ITALIAN SCHOOL OF LNGRAVING. 



■Caravagpio, which appeared under the title of " Opere di 

 Polidoro de Caravags"" ;' " Jtihn liaptill beheaded in 

 Prifon," from BattiUa Ricci ; " Paris receiving tlie Apple," 

 and " The Caduceus of Mercury," from Aniiibal Caracci, 

 both in quarto ; and tlie Maufolea of the family of cardinal 

 Mazarin ; a fet of fix prints in folio, from the Abbe El- 

 •pidus Benediftus. 



Giovanni Francefco Venturina was born at Rome in the 

 yeir 1619, where he ftudied and rclided for many years, 

 but afterwards removed to Florence. To judge from the 

 ftvle of his works, it would appear that he was the difciple 

 of Gaileftrucci, oral leall worked ui:der his direftion, after 

 his removal to Florence. From the defigns of that mafter, 

 'he has executed a good number of prints in a neat pleafin^ 

 ■ftyle, from which we fclect the following, as affording the 

 moft fatisfattory fpecimens ot his talents : " Diana and her 

 ■Nymphs fporling," from Dominichiiio ; "The Pulpit of 

 St. peter," from Bernini, in folio ; a fet of bird-eye views 

 of palaces and gardens in and about Rome ; and a fet of 

 fountain", from Rofa of Tivoli, being a continuation of the 

 fountains in Rome, engraved by Falda. He alfo engraved 

 after Polydoro Caravaggio, and other painters. 



Giovanni Batiila Bonacini, or Bonacina, was born at 

 Milan about the year 1620, and woi-ked in his native coun- 

 try, and at Rome. His prints are executed in a ftiff la- 

 boured ilyle, entirely with the graver ; and he appears to 

 have ttudied in the fchool of Cornelius Bloemart ; but he 

 never arrived at any fuperior degree of excellence. Of his 

 works we fnall only mention the following : four portraits, 

 in folio, of pope Clement IX., Guido Vifconti, Ermes Vi- 

 conti, and Giovania Battilta, Count Truchi ; " The Al- 

 liance of Jacob and Laban," from Pietro de Cortona, in 

 folio ; " The Virgin with the Infant Jefus, and St. Martin 

 kneeling before him," from the fame mafter, which is cf- 

 teenied a capital print, in large folio ; another " Holy Fa- 

 mily, with St. John and St. Catherine," a middling-fized 

 uprin"ht plate, from Andrea del Sarto ; and a medallion of 

 pope Alexaader VII., with an explication, from Bernini, 

 in folio. 



Flaminio Torre was born at Bologna A.D. 1621, and 

 died at Modena in 1A61. He learned tlu- principles of 

 painting from Cavedone, and completed his ihidics in the 

 fchool of Guido. His chief excellence was in copying the 

 pictures of the moll celebrated mafters, which he did fo very 

 •exaclly, as to render it nearly impoflTible to dilliiiguifh the 

 ropy from the originaL He etched feveral plates is a good 

 llyle ; and he had copied the pidures of the Caraeii, in the 

 palace of count Fana, at Bologna, for the purpofe of en- 

 graving them, when, at the age of forty, he died at Mo- 

 dena, whither he had been invited by the duke ; and they 

 vere afterwards -engraved by Metelli from Torre's copies. 

 From among the prmts of Torre we felect tiic following, as 

 jnoft worthy of attention : " The Virgin and Child, ac- 

 companied by St. Framis and St. Jerome," a middling- 

 fized upright, from Lodnvico Caracci ; " The Patron 

 Saints of the City of Bologna," a large upright plate, 

 from Guido; and " Pan conquered by Love," a fmall up., 

 right, from Aiigoftino Caracci. 



Pietro Francifco Mola merits a diflinguifhcd place both 

 among the painters and engravers of the Italian fchool. He 

 was born, according to fome author.-?, at Codra, a village 

 ■on the frontiers of the Milanefe, in the year i6og : whilll 

 others afSrm that the place of his birth was Lugano, and 

 the time 162 1. From his childhood his talents were pro- 

 niifmg, and his father, who veas a painter and i^rchiteft, fe- 

 ■conding tliefe early difpoliiions towarj the fiuL" arts, placed 

 V^L. XIX. 



him fird in the fchool* of Jofephiii?, and afterward in 'hat 

 of Albano, at Rome. 



\Vhen he quitted the latter, he travelled to Venice, and 

 ftudied the works of Titian, Tintoretto, Baflan, and Paulo 

 Vcronefe, with great affiduity, and' with fo much advantage, 

 that it is laid Guerchino became jealous of his progrefs, and 

 that this jcaloufy occafioned his return to Rome, whern 

 queen Chriftina allowed him a penfion, and where he was 

 patronized by the popes Innocent X. and Alexander VII. 



His friends feemed to multiply as his merits increafed. 

 He accepted an invitation to France from Louis XIV. ; but 

 during an altercation which he had with prince Pamlili, 

 refpccting the value of a ceiling which he had painted, he 

 was feized with a violent paroxyfm of headache, and expired 

 in about fix hours. 



For an account of his peculiar merit as a painter, fee the 

 article Moi..\. His etchings, though (light, are performed 

 " with a mafters hand and poet's fire." To a vigorous 

 ftyle of handling, he added corrcftTiefs of drawing. He oc- 

 cafionally etched, as he painted, both landfcape and hillory : 

 his heads in the latter are beautifully ciiara61eriftic, and care- 

 fully drawn ; and in the former, Jiis trees and his various 

 grounds, &c.' are touched with confiderable talle. 



" The Madonna fuckling the Infant Saviour," a fmall 

 upright, from his own compofition ; " A Holy Family, 

 with Angels prefenting Flowers to Jefus Chrift," in folio, 

 from Albano ; " Jofcph difcovering himfelf to his Brethren," 

 in fmall folio ; and another " Holy Family with Angels," 

 a folio print of the upright form, from his "^wn compcfition ; 

 will be found among the beft etchings of Irancifco Mola. 



Of the latter print, coUeftors ftiould, if pofiiblc, obtain 

 the impreffions as the plate came from the hand of Mola ; 

 for it was afterwards worked upon with the graver by foir.e 

 linlliilful perfon, wl;o has much impaired the freedom and 

 beauty of the etching. 



Giovanni Baptifta Mola, born in the year 1622, wag 

 brother to Francifco, and was alfo the difciple of Albano. 

 He etched a few plates, the ftyle of which bears a diftant 

 and inferior refemblance to that of his brother, as may be 

 fcen in a 410. prii:t, after Albano, of " Cupid drawn in his 

 Chariot." 



Carlo CeHo, or Cefius, was born at Antrodoco, a village 

 in the late territory of the Roman pontiff, in 16:6, and 

 died at Rieti A.D. 16K6. He liudied as a painter under 

 Pietro da Cortona, but is much better known by his en- 

 gravings th m by his pidures. His plates are chiefly etched 

 and harmonized with the graver in a free and mafterly man- 

 ner. He drew corre£l!y ; and the extremities of his figure* 

 are in general finely marked, though flight, and in the broad, 

 bold ftylo of a painter. 



Among the number of Cefio's engravings, which is con. 

 fiderab'e, th.e following will probaijly be four. d moft worthy 

 of feleclion : the frontifpiece, in 4to., to " Diicurfi dclla 

 Mufica;" and "The Holy Family," in an oval, both from 

 his own compofitions ; two folio prints of " St. Andrew 

 proftrating himfelf before the Crofe," after a celebrated pic- 

 ture painted by Guido in conjumStion with Dominichino ; 

 and " The Woman of Canaan," after Annibal Caracci ; 

 the Farnefian Gallery, confifting of forty-one platef, after 

 the fame mailer; the Pamphilian Gallery, confifting of fif. 

 teen plates, after Pietro da Cortona, of which the fubjeft is 

 " The HiUory of TEneas ;" '< The Life of St. Auguftin," 

 after Lanfranc, confifting of four very large and four fmaller 

 folio prints, engraved fro.m pidlurcs wliicli adorn the church 

 of St. Auguftin at Ronje. 



Andrea Podefta was bom at Genoa in the year 1628, and 

 ^.2, became 



