Room 2

Alessandro Franchi is considered the most important painter from Prato in the 19th century. He was born near Porta Santa Trinita on the 15th May 1838, showing aptitude in the arts since he was an adolescent: therefore, his first drawing teacher Alessandro Ferrarini, together with Cesare Guasti, strove for his school enrolment to the Accademia di Belle Arti in Siena, thanks to a scholarship granted by the Municipality (1853). There, Luigi Mussini was his master: it was he who led the young Franchi to Purism and to the 15th and 16th century art revival.

Professor in 1868 and then director of the Sienese Accademia, Franchi devoted himself to religious art, especially in Siena and Prato, where he painted the Old Testament Stories in the Vinaccesi Chapel of the Cathedral. He was known both in Italy and abroad particularly for his portraiture, characterized by the idea of art as expression of moral beauty. He lived mostly in Siena, where he died on the 24th April 1914, but he had a lifelong relationship with Prato, offering in 1911 nearly 400 artworks – cartoons, sketches, drawings – to his hometown. Some of these are on display on the third floor in Palazzo Pretorio Museum.