IB 



RATMBACH, ABRAHAM, 



RALEIGH, SIR WALTER. 



at the improvement of a few children in his own town, become the 

 most efficient means of educating the children of the poor throughout 

 the kingdom. It was, we hope, only the first step ; a second was the 

 establishment of daily schools supported by the public ; but farther 

 Advances are yet urgently required. 



RAIMBACH, ABRAHAM, a distinguished English line-engraver, 

 was born in London in 1776. His father was a Swiss by birth, but he 

 settled in England at the early age of twelve, and never afterwards 

 quitted it; his mother was the daughter of an English farmer in 

 Warwickshire. When an infant, Raimbach fell from the arms of his 

 nurse from a second-floor window ; but his life was saved, partly by 

 the inflation of his long clothes, and partly by his fall being broken by 

 some leads below. He showed an early disposition to excel in the 

 arts, and his father apprenticed him in 1789 to J. Hall, the engraver : 

 Sharp and J. Heath had both declined to take him. The first work 

 engraved by the young apprentice was the explanatory key to 

 Copley's 'Death of Chatham,' in the National Gallery. After his 

 term of apprenticeship was over he entered as a student in the Royal 

 Academy, doing at the same time what work he could for the book- 

 sellers. By attention and assiduity he was enabled to unite miniature 

 painting with engraving ; and he prospered in a short period so well 

 in both that he was under the necessity of giving one of them up, and 

 confining himself to the other : he chose engraving for his profession. 

 In 1802, through some prints he executed for Smirke and Forster's 

 illustrated edition of the 'Arabian Nights,' he was in such circum- 

 stances as enabled him to take advantage of the temporary peace, and 

 he paid a visit to Paris to view the works of art which the victories of 

 Napoleon I. had collected together in the Louvre. He has himself 

 given a long account of this tour in his autobiography, published by 

 his son. In 1805 he married, and established himself in a house given 

 to him by his father in Warren-street, Fitzroy-square, in which he 

 lived twenty-six years, and executed all his great works. In this year 

 he made the acquaintance of Wilkie, and soou became that painter's 

 intimate friend. In 1812 he became Wilkie's engraver, supplanting 

 Burnet, who had already engraved some of Wilkie's pictures in an 

 admirable manner. [BURNET, JOHN.] The first fruit of this partner- 

 ship was the celebrated print of the ' Village Politicians.' This print 

 at first went off slowly ; but eventually the sale was large and steady, 

 and a proof, of which there were 274, has sometimes been sold at 

 auctions for fourteen or fifteen pounds. The next print was ' The Rent 

 Day,' published in 1816, after which Wilkie and Rairnbach made a tour 

 together in the Netherlands. The rest appeared in the following 

 order : ' The Cut Finger,' The Errand-Boy,' ' Blindman's Buff;' 

 ' Distraining for Rent,' ' The Parish Beadle,' and in 1836 ' The Spanish 

 Mother and Child.' The last prints, compared with ' The Village 

 Politicians ' and ' The Rent Day,' were very unsuccessful speculations. 

 Raimbach never employed an assistant, but executed the whole of 

 the plate himself. * The Rent Day ' cost him two years and a half of 

 incessant labour. His prints are very masterly works, and possess 

 almost every quality but colour. He died on the 17th of January 

 1843, in very easy circumstances. His autobiography was published 

 by his son in the same year, under the following title : 'Memoirs and 

 Recollections of the late Abraham Raimbach ; including a Memoir of 

 Sir David Wilkie.' 



RAIMONDI, MARC ANTONIO, commonly called by his baptismal 

 names Marc Antonio only, was born at Bologna about 1487 or 1488. 

 He was instructed in the art of design by Francesco Maria Raibolini, 

 known as Francesco Francia ; but having seen some prints by Albert 

 Diirer, he determined on adopting engraving as a profession. It does 

 not appear by whom he was instructed in that art, though most pro- 

 bably it was by some goldsmith, for his first essays with the graver 

 were the embellishment of silver ornaments worn at that period. One 

 of his earliest engravings on copper was a plate from a picture by 

 Francia, representing 'Pyramus and Thisbe,' dated 1502, and exe- 

 cuted, with%ome others, it is supposed, after the same artist, before 

 Raimondi's departure from Bologna. At Venice, whither he removed, 

 he purchased, with all the money he had taken with him from home, 

 a eet of thirty-six prints engraved on wood by Albert Diirer, repre- 

 senting the ' Life and Passion of Our Saviour.' Charmed with the 

 correctness of the design and the precision of the execution, he 

 imitated them on copper, according to Vasari, with such exactness, 

 that they sold in Italy for the originals from the difference of the 

 methods a very unlikely circumstance. The same authority states 

 that Diirer, having seen one of them at Niirnberg, complained to the 

 senate at Venice of the fraud that had been practised, and that Marc 

 Antonio was forbidden to use his signature, which was the only 

 redress he could obtain. It seems that Vasari must have fallen into 

 an error in this story, and mistaken the ' Life of Our Saviour ' for 

 the ' Life of the Virgin,' as Marc Antonio copied both sets from the 

 cuta of Albert Diirer, to the latter and not to the former of which he 

 affixed the mark of that great artist. M. Heinecken also points out 

 that, besides the tablet which Diirer used as his mark, Marc Antonio 

 added within it his own initials joined, and that he also used the 

 tablet without any mark at all. Indeed there seems altogether very 

 ittle probability in the story told by Vasari. Persons acquainted 

 with the subject of engravers' monograms are aware that the tablet 

 of the peculiar form adopted by these two great rivals namely, an 

 oblong square, with a small arched piece on the centre portion of the 



top was a favourite mark of many artists, as may be seen on the 

 works of Van Assen, Dolendo, Krugen, Saelert, and Voghter. 



After quitting Venice, Marc Antonio proceeded to Rome, where he 

 was soon noticed by Raffaelle, who employed him in engraving from 

 his designs, and, it is said, in some instances even traced the outlines 

 on the plates, that the correctness of the drawing might be more 

 perfectly preserved. His first plate after Raffaelle was the Death of 

 Lucretia, which is neatly engraved, but is not one of his best works. 

 His next print, after the same master, was a Judgment of Paris, exe- 

 cuted in a more bold and spirited style. These were followed by many 

 more, and amongst them the Murder of the Innocents, after Raffaelle, 

 who was so perfectly satisfied with the efforts of the engraver, that 

 he sent many specimens of his works as complimentary presents to 

 Albert Diirer himself, by whom they were thought well worthy of 

 acceptance. After the death of Raffaelle, which occurred in 1520, 

 Giulio Romano engaged Marc Antonio to engrave from his designs. 

 Amongst these works are a set of disgusting plates of subjects for 

 which Aretino composed the verses, and which so greatly excited the 

 indignation of Pope Clement VII., that he' ordered the engraver to be 

 thrown into prison, from which he was only released at the earnest 

 intercession of some of the cardinals and of Baccio Bandinelli. Moved 

 by gratitude for the services of Bandinelli, Marc Antonio engraved his 

 celebrated j3rint of the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence from a picture by 

 him, which, besides greatly conducing to the engraver's high reputa- 

 tion, procured him not only the entire pardon of the pope, but his 

 active protection and support. On the sacking of Rome by the Spaniards, 

 in 1527, he was obliged to fly, having lost all he had acquired by his 

 art. He returned to his native place, where he continued to engrave 

 until the year 1539, which is the date affixed to his last plate, repre- 

 senting the Battle of the Lapithae, after Giulio Romano. He is said by 

 Malvasia to have been assassinated by a Roman nobleman for having, 

 contrary to his engagement, engraved a second plate of the Murder of 

 the Innocents, from the design of Raffaelle. 



This engraver may be considered one of the most eminent artists in 

 that branch that has ever appeared. His outlines are pure ; the cha- 

 racter and expression of his heads beautiful ; while the exact and 

 correct drawing of his works, particularly iii the extremities of his 

 figures, evidence that he was in all respects a complete master both of 

 drawing and design. He was one of the first Italian engravers of 

 distinction. The high reputation of Raffaelle, and the happy chance 

 which conduced to the engagement of Marc Antonio as the engraver 

 of his chief works, contribute as well to his reputation as to the high 

 value which is ever set upon his engravings, and the great price they 

 always obtain. Berghem paid sixty florins for an impression of his 

 Murder of the Innocents ; and one of Saint Cecilia was sold at the sale 

 of St. Yves for six hundred and nineteen francs. M. Ponce has given 

 the date of his death as 1546 ; but M. Heinecken seems to consider 

 that the date upon the Battle of the Lapithse was about the period at 

 which he ceased to work. Some of his prints are marked with an A. 

 and an M. joined, and others with M. A. F. also joined, the F. being 

 used in consequence of the cognomen La Fraucia having been given to 

 him from his successful study under Raiboliui ; and some are marked 

 with the tablet mentioned by Heinecken. 



The works of Marc Antonio are exceedingly numerous. A very 

 copious catalogue of them is given by Heinecken, which extends to a 

 hundred and twenty-five pages. Mr. Bryan observes, that in the prints 

 of this eminent artist great attention should be paid to the different 

 impressions of the plates, which have been greatly retouched and 

 altered by the different printsellers through whose hands they have 

 passed. The best impressions are without the name of any publisher. 

 After the plates were taken from the stock of Tommaso Barlacchi, 

 they came into the possession of Antonio Salamanca ; afterwards they 

 passed through the hauds of Antonio Laferri, thence to Nicholas van 

 Aelst, and lastly became the property of Rossi, or De Rubeis, at a time 

 when they were nearly worn out. 



In the Print Room of the British Museum there is a very fine 

 collection of the works of Marc Antonio. They amount to above five 

 hundred, the whole of his labours enumerated by Bartsch being six 

 hundred and fifty-two ; but it must be recollected that the works of 

 two of his principal pupils, Agostitio Veneziano and Marco da Ravenna, 

 are counted with them. Amongst those of the greatest rarity are the 

 Transgression of Adam and Eve; David cutting off the head of Goliath, 

 before the monogram of Marc Antonio was added, a copy of which 

 produced 45. at the sale of the late Sir M. M. Sykes, Bart., in 1824 ; 

 the Madonna lamenting over the dead body of Christ, called 'La 

 Vierge au bras nud,' from the circumstance of having one arm naked, 

 a print of much value, a copy of which fetched at the same sale 251., 

 whereas the other print of the same subject, which has the arm draped, 

 engraved also by Marc Antonio, produced only 21. ; the Massacre of 

 the Innocents, with the chicot-tree ; the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, 

 a subject mentioned above, a first impression with the t,wo forks, of 

 the estimated value of a hundred guineas, a very inferior copy of 

 which, as to condition, produced at the above sale 461. ; the Pest, a 

 proof taken before the letters were engraved, of which only three 

 copies are known to exist ; and the Dauce of Cupids, a small plate, 

 which, if in good condition, is valued at 60L, a copy of which sold at 

 the sale before alluded to for 57J. 



RALEIGH, SIR WALTER, was born in 1552 at Hayes, in the 



