CARPI, Ugo da. - Painter and wood engraver, born at Carpi (Modena) around 1480 and died at Parma in 1532. As a painter he was judged mediocre already by Vasari and by Michelangelo (he himself boasted of painting with his fingers: and a picture in the Petriano Museum in Rome, with Sts Peter, Paul, and Veronica, in fact bears the inscription “by Ugo Carpi, inventor, made without a brush”). Yet Vasari, on the other hand, proclaimed him the “inventor
of woodblock prints in three pieces,” which made possible the chiaroscuro reproduction of the works of great artists.
Leaving aside the question of priority, disputed and claimed by the Germans, Ugo da C. achieved in the practice of wood engraving effects never previously attained. For his compositions the artist made especial use of the work of Raffaello and of Parmigianino.