was an Italian painter, active in Siena, depicting mainly religious canvases in a late-Baroque style.Niccolò Franchini (1704-1783) was an Italian painter, active in Siena, depicting mainly religious canvases in a late-Baroque style.
The Bichi Chapel of the Church of Sant'Agostino has an altarpiece of San Cristoforo (1755) that replaced the former triptych by Luca Signorelli.[1] He also has works in the church of San Giorgio in Siena.[2] He also painted the ceiling of the oratory of the painters guild in Siena, adjacent to the church of San Vigilio.[3] He painted a Return of Pope Gregory XI to Rome with Catherine of Siena once in the Oratory of the Santissimo Crocefisso in Siena.[4]
Luigi Lanzi in his exhaustive review of Italian painters places him at the end of the decline in Sienese painters, citing only praises in his roles as a restorer:[5]
in restoring injured specimens to their original beauty, without applying to them a fresh pencil, and in supplying the faded colours with others taken from paintings of less value, he entitled himself, in fact, to the praise of a new discovery.