Francesco Albani or Albano (17 March or 17 August 1578 - 4 October 1660) was an Italian Baroque painter.

Born 1578 in Bologna, he had a father who was a silk merchant and who intended to instruct his son in the same trade; but by age twelve, Albani became an apprentice under the competent mannerist painter Denis Calvaert, where he met Guido Reni. Soon he followed Reni to the so-called "Academy" run by the Carracci family: Annibale, Agostino, and Ludovico. This studio fostered the careers of many painters of the Bolognese school, including Domenichino, Massari, Viola, Lanfranco, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Pietro Faccini, Remigio Cantagallina, and Reni.

In the year 1600, Albani moved to Rome to work in the fresco d...