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(b Florence, Nov 17, 1666; d Rome, June 17, 1724).

Italian painter, draughtsman, collector, dealer and teacher. He was one of the most significant and influential artists active in Rome in the first quarter of the 18th century. The son of a Florentine artisan, he trained in his native city under the direction of Anton Domenico Gabbiani and thoroughly absorbed the style of Pietro da Cortona and his late Baroque successors. In 1690 he left Florence for Rome, where in 1692 he made his artistic début in the annual St Bartholomew’s Day exhibition with a monumental painting of God Cursing Cain after the Murder of Abel (Kedleston Hall, Derbys). He quickly rose to prominence and in 1694 was elected to the Accademia di S Luca. He produced a variety of works for the leading Roman families—the Torri, Colonna, Pallavicini, Barberini and Odescalchi—and enjoyed the patronage of Pope Clement XI, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, Cardinal Carlo Agosto Fabbroni and Padre Antonin Cloche, Master General of the Dominican Order. He was invited to participate in the most important papal commission to painters in Rome in the first quarter of the 18th century, that for the series of Old Testament prophets above the nave arcade in S Giovanni in Laterano; his contribution was ...

(b Verona, April 30, 1663; d Verona, Jan 27, 1738).

Italian painter and agent. He is traditionally believed to have trained with Biagio Falcieri (1628–1703). At the age of 17 he moved to Bologna, where he entered the workshop of Carlo Cignani. His first commission after his return to Verona was for the fresco decoration of the vault of S Domenico (1687), with scenes glorifying the saint, set in a quadratura framework by Carlo Tedesco. The style is heavily Baroque. In 1690–91 Marchesini painted a Jonah for S Niccolò, Verona; this remains within a Veronese tradition, whereas his Assumption of the Virgin for S Biagio (1692; Breonio, SS Marziale e Giovanni) and his Purification of the Virgin (1699; Verona, Pal. Scaligero, Notai Chapel) contain references to the Bolognese art of the Carracci.

In 1700 Marchesini moved to Venice, where he painted two works (untraced) for S Silvestro. He remained in Venice until 1737 and specialized in making small-scale copies of works by the Old Masters to decorate private houses, thereby imitating a wide variety of styles. His most memorable independent works are the two paintings of ...

Italian family of patrons and collectors. Members of the family held important political positions in Florence, especially during the 15th century. One of their most important acts of patronage, recorded by Vasari, was the commissioning by Roberto Martelli (1408–64) of several sculptures from Donatello, including the famous statue of St John the Baptist as a Youth (c. 1455; Florence, Bargello). Although the accuracy of Vasari’s information has been questioned, some recently discovered unpublished documents have enabled a partial confirmation of the attribution (see Civai, 1988–9, pp. 40–59; 1989). During the 16th century the family gave important commissions to Lorenzo di Credi, Giorgio Vasari, Andrea Sansovino and Giovanni Francesco Rustici in connection with the decoration of family chapels in the basilica of S Lorenzo and the churches of S Frediano in Florence and S Agostino in Rome. In the 17th century the Martelli constructed their sumptuous chapel (...

(b Rome, Jan 14, 1671; d La Granja de San Ildefonso, June 24, 1734).

Italian painter, draughtsman and architect. A pupil of Carlo Maratti, he is first documented in 1702, among the restorers of Raphael’s fresco decorations (1511–14) in the Vatican. His Tarquinius and Lucretia (c. 1705; Holkham Hall, Norfolk) has cold colours and unnatural gestures that recall Guido Reni. Appointed by Pope Clement XI, between 1710 and 1717 Procaccini supervised the tapestry factory in S Michele a Ripa: the Purification of the Virgin (Rome, Vatican, Consistory Hall) is the only extant tapestry made from a cartoon (untraced) by Maratti and an oil painting (untraced) by Procaccini. The Baptism of Cornelius Centurion (1711; Urbino, S Francesco) for the Baptism Chapel in St Peter’s, Rome, was previously attributed to Maratti or Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari, but Procaccini apparently based it on sketches supplied by Maratti, who also supervised and revised the work before it was displayed. Pope Pius V Triumphant over the Turks...