# Pier Francesco Mola artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/pier-francesco-mola/
Profile generated: 2026-05-23T12:46:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Death date: 1666-05-13
- Nationality: Italian
- Movements: High Baroque
- Common media: oil painting, fresco, etching, drawing

## About Pier Francesco Mola

Pier Francesco Mola (1612–1666), known as Il Ticinese, was an Italian Baroque painter, fresco artist, etcher, and draftsman active primarily in Rome during the High Baroque period. Born in Coldrerio in the Ticino region and trained in Northern Italy, Mola developed a distinctive style that favored looser brushwork, naturalistic color, and atmospheric landscape elements over the strict classicism championed by contemporaries such as Andrea Sacchi. He received major Roman commissions, including his celebrated fresco depicting Joseph making himself known to his Brethren (1657) in the Quirinal Palace Gallery of Alexander VII. While respected as a frescoist, Mola is widely regarded as strongest in small-scale cabinet pictures and landscape compositions, which display a poetic and intimate quality. Collectors today encounter his work across paintings, drawings, and etchings, with holdings represented in major European museums and libraries.

## Common works and media

Mola's output includes oil paintings on canvas and panel (often mythological, biblical, or landscape subjects), monumental frescoes in Roman palaces, pen-and-wash drawings, and etchings. His landscapes typically feature figures set within atmospheric, wooded, or mountainous scenery. Small-scale cabinet paintings and oil sketches of pastoral and narrative themes are among the most frequently encountered work types at auction.

## Market and appraisal context

Mola's works appear on the market as oil paintings, preparatory oil sketches, drawings, and etchings, primarily within Old Master sale categories. Attribution can be complex, as workshop productions and follower works in the Roman Baroque circle are sometimes catalogued under his name. Key valuation factors include whether the piece is an autograph work by Mola himself, its medium and scale, provenance history, and condition. His landscape-themed cabinet pictures are particularly sought after. RKD documents over 760 image entries associated with the artist, indicating a substantial body of extant work. Collectors should rely on specialist Old Master appraisal and published catalogue references when evaluating attribution and value.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine structured artist identity research from library authorities and museum databases with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Pier Francesco Mola, identity data is sourced from the Getty ULAN, VIAF, RKD, and Wikidata authority files.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1192715
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_Francesco_Mola
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500025440
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/66735480/
- RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History): https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/56611
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr88005819