Mrs. Jameson, in 1842, commented on Francia:
As a painter of purely devotional subjects in what is called the mystic school of art, Francia remains unsurpassed. He was a better workman with his tools, a more correct designer, than 'the blessed' Fra Giovanni Angelico, and equal to Perugino and Giovanni Bellini in the spiritual beauty of his types, and the simple solemn grandeur of his composition. ( Jameson, Hand-book to the Public Galleries of Art in and near London, p. 168)
She rejects Vasari 's story that he died of envy and despair at the sight of Raphael 's St. Cecilia:
Such ignoble passions found no place in the soul of this devout and amiable painter. ( Jameson, Hand-book to the Public Galleries of Art in and near London, p. 168)