Antonio Marini was born in Prato on the 27th May 1788, son of Michele Marini and Maria Domenica Lotti. In 1808, after studying in Prato at the school of design and architecture with Luigi Nuti and Gaetanto Magherini, he attended the Academy of Florence, where he was taught by Pietro Ermini and Pietro Benvenuti. In 1812 he was awarded a prize for the design of invention, with the subject representing the magnanimity of Scipione in the Spagne. Three years later he won another award for a sketch painted in oils, depicting Mercury putting Argon to sleep. In 1816 he became friends with the Pratese Giuseppe Castagnoli, who taught ornate insignia and perspective within the "Accademia Fiorentina". From him Marini learnt the art of fresco techniques, working on various decorations and figures. In 1818 Marini had been entrusted to paint the carriage belonging to the Grand Duke, which was used for special events. Prince Niccolò Estherazy particularly appreciated his painting on the pediment of the door of "Pitti Palace", and invited him to Vienna to fresco a room in his palace. It was here, that he appropriated the art of lithography and was the first to practise it in Tuscany. In 1822 Marini frescoed two of the halls in the Martelli Palace in Florence; one represented Donatello in his workshop, the other showed the Duke D'Angiò. Together with his historical subjects of a romantic taste, he also painted mythological subjects: Zefiro e Flora (in Poggio Imperiale); Pomona with a cupid and flying Minerva (in two crossing vaults in Pitti Palace). He had the prestigious work of frescoing some of the rooms within the "Reale Istituto della Santissima Annunziata" and the palaces of the Marquis Pucci and the Giuntini family. In Colle Val d'Elsa he decorated the theatre and two chapels in the Cathedral. In 1830, he decorated the Metastasio Theatre in Prato, designed by Luigi Cambray Digny: which at that time, were the curtain and parapets of the boxes. Within Prato, he also worked in the houses of Gaetano Magnolfi and Benassa, and painted an altar piece with Saint Barnaba, in the Chapel of the Hospital. From 1832 to 1834, he worked in Livorno (at Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's Churches) and in Montecatini, where he frescoed the "Chiesa dei Bagni" (Church of the Baths). In 1847 he made the templates for the mosaic on the floor of the Galileo alla Specola; and he painted the altar piece representing the Apparition of Mary (for Sainta Maria delle Carceri, in Prato). Amongst his main works from 1858-59, we should mention the portraits for the Capitolo (Chapter) Hall in Prato, the Crucifixion for Cesare Guasti, the Christ of the eggs (the joke that Brunelleschi made to Donatello) and the Madonna of the Symbols for Leopoldo II. In 1858-59, he frescoed Saint Pier Fiorelli's Church in Prato and painted the altar piece representing Saint Peter who receives the keys of heaven. Then he had a commissioned painting that represented the mysteries of the Rosary for Cairo city. Shortly before his death, he frescoed four lunettes in Pitti Palace's Meridiana, representing episodes of Torquato Tasso's life. Together with his work as a painter Marini had always been also a restorer. Amongst the most important restoration works that he was involved in, were: the frescoes by Ghirlandaio in the Pisa Cathedral; the frescoes by Agnolo Gaddi in the Sacro Cingolo Chapel and the ones by Filippo Lippi in the Prato Cathedral; the frescoes in the Florentine Cathedral and in the loggia of the "Spedale degli Innocenti"; the frescoes in the crossing vaults of the Lucca Cathedral. He also worked to salvage Giotto's frescoes in Santa Croce Church, in Florence. In 1840, Marini was working to salvage the frescoes in the Podestà Chapel, by Giotto, representing Dante with Brunetto Latini and Corso Donati. The discovery of the fresco representing the famous poet Dante Alighieri, excited him very much, and the letters that he wrote during that time show evidence of this. Also several journalists, poets and writers talked about Dante's portrait. Antonio Marini died on the 10th September 1861 and was buried in San Domenico's Cloister in Prato.