thumb|right|Franciabigio's Portrait of a Young Man writing, 1522, [[Gemäldegalerie]]
Franciabigio (1482 – 24 January 1525) was an Italian painter of the Florentine Renaissance. His true name may have been Francesco di Cristofano; he is also referred to as either Marcantonio Franciabigio or Francia Bigio.
Life and career
He was born in Florence, and initially worked under Albertinelli until about 1506. In 1505 he befriended Andrea del Sarto; and by the next year, the two painters set up common shop in the Piazza del Grano. Franciabigio paid much attention to anatomy and perspective, and to the proportions of his figures, though these are often squat in form. He had a large stock of artistic knowledge, and was at first noted for diligence. He was proficient in fresco and Vasari claimed that he surpassed all his contemporaries in this method. It is in his portraits, and not his religious paintings and frescoes, that his painting gathers naturalistic power.
As years went on, and he received frequent commissions for all sorts of public painting for festive occasions, his diligence seemed to wane.
In 1513, in the cloister of the Annunziata he frescoed the Marriage of the Virgin, part of a larger series mainly directed by Andrea del Sarto, and overshadowed by the latter's masterpiece of Birth of the Virgin. Other artists working under Sarto at the cloister included Rosso Fiorentino, Pontormo, Francesco Indaco, and Baccio Bandinelli.