The Roman family branch of the Allegrini began around 1601, with the move from Umbria to Rome of the painter Flaminio, born around 1587, presumably in Cantiano (PU). In 1613 the artist married Virginia, daughter of painter Giacomo Stella, and in the same year bought a house in Campo Marzio. Two years later his eldest daughter Flavia was born, followed by Brigida (1620), Francesco Maria (1623), and finally Anna Angelica (1626).

After spending a few years in Naples (between about 1617 and 1624), Flaminius lived permanently in the city of the popes from 1625 and, resided permanently in Trastevere, on Via Lungara, until his death in 1666.

His only son, Francesco Maria, who would follow in his footsteps as an artist, was born in Naples on May 31, 1623. His birth certificate was recently found in the Diocesan Historical Archives of the Neapolitan city (Nocella, 2023).

The family and professional history of the two Allegrini men was for some time linked to

a misinterpretation of their biographical data by some biographers and, subsequently, by much of the criticism.

An early monographic study of their activities (Nocella 2007), aimed to distinguish true news from hypothetical and in many cases false reconstructions.

Thanks to the documentation then found, it was possible to better delineate both artistic personalities defining better, the history of the family.

Thus the biographer Baldinucci, in his biography of Francesco:

[…] his father Flamminio, who lived in Cantiano, was a painter; and observing Francesco’s talent with the passage of time, he wanted him to put himself under the teachings of Cavalier Giuseppe d’Arpino, thus becoming a good painter.”

Following the death of Cavalier d’Arpino in 1640, Francesco continued his apprenticeship in the workshop of Pietro da Cortona, a painter whose style was popular in Rome at the time and thanks to whom he obtained a number of important commissions in the capital in later years.

In 1644 two figures fundamental to his career in Rome and Gubbio became bishop and pope, respectively. On March 14, in fact, Monsignor Alessandro Sperelli, born in Assisi (1589-1672), was appointed by popular will bishop of Gubbio, and on September 15 the Cardinal of Gubbio origin Giovan Battista Pamphilj was elected pope, with the name Innocent X (1574-1655).

Thanks to these relationships, Francis would obtain his most important commissions. For Sperelli, almost certainly known in Rome, he would execute the decoration of the Chapel of the Sacrament in Gubbio Cathedral between 1652 and 1654, and more than twenty years later he would direct the work on the church of the Madonna del Prato, a magnificent copy of Borromini’s San Carlino alle Quattro Fontane.

On June 13, 1655, the painter became a member of the Accademia di San Lucaand shortly thereafter received a commission for frescoes to be painted in seven rooms of Palazzo Pamphilj in Piazza Navona, among which is his undisputed masterpiece, namely the Room with the Stories of Aeneas and Dido, corresponding to the bedroom of Innocent X.

His long activity divided between Rome, where he worked between about 1645 and 1660, and Gubbio, where he is

documented beginning in 1652.

In the Parish Registers of Santa Dorotea, his presence in Rome is documented from 1650 to 1652, from 1655 to 1661 and finally in the last two years of his life, that is, between 1682 and 1684.  It can be assumed that, before 1650, Francis lived nearby and, following his marriage to Margherita De Rubeis (c. 1630 – ante 1684), moved to live with his parents. Until 1661, the painter’s two daughters, Flavia Domitilla (1649-ante1684) and Silvia Dorotea (1651-post 1684), who, presumably in the very same year, entered the Eugubine monastery of Santa Lucia, are also documented in Rome.

Between 1653 and 1654 the painter lived in Gubbio, as the frescoes in the cathedral show.

A 1656 Gubbio document in which Allegrini is listed as “abitante in Gubbio…,” substantiates his movements between Gubbio and Rome, which continued after 1661.

Around 1665 Francesco worked at the Villa Giraud in Rome and presumably returned to the Urbe again in the following year, in August due to the death of his father and the sale of his father’s house to his sister Brigida.

It is possible to divide Allegrini’s artistic career into four phases:

  • 1645-52 ca: “first Roman phase,” in which, having finished his two apprenticeships with Cavalier d’Arpino and Pietro da Cortona later, he painted two canvases for Santa Maria dell’Umiltà and frescoed the Moses Room at Palazzo Altieri;
  • c. 1652-55: “first Eugubine period,” engaged in the important decoration of the Sacrament Chapel of the Cathedral,
  • 1655-1660: “second Roman phase,” in which he is active in the chapel of St. Alexander at Ss. Cosmas and Damian, and in a series of noble palaces such as that of the Pamphilj and Costaguti families;
  • c. 1661-1682: “second Eugubine period,” in which he is consecrated the greatest local painter. The decoration of the church of Madonna del Prato, as well as numerous canvases for the most important noble families of Gubbio, including the Ranghiasci, Franciarini, Beni and Pieri, document his important work for private commissions.

Allegrini returned to Rome in 1682, probably after December 9, as a Eugubinian document regarding a commission for the painter or for other imported painters would show that the now elderly master was still in Gubbio on that date.

During an illness that lasted more than a month, he dictated his will on July 11, 1684, and died in Rome on July 21. As per his will, the body was laid to rest in the Trastevere church of Santa Maria della Scala.

Manuela Nocella