Francesco Bartolozzi

Portrait of Francesco Bartolozzi by Lemuel Francis Abbott.

A detail of one of Bartolozzi's prints, showing the tonal effects of the technique of stipple engraving, in which he was an expert

Queen Charlotte painted by William Beechey, engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi.

The Hours; after Maria Cosway.

Francesco Bartolozzi (September 25, 1725 – March 7, 1815) was an Italian engraver, whose most productive period was spent in London.

He was born in Florence. He was originally destined to follow the profession of his father, a gold- and silver-smith, but he manifested so much skill and taste in designing that he was placed under the supervision of two Florentine artists, including Ignazio Hugford and Giovanni Domenico Ferretti who instructed him in painting. After devoting three years to that art, he went to Venice and studied engraving. He particularly admired the work of Joseph Wagner^[1]. His first productions in Venice were plates in the style of Marco Ricci, Zuccarelli, and others, while working for Wagner, which began to draw attention. He then moved for a short time to Rome, where he completed a set of engravings representing frescoes at Grottaferrata by Domenichino depicting the life of St Nilus. He soon returned to Venice and left for London in 1764.

For nearly forty years he lived in London. He produced an enormous number of engravings, including Clytie after Annibale Carracci, and of the Virgin and Child, after Carlo Dolci. A great proportion of them are from the works of Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann. Bartolozzi also contributed a number of plates to Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery. He also drew sketches of his own in red chalk. Soon after arriving in London, he was appointed engraver to the king with a salary of £300 a year. He was elected a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768, and in 1802 became the founding President of the short-lived Society of Engravers.

Bartolozzi achieved a technological breakthrough by inventing a new stipple technique of colored engraving, in which he successfully reproduced the famous colored portrait drawings of Holbein from the Royal collection in 1793.

In 1802, Bartolozzi accepted the post of director of the National Academy of Lisbon, the city where he died. His son Gaetano Stefano Bartolozzi, born in 1757, was also an engraver, and the father of Madame Vestris.

Works

Ticozzi and Bryan both published lists of his output, including:

Original etchings

• Abraham and the Angels.
• The Miracle of the Manna.
• Job abandoned by his Friends.
• Charity, an oval; inscribed Ipse feci .
• The Origin of Painting (1787).
• The Virgin and Infant; (circular).

Etchings after masterworks

• St. Francis of Sales triumphs over Heresy; after Ottavio Amiconi.
• St. Luke paints the Portrait of the Virgin; after Cantarini.
• The Adulteress before Christ; after Agostino Carracci.
• Roland and Olympia, Clytie, and other drawings in the Royal Collection after Annibale Carracci.
• A set of eight subjects; after Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.

Etchings after Cipriani

• The Parting of Achilles and Briseis.
• Hector takes leave of Andromache.
• Chryseis restored to her Father.
• The Death of Dido.
• Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida.
• Venus presenting the Cestus to Juno.
• Venus attired by the Graces .
• Tancred and Herminia and Tancred and Clorinda.
• Shakespeare crowned by Immortality

Engravings after Angelica Kauffmann

• Socrates in Prison.
• Penelope lamenting Ulysses.
• Telemachus and Mentor in the Isle of Calypso.
• Paulus Emilias educating his Children.
• Coriolanus appeased by his Family.

Others

Bartolozzi's engraving of Lady Meutas after Holbein

• Rachel hiding Idols from her Father and Laocoon attacked by Serpents; after Pietro da Cortona.
• The Death of Lord Chatham; after Copley.
• The Virgin and Infant; after Carlo Dolci.
• A set of thirteen plates from the frescoes of Domenichino at Grottaferrata
• A set of 33 drawings by Guercino in the Royal Collection.
• A set of Portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger, including two portraits of Henry and Charles Brandon, sons of Henry VIII; the Dukes of Suffolk, and Lady Meutas
• The Interview of Edgar and Elfrida after her Marriage with Athelwold.
• Portraits of Cignani and Pietro da Cortona; after Maratta.
• The Fair Moralist and her Pupil; after Richard Cosway
• Prometheus’ liver devoured by Vulture; after Michelangelo.
• Bust of Michelangelo.
• King John ratifying Magna Charta; after Mortimer.
• Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi; after West.
• A Collection of Gems, designed by various artists, engraved by Bartolozzi.
• Mary, Queen of Scots, and her Son; after Zucchero.
• The Hours; after Maria Cosway, ('Vide Gray's Ode to Spring').

References

•  "Bartolozzi, Francesco". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 
• Ticozzi, Stefano (1830). Dizionario degli architetti, scultori, pittori, intagliatori in rame ed in pietra, coniatori di medaglie, musaicisti, niellatori, intarsiatori d’ogni etá e d’ogni nazione' (Volume 1). Gaetano Schiepatti; Digitized by Googlebooks, Jan 24, 2007. pp. 117–120. http://books.google.com/books?id=0ownAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA5&dq=Stefano+Ticozzi+Dizionario. 
• Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves. ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume I: A-K). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. pp. 89–90. http://books.google.com/books?id=4GYCAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=DICTIONARY+AACHEN+AALST&as_brr=1. 

1. ^ Ticozzi, p117.

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