ITALIAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



After his releafe. Marc Antonio, to manifeft his grati 

 tude to Bandinelli, engraved, from a pifture of his, that 

 admirable print reprefenting the Martyrdom of St. Law- 

 rence ; and fucceeded fo happily, correcting carefully fcvcrnl 

 faults which were in the piAiire, that the pope, who was 

 a great lover of the arts, upon feeing an imprefhon from 

 the plate, pardoned his offence entirely, and took him under 

 liis proteftion. We now fee our artitt in the zenith of his 

 good fortune ; but his decline was dill more fuddcn than his 

 advancement : for the city of Rome being taken by the 

 Spaniards, A.D. ijzy. Marc Antonio loft in the pillage all 

 ihe wealth he had accumulated. He retired afterwards to 

 Bologna, where perhaps he died ; but of this there is no 

 certain account. The laft dated print we have by him is, 

 " The Battle of the Lapiths," engraved in 1539; after 

 which time, we hear no more of him, or of his works. 

 Malvafia indeed affirms, that he was afiaffinated by a noble- 

 man of Rome ; becaufe he had, contrary to his engage- 

 ment, engraved a fecond plate of the Murder of the Inno- 

 cents, after a defign of Raphael. This defign was certainly 

 twice engraved by Marc Antonio, with very fmall varia- 

 tions, as will be mentioned below. Baldinucci, following 

 Malvaiia, mentions this ftory ; and adds, that Marc An- 

 tonio was married, and that his wife was alfo an engraver 

 But the total Clence of Vafari as to this circumllance, re;i- 

 4ers it exceedingly doubtful. 



The ftyle and the principal works of fo diftinguiilied an 

 artift, tiie founder of the Roman fchool of engraving, call 

 for particular comment. In his fifth lefture, delivered at 

 the Royal Inftitution, Mr. Landfeer fays, " The ftyle of 

 Marc Antonio poffeffes not the exteriors of oratory ; but he 

 pronounces every fentence fo diftinftlv, with a confidence fo 

 •modeil;, and an emphafis fo true to Raphael and to nature, 

 that thofe who attend are convinced, without being pei-- 

 -fuaded. To fpeak without a metaphor, there is fomething 

 in his manner of employing his graver, fometliing dry, un- 

 ambitious, fevere, unattraftive to the fenfe ; which, by all 

 found critics, has been tliought to deferve praife, without 

 • defiring it ; and peculiarly appropriate to the works of a 

 -painter, who not merely does not require, but will not ad- 

 mit, the aid of foreign ornament. 



■" The Dead Cliriil of Raphael, where the excefs of his 

 •mother's forrow is foftencd, but not fubdued, by her divine 

 vefignation, he repeated with variations ; of which the prin- 

 cipal are, that, in the fecond plate, the Virgin Mary ap- 

 pears much younger than in the firft, and her right arm 

 ■divefted of drapery ; from which circumllance, it is known 

 -among collectors by the appellation of " The Virgin with 

 the naked Arm." The fecond plate is more delicately en- 

 graven, but is feeble, when compared with the mafterly 

 -vigour he has fhewn in the firft. The nudities are here 

 drawn with Marc Antonio's, infpired by Raphaels, ufnal 

 'fuperiority ; but the drapery and ground are foftcned and 

 enriched beyond the ordinary powers of Marc Antonio's 

 graver, and are fo much in the improved ftyle of his pupil, 

 George Penz, as may incline us to fufpeft that thcfe parts 

 Jiave been engraven by his hand. Whether Raphael autho- 

 rized or allowed Marc Antonio to fubftitnte the younger 

 •irgin, who leems more like the filler, for the elder, who 

 is the mother of Chrift, does not appear. 



" In " The Virginof theralm," Marc Antonio difcovers, 

 if peffible, a ftjll more cxquifite feeling, and of courfe pro- 

 duces a more pcrfeA tranflation, of Rapliael. Chrift is be- 

 llowing his benediftion with the fublimily of infpiration ; 

 and St. Jolin receiving it with dignified and divine, though 

 infantile, fubniiffion. The fubordination of parts is jult : 

 ihe lyholc is perfectly graceful ; and the head of tlm Virgin 

 Mary, the moil gcaceful part of that whole. 



" Marc Antonio's powers as an engraverappear not to hate 

 declined from their acme, in his martyrdom of St. Law- 

 rence, after Bandinelli. He not merely cppred, but his 

 long acquaintance with the works of Raphael enabled him, 

 and his gratitude to Bandinelli, who had obtained his releafe 

 from prifon, difpofcd him, to improve the drawing of bi& 

 original. The print is defective, yet not more fo than many 

 other of his works, in chlarofcuro : but, expreffion of the 

 textures of fubftances, and the exiilence of reflex light, are 

 here feebly acknowledged ; the folds of the draperies are 

 ample ; the drawing of the naked excellent ; and the charac- 

 ters of the heads far better than would feem to belong to the 

 reputation of Bandinelli." 



The feveral monograms with which Marc Antonio 

 marked his engravings, from time to time, will be found in 

 Plate I. of thofe of the Halian School of Ergravers ; though 

 a great number of them were publifticd without any other 

 mark than an intelligent eye will perceive, in the peculiar 

 ftyle and purity of outline of this accompHftied artift. 



Connoifl'eurs are extremely, and very juftly, obfervant of 

 the goodncfs of the imprelfions, in collefting the works of 

 Marc Antonio ; and early and well preferved imprelfions fell 

 for very confiderable funis. Since they were firft publifhed, 

 the plates have been fucccfTively the property of Thomafo 

 Barlacchi, Antonio Salamanca, Antonio Lafreri, and Ni- 

 cholas Van Aelft ; laftly, they became the property of the 

 print-dealer Rofli, at which time, after being frequently re- 

 touched, and of courfe very much impaired, they were, as 

 works of art, utterly worn out. Thofe impreffions are tlie 

 earlieft, and by far the moft valuable, which were taken be- 

 fore the name of any piibliiher was infcribed on them. 



Baron Heinnekin, in his " Diftionnaire des Artiftes," 

 printed at Leipfie, A.D. 177S, has given a complete cata- 

 logue of the works of Marc Antonio, to which the curious 

 reader is refen-ed, and from which we have extracted the 

 following lift of thofe which are held in moft efteem, be- 

 ginning with his portraits. 



Portrahi. — An artift wrapped in a mantle, featcd, and in 

 an attitude of meditation ; a little table, pallete, and colours, 

 in the back ground ; fuppofed by Malvafia to be the por- 

 trait of Raphael, drawn and engraven by Marc Antonio ; 

 Aretin the Poet, wiih a long Latin infcription ; one of the 

 very fineft works of the artilt : the Emperor Charles V. in 

 his youth ; Pope Clement VII. ; both en medallion : Pope 

 Julius II. holding a bonnet: Prince Oclavius Farnefe. 



Subjeas from Holy Writ. — " Adam and Eve," after Ra- 

 phael, a very fine and rare print, the fame which S'rutt has 

 copied and placed as the frontifpiece to his fecond volume 

 of the Lives of the Engravers ; " Adam and Eve expelled 

 from the terreftrial Paradife," after Michael Angelo ; 

 " Noah facrificing after leaving the Ark ;" " The Bleffing 

 of Abraham ;" " Cod appearing to Ifaac ;" " The Efcape 

 of Jofcph from Potiphar's Wife ;" '<■ David difcomfiting the 

 Pliihftines, and beheading Goliah ;" " David," an erecl 

 figure, with the head of Goliah, a very rare print % all after 

 Raphael. 



'• The Adoration of the Shepherds," eith.er from a de- 

 fign by Marc Antonio himfelf, or after his firft mafter 

 Francia ; two plates of " The Murder of the Innocent":," 

 after Raphael, in the fecond of which Marc Antonio li.;3 

 introduced the upper part of a fm.dl yew tree, called by 

 the Italians la Felchelta, and which does not appear in 

 the firft. Good impreflions of both thefc plates are ex- 

 tremely rare and valuable ; "An Holy Family :'' from the 

 thigh oftheVirgin Mary being immodcrate'y long, this print 

 is diftinguilhcd among connoiffeurs by the name of " The 

 Virgin of the long Thigh." Another " Holy Family," 

 v.Uoein the infaut Saviour repofcs on the knees qf liis mo. 



thor. 



