Born 1612 in Coldrerio in the Ticino, died 1666 in Rome. He was the son of the architect Giovanni Battista, with whom he moved to Rome when he was four. His teachers were Prospero Orsi and Giuseppe Cesari, called Cavalier d’Arpino. Between 1633 and 1647 he went to northern Italy. In Bologna he worked for two years in the workshop of Francesco Albani, in Venice he came under the influence of Titian, Veronese and the Bassanos. In 1641 he painted in the Oratorio del Carmine in his native town and returned to Rome in 1647, where he received commissions from members of the Roman families of Pamphilj, Chigi and Costaguti, from Cardinal Omodei and others. In 1662 he became head of the Accademia di San Luca. In 1656 he secured a commission for the frescoes in the Quirinal Palace through the intercession of Pietro da Cortona. Mola’s work ranges from commissions for large canvases to small paintings, which are characteristic of him and include biblical, mythological, poetic and allegorical motifs. These are depictions of landscapes into which he set small figures of saints and hermits. Mola’s work was already appreciated during his lifetime, especially in Paris and at the French court, which was about to appoint him court painter when death overtook him.
Lit.: Pier Francesco Mola: 1612-1666, Milano 1989 [ex. cat., Lugano, Museo Cantonale d'Arte; Roma, Musei Capitolini]; Seicento, Vol. I-II, Milano 1989, (biogr. Laura Laureati).