Francesco Laurana

(properly, Franjo from Vrana, or Franjo Vranjanin). Born circa 1430, in Zadar or Vrana, near Zadar, Croatia; died 1502, in Avignon (?). Italian early Renaissance sculptor.

Laurana left Dalmatia and worked in Naples, Sicily, and France. He executed multifigured reliefs for the triumphal gate of the Castel Nuovo in Naples (c. 1452–58, with others) for Alfonso of Aragon. He created portrait medals in the spirit of Pisanello for King René of Anjou (1461–66) and the sculptured decor of the St. Lazare Chapel in the Old Cathedral in Marseille (1475–81). Laurana also executed marble portrait busts of the princesses of the Aragon dynasty; the keenly captured individual features, generalized modeling, and elegant lines suggest the sculptor’s possible acquaintance with the work of Desiderio da Settignano and Antonio Rossellino.