GERMAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



travelled for improvement to Fium, in the bifhopric of Trent, 

 ii orcler to avail himf -If of the inlliiiflions of D. J. Alberti, 

 after whiehhe went to Vienna, and foon became known by 

 kis prints, and by the pifturcs with which he adorned fomc 

 of the clmrches' of Auftria. In etching, the touch of 

 Troj^cris firm andprecife. Iris fi^nres are well defigncd, and his 

 expreflion julL He became director of the Imperial academy 

 ef Vienna, and engraved in a good talle both hillorieal fuh- 

 jcflsand landlcapce, the latter of which he ornamented with 

 figures, ruins, &c. 



His bed prints are two fmall Holy- Families ; " The 

 Virgin and Child ;" " St. .lofeph carefl'mg the Infai:t 

 Chnft ;■' " The Virgin in Grief, comforlcd by Angels ;" 

 in folio. Five fn.all landfcapcs. And a pair of laudicapcs, 

 in which ancient monuments arc introduced, in quarto, dated 

 J724. 



Jacob Maennl was born at Vienna in the year 1695, and 

 died in the fame city at an advanced age; and, according to 

 the baron Heinnekin, was a mezzotinto engraver of conh- 

 derable ability. He was employed by C. Lauch, infpetlor 

 ef the Imperial gallery at Vi^mna, to fcrape th^t celebrated 

 toUeftion in mezzotinto, and had executed thirty-one of the 

 plates, when the diatb of both the engraver and employer 

 prevented the completion of their projeft. 



Of tliefe thirty-one prints, only eleven were ever made 

 public ; the reft are prefumed to have been fold by the heirs 

 of Maennl, and are now miffing. At the head of the work 

 is a portrait of the emperor Charles VI., and Heinnekin 

 and Strutthave given lifts of the fubjciSls engraved. 



Antoine Jofeph Prenner, or Von Prenner, after the 

 death of Lauch and Maennl, undertook, in concert with 

 Stampart, Altamonti, Schmutzer and others, to recom- 

 mence the work from the Imperial gallery, and after a con- 

 fiderable lapfe of time produced 



" Thcatrum Artis piAorise, quo tabidae depiftx quae in 

 Cscfarca Vindobonenfi Pinacotheea fervantur," &c. in four 

 folio parts, or volumes, of which part one was publidied in 

 1728, part two in 1729, part three in 1 731, and part four 



»ni733- 



Thefe four parts contain one hundred and fixty pnnts, 

 which are furrounded by borders in a bad taile, and the work 

 altogether is but of mediocral charafter. The bcft portraits 

 by this artift arc thofe of Jean Gottfried Auerbach, painter 

 to the emperor Charles VI. and count dOdt, governor of 

 Vienna, both ot the folio dye, 



Gafpar von Prenner, tlie fon of Antoine Jofeph, was alfo 

 an engraver, who travelled to Italy for improvement, and 

 ■was engaged in engraving the " Mufeum Florentinum." 

 He alfo produced a fet of forty-five etchings, neatly linifhed 

 with the graver, of hiftorical fubjefts from Taddeo Zucche- 

 yo, and other diiiinguilhed mailers, dated i 746. 



G. A. Muller was born at Vieima fome time about the 

 commencement of tlie eighteenth century, worked in a de- 

 licate ftyle, and, in concert with the Schmutzers, produced 

 Rubens'-, ieries of the hillory of Decius, of which Muller 

 tngraved two. 



His otlier principal works are the portraits of Phillipe Louis, 

 toimt de Sintzendorf, after M. Altomonte ; Jacob van 

 Si'liuppen, member of the academies of Paris and Vienna, 

 after a pirture by himfelf. " The two Children of Rubens 

 at the age of adolefcence,' from a celebrated pidlure by 

 that mailer, in the Lichtenllein gallery. 



The brothers, Jean Adam, Jofeph, and Andrea Schmut- 

 zer, were natives of Vienna, and born about the clofe of 

 the feventeenth, and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. 

 They died, the former in the year 1739, the twij latter in 

 1743. 



Their grandfather, a general in the Imperial fervice, loflr 

 much of his property by the accidents of war ; and the 

 infidelity of the tutor to whom he had eutrulled t\)f educa- 

 tion of his f(m, reduced that fon to grievous extremities, but 

 his fufferings tlruck out a talent witli which it now appear- 

 ed that nature had endowed him. He acquired tlie art of 

 engraving on iron and ileel, and ornamented locks and fire- 

 arms with much tafle. 



He brought up his fons, the brothers of whom we tr; at, 

 to the prolilhon of gun-engraving, v.hich they quitted for 

 the more elegant a?t of engraving on copper. Joan Adam 

 was the eldell, but, in fpite of application, could never attain 

 to the eminence of Jofeph and Andrea. He engraved, 

 however, for the gallery of Vienna under Altomonte, and 

 his beft prints are the portraits of the' three (•mpreffes Eleo- 

 nora, Amelia, and Elizabeth. 



Jofepli and Andrea generally, if not alwav.s, worked in 

 concert, and affixed their name", fomi-timcs Jofeph and An- 

 drea, and at others Andrea and Jofpli, Schmutzer, with 

 brotherly alternation. Joiepli ponifTed dexterity both in 

 etching and re entering with the graver, and Andrea pofTeffed 

 great facility in managing the tool, which v.as the neceffary 

 rcfult of his being educated to engrave on fteel, and to 

 which he added a careful fludy of the works of Bolfwert, 

 and Van Dulen. Tlie bell prints from the gravers of thefe 

 brothers are the portraits of the emperor Charles VI. on 

 foot, after M. de Meylens; the emprefs Elizabeth Chriftina, 

 after J. G. Auerbach ; GuftavusAdolplius, baron de Cot- 

 ter, PruDian minifter of Hate; and Li-ymann, a librarian, or 

 bookfeller, of Vienna, all in folio, and llie two latter, alfo 

 after Auerbach. A pair of ancient temples, in large folio, de- 

 corated with Itatues and tropliies, after Jofeph Galli Bibiena. 



But their moil diiiinguilhed work is three folio plates, 

 from Rubens's hfe of Decius, in the galk-ry of the prince 

 of Lichtenftein. 



Jacques Schmutzer was the fon of Andrea, and had the 

 misfortune to lofe his father when he was feventeen years of 

 age. By what further mi.sfortune he came now to be fo very 

 poor as to be employed partly as a butcher and partly as a 

 fhephrrd is not known, but he was employed to watch fhecp, 

 fometimes in the field-, 'cut more frequently when penned 

 up for ilaughter. The public drawing-fchool, however, 

 was in the neighbourhoood of the (heep-pcnn;;, and his love 

 for art often induced him to confide his flock to fome indo- 

 lent comrade, whilil lie ftole away to draw with the ftudents 

 of tlie academy. 



The celebrated medalift Matthew Donncr, apprized of 

 the fecircumftance.';, took fome notice of the lad, and invited him 

 home, but by fome new accident or impuifc, he now began 

 to iludy architeclurc ; which pnrfuit he did not afterwards 

 renounce for the arts of defign. He was employed for three 

 years as an architect in Hungary, during which time he de- 

 ilgned and painted and engraved hillorieal fubjefts at bis 

 leilure liours, and on his return to Vienna, continued occa- 

 iionally to praftiee architefture. 



He had now the good fortune to become known to the 

 baron de Kettler, a great patron and proteftor of art 

 andartills, who, charmed witii his eflays in engraving, foli- 

 cited the prince Kaunilz, and tlie emprefs queen, to fend the 

 young Schmutzer to Paris ; his felicitations were attended 

 to, and our young engraver was placed under the guidance 

 of AViUe ; here he perfedled himfelf in the art, and in the 

 courfe of the four years he remained in that celebrated me- 

 tropolis, learned to ufe the graver with mafterly intelli- 

 gence. 



He was now recalled to Vienna, with high rank in his pro- 

 feffion, and was named by Maria Therefa a Director of the 



academy. 



