Francisco Masseria 1926-2002. Masseria was born in Parana, capital of Province of Entre Rios, Argentina. Masseria's parents were Italian. Although none of his family were artists, Masseria showed evidence of a talent for art when he was quite young, drawing color pencil portraits of his grade school friends. Masseria began painting with oil paints when he was about 13 and progressed rapidly as an artist. His first achievement came at the age of fourteen when exhibiting at the Salon Annuale of Entre Rios he earned his first gold medal.