Francesco Rosa (1638-died 1687)

• Was an Italian painter.
• He was born in Rome on 25 November 1638.
• Son of Giovanni and Giovanna Romani.
• At the age of twelve, when he was an orphan of both parents, attended the Roman College.

• His first training was with the not otherwise known "Placido Palermitano".

• After Rosa entered the workshop of Giovanni Angelo Canini.

• Rosa's public debut in Rome took place between 1660 and 1663 in the church of S. Rocco a Ripetta and in the chapel of S. Apollonia in S. Agostino.

• "At the age of 25" the painter married Ortensia Succi. 

• In the mid-1660's Rosa had a significant support of powerful patrons gravitating around the circuit of Fabio Chigi and Cristina of Sweden, as the cardinals Luigi Alessandro Omodei and Camillo Massimo.

• The Artist entry in 1673 the Academy of S. Luca.

• For the Chapel of the Virtuosi at the Pantheon Rosa painted in oil on canvas the Moses.

• The most important public commission of Rosa was the great altarpiece with the Miracle of Our Lady of Monserrato for the high altar of the Spanish church of S. Maria in Monserrato (1674-75). 

• Rosa died in Rome on November 26, 1687, at the age of forty-nine, following a "malignant fever". 

• His wife Ortensia and his three children survived, Marta, Sigismondo and Fabio.

• There are very few works by Sigismondo.

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