FRANSIOLI, Father Joseph

Father Joseph [Giuseppe] Fransioli (1817-1890) was the parish priest of St. Peter’s Church, at the corner of Hicks and Warren Streets, Brooklyn, and apparently it became under his guidance one of the important and wealthiest parishes in Brooklyn.  He was born in Dalpe, in the Ticino in Switzerland on 30 November 1817, ordained a priest on June 7, 1840, and worked in Italy before coming to the United States, and died in Brooklyn 18 October 1890. The Church of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus & Mary was established by Father Francioli in 1882 as the Catholic Mission of the Italian Colony of the City of Brooklyn. This mission was the first Roman Catholic parish community established specifically for Italian immigrants in the Diocese of Brooklyn, which comprised the whole of Long Island, including the counties of Kings, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. Sacred Hearts was established as a national parish that served neighborhood parishioners but also welcomed all Italians. Initially, the new Italian parish occupied space belonging to St. Peter’s church, at the corner of Warren and Hicks Streets.

According to the New York Times, 24 November 1895 a statue was to be erected of Father Francioli in Brooklyn for which a subscription fund was raised.

According to The Brooklyn Eagle of Wednesday, October 29, 1890, Father Fransioli made a last Will on 30 September 1890 leaving his entire estate to his lawyer brother Augustus Fransioli. His other relatives were Florinda O’Brien, Mary Piccoli, Olympia Doyle and William J. Fransioli of 30 Third Place, and Alexandrina Fransioli of 482 Henry Street, all of Brooklyn. Helvetius, mCesar and Stefani Fransioli; Dina Roher and Enrichetta Grignardi, all of Canton Ticino in Switzerland; and Jospeh, Augustus, Attitio, Severino, Charles Walter, Pauli, Antoinetti, Asioli and Paulina Romoldi, of New York City.

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Dr. STEVEN JAFFE has provided an essay on Fransioli’s portraits, and the editor is grateful to him for discovering the reproduction of this version of Muller-Ury’s portraits of Fransioli:

“In 1889, a Brooklyn Daily Eagle description of Fransioli’s quarters in the Warren Street rectory noted that in the reception rooms “hang two or three fine oil paintings, which the priest brought with him from Italy, and a painting of himself.”  Upstairs in his study was “a beautiful painting by Miller of the Madonna and Child.  The artist is a friend of Father Fransioli and came to America from the priest’s native town in Switzerland.”  (“In a Clergyman’s Study,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle,  July 7 1889: p.12) The reporter was clearly referring to the painter Adolfo Muller-Ury (1862-1947), a Catholic native of Ticino (although from Airolo, not Fransioli’s home town of Dalpe) whose family had both German Swiss and Italian Swiss ancestry.  Muller-Ury, who over the course of his career variously signed his paintings “Adolph Muller,” “A. Lombardi-Muller,” “F. Adolphus Muller,” “A. Muller-Uri,” “Muller d’Uri,” “A. Muller-Ury,” and “A M Ury,” trained as an artist in Switzerland, Munich, Paris, and Rome.  In the latter city he painted portraits of cardinals and also possibly of Pope Leo XIII during the early 1880s.[

            In 1884 Muller-Ury immigrated to the United States.  Between 1885 and 1904 he occupied a studio on West 57^th Street in New York, although he also repeatedly returned to Europe.  His work included portraits of Popes Pius X, Benedict XV, and Pius XI, Theodore Roosevelt, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, the banker J. P. Morgan, the opera star Nellie Melba, and other European and American luminaries of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  Among his early surviving American portraits is one of a child, “Miss Brandeis” (dated 1885, now in the collection of the Newark Museum).  The subject is interesting since a family named Brandeis was active in the affairs of St. Peter’s parish.  In 1890, for example, “Mrs. L. Brandeis,” “Miss Leopold Brandeis,” “Miss M.C. Brandeis,” and George Brandeis were all involved in the planning for Fransioli’s jubilee. (“For a Jubilee,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 20, 1890: p. 4; “Father Fransioli’s Jubilee,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 9, 1890: p. 4.

            Muller-Ury seems to have painted Fransioli’s portrait more than once.  Although the artist responsible for the St. Peter’s rectory portrait is not named in the 1889 Daily Eagle article, a strong possibility exists that it was painted by Muller-Ury, who is mentioned in the article.  This may well be the portrait now in the Brooklyn Historical Society collection, which is dated “1885” by the Society.  In February 1890, however, as planning progressed for celebrating the pastor’s golden jubilee, Muller-Ury was busy painting a portrait of Fransioli.  The portrait, “valued at $1,000,” was displayed during the jubilee fair at the Academy of Music in May.  (“Father Fransioli’s Jubilee,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 9, 1890: p.4) By January 1891, following Fransioli’s death, the parlor room of the St. Peter’s Library Association included “a full figured portrait in oil of the late Father Fransioli… worth in itself some $500.”  (“A New Tribute,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 10, 1891: p.1.) Whether this was the 1885 or 1890 portrait is uncertain.

            In 1939, when St. Peter’s Hospital published a book celebrating the hospital’s 75^th anniversary, the volume included a black and white photograph of a painted portrait of “Reverend Father Joseph Franziola” [sic]; a detail of the painting was also reproduced in a 1953 centennial history of the Brooklyn Roman Catholic Diocese.  The painting is remarkably similar to the portrait in the Brooklyn Historical Society, yet there are also subtle differences.  While the pose and dress of Father Fransioli seem identical or nearly so, the chair back and drapery behind him, and the background coloring, appear different in the two paintings.  The modeling and position of Father Fransioli’s head may also be slightly different. “Reverend Father Joseph Franziola”: Diamond Jubilee, St. Peter’s Hospital: 1864-1939 (Brooklyn: 1939), n.p

            This suggests that Muller-Ury painted two nearly identical portraits of Fransioli (one in 1885 and one for the 1890 jubilee), with the current location of the one reproduced in 1939 unknown.  Further adding to the mystery of the 1939 portrait is the fact that the BHS portrait once hung in the foyer of St. Peter’s Hospital, before decorating the office of Charles Hamm when he was President of Independence Savings Bank.  Did St. Peter’s Hospital (now Cobble Hill Health Center) once possess both of these Muller-Ury portraits of Fransioli?  The surviving information allows for tantalizing speculation but no clear answer.”