Franco Bolognese (14th century) was an Italian painter, active as a miniature painter ( illuminator). He is said to have trained under

Oderisi da Gubbio Oderisi da Gubbio (Gubbio, circa 1240 - Rome, 1299) was an Italian painter and manuscript illuminator of the 13th century. Few details of his life are known. Documents to his activities in Bologna span from 1262 to 1271. In 1292, he was called to ...

. In conjunction with that master and

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/ Proto-Renaissance period. G ...

, he was employed by Pope Boniface VIII to illustrate several books, now in the library of the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

. Though inferior to Giotto,

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

gives him a higher rank in the ''Purgatorio'' (xi. 83). Franco Bolognese was the founder of a school of painters at

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, and instructed, amongst others,

Vitale da Bologna 250px, ''St. George and the Dragon'' Vitale da Bologna (–1360), also known as Vitale di Aymo de' Cavalli or Vitale degli Equi, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He is a representative of the 14th century school of painting ...

, Lorenzo, Simone Jacopo, and

Cristoforo da Bologna Cristoforo da Bologna was an Italian painter. He was active in Bologna, Modena, and Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. ...

In literature

Franco B. is praised to be better than his teacher, Oderisi, in

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature ...

by Oderisi himself.

Sources

References

Trecento painters Italian male painters Painters from Bologna {{Italy-painter-stub