Francesco Nenci

Alceo and Sappho in Elysium - Etching by Francesco Nenci - 1805

1805

Francesco Nenci was an Italian painter, mainly of historic and sacred subjects in a Neoclassical style. While his first education was in Città di Castello, he then enrolled at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under Pietro Benvenuti. Nenci then briefly moved to Brera Academy, where he won prizes in 1805 and 1809 for Sappho and Alcaeus in Elysium and the oil canvas of Zenobia Found by the Arasse River, respectively. In 1806, he won a prize at the Academy of Florence for Achille Swears Revenge for the death of Patroclus. Nenci obtained a stipend from the Napoleonic administration to study in Rome, where he painted Ajace Telamonio che vuol salvarsi dalla tempesta (1814); Il pastore che toglie il fanciullo Edipo dall’ albero ove era stato appeso (1815); and Virgin in prayer with putti (1816). Back in Florence, he painted an Assumption of the Virgin in the Chapel of the Villa Poggio Imperiale. Among other works, he was commissioned a canvas of the Martyrdom of Saint Irene for the church of San Paolo Maggiore, Naples. Nenci painted frescoes from the stories of Homer in Villa Bianchi outside of Siena. Finally, in 1833, he painted large canvases for the Hall of Ulysses in the Palazzo Pitti. Nenci was also involved in engravings for books. He illustrated in engraving a mezzo macchia the edition of Dante by Ancora (Florence, 1817). Nenci also engraved illustrations for an edition of the Iliad published by Batelli in Florence in 1838. Nenci taught at the Academy of Siena and became director in 1827 when Giuseppe Collignon resigned.