BARTOLOZZI, FRANCESCO

BARTOLOZZI, FRANCESCO. — Artist of immense renown; born in Florence in 1727 and died in Lisbon in 1816, where he had gone in 1802 to direct the national academy. He learned the first elements of drawing and copper engraving in his father’s goldsmith shop in Florence. He completed his artistic education in Venice under the guidance of Wagner. His name is associated with the stipple engraving technique, already devised by G. Campagnola and taken up and perfected by him. He resided in London from 1764 to 1802 and there too he had a large following of pupils and collaborators. Rarely did he himself conceive the subjects to be engraved; the works entirely of his own hand that remain are true masterpieces, such as, for example, The Birth of Drawing. More than 2,000 engravings signed by him exist, many of them on sacred subjects.