Italian painter of historical and genre subjects. He was a pupil of Agostino Lessi (1825-1899) and later of Raffaello Martini and Enrico Pollastrini (1817-1876). Saltini became a professor at the Academy of Florence.
Saltini specialised in and is highly regarded for his detailed genre and interior scenes. He made his name with his pictures of family gatherings with their feeling of togetherness.
A genre painter specialising in work of edifying moralism, Saltini enjoyed commercial success with quiet, domestic scenes characterized by effects of light and shadow. In this imaginary historical event, the painter evokes the atmosphere of fourteenth-century Italy. The great poet Petrarch, shown seated in the foreground in a red garb, presumably commissioned the artist Simone Memmi to draw a portrait of the poet’s beloved Laura, whose identity - if she ever actually existed - has never been established, but who served as his muse in many of his most beautiful love poems.
