Francesco Bartolozzi

Bartolozzi was born in Florence in 1727. 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.[1] He spent six years there working for Joseph Wagner, an engraver and printseller, before setting up his own workshop.[2]

His first productions in Venice were plates in the style of Marco Ricci, Zuccarelli. He then moved for a short time in 1762 to Rome, where he completed a set of engravings representing frescoes at Grottaferrata by Domenichino depicting the life of St Nilus. Those and his etchings of Old Master's works, began to draw attention throughout Europe. In 1763 he met Richard Dalton, the English Royal Librarian who was traveling in Italy looking for acquisitions for the King's collections. Dalton offered him an appointment as Engraver to the King; Bartolozzi accepted and left for London in 1764.

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

Detail of Queen Charlotte as painted by William Beechey, 1799.

The Hours; after Maria Cosway, 1788.

Lady Jane Meutas; after Holbein, 1795.

He lived in London for nearly forty years. He produced an enormous number of engravings, including Clytie after Annibale Carracci, and of the Virgin and Child, after Carlo Dolci. A large proportion of them are from the works of Cipriani and Angelica Kauffman. Bartolozzi also contributed a number of plates to Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery.[1] He also drew sketches of his own in red chalk. Soon after arriving in London, he was appointed 'Engraver to the King' (George III) with an annual salary of £300. He was elected a founding member of the Royal Academy. The new Academy's bylaws specifically excluded engravers but Bartolozzi was so well esteemed that he was brought in as an Academician in the category of Painter.[3] In 1802 he became the founding President of the short-lived Society of Engravers.

While Bartolozzi was not the original inventor of the crayon manner of engraving, he became a leading exponent that "stipple" method and it became associated with him. With that technique images are created by delicate dots rather than lines as in traditional etchings or engravings. Bartolozzi added distinction to his work by using red (sanguine), orange and brown inks rather than common black ink.

As his prominence grew, he took on students including Michele Benedetti, Ignatius Joseph van den Berghe, Thomas Cheesman, Lambertus Antonius Claessens, Daniel Gardner, Christiaan Josi, Johan Fredrik Martin, Conrad Martin Metz, Luigi Schiavonetti, John Keyse Sherwin, Heinrich Sintzenich, Peltro William Tomkins, Domenico Bernardo Zilotti,[4] and Gavriil Skorodumov.[5][6]

His son Gaetano Stefano Bartolozzi, born in 1757, also became an engraver and later fathered Madame Vestris a celebrated English actress, opera singer, and theater manager.

In 1802, Bartolozzi accepted the post of director of the National Academy of Lisbon and moved there with the intention of reforming the royal press and producing an edition of the Portuguese epic poem The Lusiads (Os Lusíadas). By then he was in his seventies and delegated much of the work to one of his students.[3]

Despite his fame and prolific output, debts forced him to sell off most of his prints and possessions. Bartolozzi died in his studio in 1815 and was buried in the common grave of a Lisbon church.

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

Others

Prometheus’ Liver Devoured by Vulture; after Michelangelo, 1795. (Click for very high resolution image, showing stippling combined with lines.)

• 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 after Hans Holbein the Younger, including two portraits of Henry and Charles Brandon, sons of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Thomas More, Lady Meutas and Lord Mansfield.[7]
• Portraits of Cignani and Pietro da Cortona; after Carlo Maratta.
• Bust of Michelangelo.[8]
• A Collection of Gems, designed by various artists, engraved by Bartolozzi.
• Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi; after Benjamin West.
• The Death of Lord Chatham; after John Singleton Copley.[9]
• The Fair Moralist and her Pupil; after Richard Cosway.
• The Hours; after Maria Cosway, ('Vide Gray's Ode to Spring').[10]
• The Interview of Edgar and Elfrida after her Marriage with Athelwold.
• King John ratifying Magna Charta; after John Hamilton Mortimer.[11]
• Mary, Queen of Scots, and her Son; after Federico Zuccaro.[12]
• Prometheus’ liver devoured by Vulture; after Michelangelo.[13]
• Rachel Hiding the Idols of Laban[14] and Laocoon attacked by Serpents;[15] after Pietro da Cortona.
• Queen Charlotte; after William Beechey.[16]
• The Virgin and Infant; after Carlo Dolci.

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bartolozzi, Francesco" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 451.
• Baily, J. T. H. (1907). Francesco Bartolozzi, R. A. London: Otto Ltd. OCLC 896651434 – via the Internet Archive.
• Bénézit, Emmanuel (2006) [originally published in French in 1911]. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Vol. 1. Paris: Gründ. p. 1252. ISBN 2-7000-3070-2 – via the Internet Archive.
• Brinton, Selwyn (1903). Bartolozzi and His Pupils in England. New York: F. A. Stokes Co. OCLC 1041051585 – via the Internet Archive.
• Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves (ed.). Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. Vol. I: A-K. London: George Bell and Sons. pp. 89–90.
• Calloway, Stephen (1981). English Prints for the Collectors. Guildford, London; Woodstock, NY: Lutterworth Press, Overlook Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 0-87951-120-6. OCLC 1148926166 – via the Internet Archive.
• Clayton, Timothy (1997). The English Print, 1688–1802. London, New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06650-3.
• Clayton, Timothy; McConnell, Anita (2004). "Bartolozzi". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 188–190. ISBN 0-19-861354-7. OCLC 1035755389 – via the Internet Archive.
• 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). Milan: Gaetano Schiepatti. pp. 117–120.
• Turner, Jane, ed. (1996). "Bartolozzi". The Dictionary of Art. Vol. 3. New York: Grove's Dictionaries. pp. 307–309. ISBN 1-884446-00-0. OCLC 1033662898 – via the Internet Archive.

• Media related to Francesco Bartolozzi at Wikimedia Commons
• "Bartolozzi, Francesco" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• 1 artwork by or after Francesco Bartolozzi at the Art UK site
• Guide to the Francesco Bartolozzi Collection 1781-1799 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center