Paolo Emilio Besenzi

Paolo Emilio Besenzi spent his life in Reggio Emilia, the small city in northern Italy where he was born in 1608, and he worked there as painter, sculptor and architect all at once. He trained under Francesco Albani, a well-known Bolognese painter of graceful religious pictures, and kept company with the painter Lionello Spada.

Much of what he made was for local churches. In San Pietro in Reggio Emilia he left both paintings and sculpture, including a canvas of the martyrdom of Saints Placidus and Flavia and stucco figures set into the sacristy vault. He also designed the main altar of the church of Santa Maria Maddalena, since demolished, where he was buried after his death in 1656.