A pupil of Carlo Cignani, with whom he worked in Bologna and Parma, Franceschini did not follow his master when he moved to Forlì and preferred to keep on working in his native town, opening his own studio. After the initial strong influence of Cignani on his style, Franceschini moved toward a classicism influenced by Poussin, Reni and Francesco Albani. Franceschini had a long career, painting canvases on religious and mythological subjects for patrons in Bologna, Genoa, Rome and Vienna. Numerous painters worked and trained in his studio; among them Giacomo Boni, Francesco Caccianiga, Antonio Cifrondi, Ercole Graziani the elder, and Giuseppe Marchesi, called il Sansone.