BARTOLOZZI, FRANCESCO

BARTOLOZZI, FRANCESCO. - An engraver of the greatest renown; b. in Firenze in 1727 and d. in Lisbona, whither he had gone in 1802 to direct the National Academy, in 1816. He learned the first elements of drawing and copper engraving in his father’s goldsmith’s workshop in Firenze. He completed his artistic education in Venezia under the guidance of Wagner. His name is associated with the technique of stipple engraving, already devised by G. Campagnola and taken up and perfected by him. He lived in Londra from 1764 to 1802, and there too he had a large number of pupils and collaborators. He rarely devised the subjects to be engraved himself; the works entirely by his own hand that remain are true masterpieces, such as, for example, La nascita del disegno. There are more than 2,000 engravings bearing his signature, many of them of sacred subject matter.