Francesco Finocchiaro Biography
Francesco Paolo Finocchiaro (1868 - 1947) was born in Randazzo, Sicily. His training took place at the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples, under the guidance of a great master Domenico Morelli. He subsequently moved to Rome, where he remained for five years, establishing himself in portraiture. It is certain that he painted numerous portraits of notables of the time, ecclesiastics, nobles and ladies of the aristocracy. An important stage in the life of the young artist was the creation of the large canvas of the "Baptism of Jesus", placed in the Basilica of S. Maria, above the Baptismal Font, a work commissioned by the Archpriest of the time Don Francesco Fisauli in the year 1892, completed the following year and placed in Santa Maria in 1895. It is a copy of a pictorial work existing in the Ferrara Cathedral made by Prospero Piatti. The particular aspect of Finocchiaro's painting, or rather the reproductions of other paintings, certainly does not diminish its value. Finocchiaro spent his life traveling and had the opportunity to make numerous important friendships in Italy and abroad. He was a personal friend of the great journalist Luigi Barzini and of the Director of Corriere della Sera, Luigi Albertini. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century he moved to the United States of America and in 1902, in New York, he married Florence Angel Manson. The only child born from this union died very young, and in his memory Finocchiaro donated the sum necessary to purchase the operating room equipment to the Randazzo Hospital. Well introduced into the most prominent circles of American society, he had the opportunity to meet and associate with ambassadors, consuls and even Theodore and Eleanor Roosevelt, whose portraits he also painted. He thus had the opportunity to make a great fortune and once he returned to Italy he settled first in Rome, in Via Margutta, and then from 1930 in Taormina where he bought and managed a hotel until his death.
