ITALIAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



Cliriftcpher Lederer was born at Nuremberg in the year 

 1 560. He travelled to Italy in his youth, for the fake of 

 Undying the arts to advantage; and here, for feme reafon which 

 lias not tranfpired, he changed his furname for that of Corio- 

 lano, or Coriolanus. He refided at Venice for fome years, 

 where, according to Vafari, he engraved on wood a fct of 

 portraits of celebrated artifts, a work which other writers 

 have (li'd more midakenly afcribed to his fon. 



Nowas thefe portraits firll appeared in the year 1568, if 

 Chriftopher was born in 1560, as Huber reports, and Bar- 

 tholomew not until 1590, they could not have been engraven 

 by either of the Coriolani. Again, he is faid to have en- 

 graven for the anatomical work of Vefaliu?, of which the 

 drawings were fupplied by Titian, but as this celebrated 

 book lirll appeared in 1542, Lederer's blocks muft have 

 been for fome fubfequent edition, if he cut them at all. 



It appears much more certain that he engraved the figures 

 forUlyffcs Aldrovandiiii's work on natural hilloq-, and for 

 another book, entitled " Ars Gymnaftica," &c. 



Bartelomeo Coriolano was the fon of Chriftopher, and 

 was born at Bologna in the year 1590. He learned the 

 rudiments of art in his father's houfe, but finifhed his ftudies 

 in the Bolognefe academy. 



In return for the dedication to pope Urban VIII. of a 

 capital work which he engraved on wood, after the Caracci, 

 Guido, and other great mafters, that pontiff bellowed on 

 him a penfion, and the order of knighthood. According 

 to PapiUon, our artift pretended to be a defccndant of Caius 

 Martins Coriolanus, the great Rom.an general, but this is 

 moll likely a mere joke, fabricated on the occalion of his mi- 

 litary, or equeftrian title. 



He likevvife engraved in clair-obfcure, and his produc- 

 tions in that ilyle are very much elleemed by connoifleurs. 

 He had a good talle in delign, his heads are finely charac- 

 terized ; and the other extremities of his figures are very 

 '.yell marked. In general he ufed no more tlian two blocks 

 of wood ; on the firll he cut not only the outlines, hut tiie 

 darker ihadows in imitation of hatching with a pen ; the 

 fecond ferved for the ha'if tints ; and «ith thefe two blocks, 

 judicionfly managed, he produced a pleafing effcft. He 

 ligned many of his prints with his name at length, and 

 tlie addition of the word Eques, which is known to be fyno- 

 mmous with knight. The following are among his molt 

 elleemed productions : " St. Jerome meditating before a 

 Crucifix," a fmall upright print from Guido ; this is 

 rijgravedon three blocks of wood, and infcribed " Barthi'l. 

 Coriolanus, Eques, fculpfit, Bonon. 1637 ;'' " Herpdias 

 with the Head of St. John," alfo in clair-obfeure, and from 

 Guido ; " The Virgin and Infant Jefus, afleep under Dra- 

 pery," on wood, from Guido ; the fame fubjcd, in clair-ob- 

 fcure,'very finely executed, both in 4to. and marked Barthol. 

 fee. 1630 ; another " Virgin and lleeping Chrifl," from F. 

 Vanni, in clair-obfcure, not marked, in large 4to. ; " Peace 

 and Plen:y," from Guido ; " A Sybil fitting, liolding 

 Tablets," both in 410. ; " The Fall of the Giants," a large 

 upright print, on four feparate (licets which pafte together, 

 in clair-obfcure, " The Seven Wife Men tranfported to 

 Bologna," in large folio. 



Thcrcfia Maria Coriolano, was the daughter of this artifl:, 

 and learned engraving of her father, and painting of Eliza- 

 beth Sirani. We only know of a fingle etching by her , 

 of " A Virgin and Child," half figures. 



Giovanni, or Jean Batilla Coriolano, was brother to Bar- 

 tholomew, and was born in the year J 596, in Bologna ; 

 where he became the fcholar of Valifco, a painter of fome 

 eminence. 



As a painter, B:iti(la never acquired any great degree of 



reputation, but he engraved both on copper and Wood, his 

 worlio en the latter material being however greatly fupe- 

 rior to liis engiavings on copper. - The following may be 

 reckoned among his bell produdions : a portrait of Vin- 

 cent Gualdi ; another of Fortunatus Licetus ; another of 

 .Toannes Cottinius, Patricius Verienfis, Coriolano, fe. all of 

 quarto dimenfions ; the ftatue of the Virgin in a palm-tree, 

 commonly {lyled " Our Lady of the Palm," before v/nich 

 is a fmall altar : " The Miraculous Image of the Virgi.i," 

 from Guido ; " Chrift crowned with Tliorns," from Lodo- 

 vico Caracci ; " A fleeping C'lpid," in chiarofcuro, very 

 rare, after Guido ; a triumphal arch in Iionour of Louis 

 XIII. in folio; " Paul Macii Embleniata," being a 

 fet of eighty-three prints, of which twcuty-feven are by 

 Corio'ano, and the reft, by O. Galli, and A. Parifini. 



Giovanni Luigi Valefio, was born at Bologna in 1561. 

 There were two other engravers of thi.s name, who lived ionie 

 time about the fame period, and probably belonged to the 

 fame family ; but as their produ£lions have nothing re- 

 markable to recommend them, we will pafs them over in 

 filence. Giovanni frequented the Bologr.efe academy, and 

 has engraved feveral things in a good tatle. Moll of his 

 prints confiil of allegorical and emblematical defigns, 

 froncifpieces for books, and other ornamental plates ; fome 

 of which he marked with a monogram, which will be 

 found in our Plats II. of thofe of the Italian Engravers. 

 The following are among his moil elleemed produdlionsi 

 ■" The Virgin with the Infant Chrift feated on her Lap,"^ 

 a finall upright plate ; " Venus threatening Cupid," and 

 " Venus chailifing Cupid," its companion, two fmall up- 

 right plates; '< Hymen with two Lions at his Feel,'' 

 and " A Group of Genii," from Lodovico Caracci, in 

 folio. 



Jean Frederic, the fon of Matthew Greater, of Straf- 

 bourg, was born at Rome fome time about this period. 

 Our countryman, Strutt, has entered into rather a length- 

 ened argument with the foreign writers refpedling the 

 date of Jean Frederic's birth, of which his merits as an 

 artill do not appear to render him worthy. What does 

 it fignify when or where men are born, who are poircfled 

 of no greater talent or talle than this engraver ? or whe- 

 ther or not there was a Frederic and a Jean Frederic alfo i 



The fon of Matthew Greuter, of whom we have given 

 fome account in our GekMAN School of Engrai'wg, relided 

 at Rome, being educated to the profeffion of engraving 

 by his father. Here he engraved a confiderable number 

 of plates with commendable induttry, working with the 

 graver only : but he neither drew well, nor poUefTed feel- 

 ing for art that might in any degree fupply the place of 

 drawing ; yet his prints, of which we fhall only mention 

 a few, are lometimes fought after by the curious. " Her- 

 cules in the Garden of the Hefperides," from Pietro da 

 Cortona ; " The Forge of Vulcan," after Lanfranc ; and 

 " A Battle," from Temptfta, both in large folio. " The 

 Death of St. Cecilia," after 'Dominichino, a large plate, 

 nearly fquare. An emblematical fubjeCl relative to the 

 progrefs of Chrillianity, a largfe folio print, from Roma- 

 nelh ; and " A Madonna and Child, with St. Francis kneel- 

 ing,'' from a compofition by hiirifelf, arched at the top, 

 of folio dimenfions, and dated 1623. 



He alfo engraved feveral portraits, and other fubjetls 

 from Guuio, Vouet, Stella, And. dc Anconc, and oilier 

 mailers. 



Francefco Vanni, a very celebrated hiftorical painter, was 

 born at Sienna A.D. I563, and died in the fame city in 

 1610. He was iiril the difciple of Salimbini, afterwards of 

 Pall'arotti, and at lall of Giovanni de Vecchia ; though in 



preforence 



