Nasini, Giuseppe Niccolo

Nasini, Giuseppe Niccolo an Italian painter who devoted himself largely to religious art, was born at Siena, according to Della Valle, in 1664. He first studied under his father Francesco, an artist of little note, but afterwards entered the school of Ciro Ferri, and became one of his ablest disciples. He was deficient in correctness of design and dignity of character, but possessed a fertile imagination, and a resolute and commanding execution, which peculiarly qualified him for grand fresco works. At the recommendation of Ciro Ferri, he was employed by the grand-duke of Tuscany to paint in the Palazzo Pitti, from the designs of P. da Cortona, the Four Ages of Man, in emblematical subjects, which he finished to the satisfaction of his employer. There are many of his subjects at Siena, Foligno, and Florence, among which his masterpiece is supposed to be the St. Leonardo, in Madonna del Pianto, at Foligno. At Rome he was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Capella Bracciana, the church de SS. Apostolis, and the large Prophets of the Lateran Cathedral, competing with Luti and the first artists then at Rome. Bartsch mentions a print by Nasini, representing the Virgin and the In-fants Jesus and John in a landscape, with cherubs flying in the air; designed in the style of Ciro Ferri, and engraved with great delicacy, in the mannler of P. S. Bartoli. Nasini died in 1736.