Born in 1734 in the marble city of
Carrara and trained there, Francesco Antonio Franzoni settled in
Rome in the 1760s and established a workshop that specialised in the restoration of antique
Roman sculpture, for which there was an insatiable demand, scarcely supplied by redoubled efforts at excavations. He worked on restoring, completing and refinishing sculptures destined for the
Museo Pio-Clementino and provided marble revetments and sculptural details for its interiors, notably the
biga (two-horse chariot) assembled in 1788 from antique elements, in the
sala del Biga of the Braccio Nuovo. He worked for
Pope Pius VI, for whom he filled a room with animal sculptures, some made up from antique fragments, in the
Palazzetto del Belvedere; he also worked for the papal family at
Palazzo Braschi. He died in Rome in 1818. == See also ==