ITALIAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



^Another .print, of which tha fubjea is taken from the fame 

 embalTy, after Tintoret, whofe piaure is alfo preferved in 

 the fame public hall ; " The great Viftory gained by the 

 Venetians over the Imperialiils," from the fame miillcr ; 

 «' The Pope beftoivin^ his Benediftion on the Doge Zanii, 

 previous to his Battle with BarbaroulTa/' after Francefco 

 Baffano ; " The Emjieror BarbaroulTa proftrate before Pope 

 Grep-ory VIII.," after Frederico Zacchero, and another 

 with' the Italian title " Othone vien hcenziato dal Pontefice 

 edal Doge perchc vada al trattar la pace con I'lmperadofe 

 fuo Padre," alfo after Zucchero. 



The portrait of Thomafo Sennachio, (a celebrated phy- 

 fician,) after S. Bombelii, is alfo engraved by RolTetti; 

 aud all the above arc of largo folio dimenfions. 



The names of fome few of the engravers of Italy, who 

 run their obfcure and uniiUerefting careers about this 

 period, hsve been purpofelv omitted, as benig altogether 

 unworthy of our records. Indeed, wher, we reflca on the 

 advantatres poffelfed bv the artiiU oi Italy, compared with 

 thofe whofe inferior fortune it is to exill m the other 

 countries of Europe, we cannot but feel fome furpnze tliat 

 in the courfe of the century through w hicli we have ja'.t 

 laboured with due obedience to chronologic order, lo few 

 eneravers who are juftly entitled to rank high in their pro- 

 feifion, fliould have appeared in that highly favoured 

 country-. While France, Germany, and the Lo.v »j.oun- 

 tries, with inferior opportunities, prefent a refpeCtable dif- 

 plav of talent in this art, and are even brightened witli fome 

 rays of oritrinal genius, the hiftory of Italian engraving is 

 little better^than a dull record of creeping mediocrity. 

 ■ If the reader participates in our furpr.fe, he will perhaps 

 be led to reflea whether this effea may, with more juflice, 

 be afcrihed to dearth of that particular kind of genius com- 

 bined with patient affiduity which is required to excel m this 

 art > or to paucity of Italian patronage >. or that no p u- 

 lofophical view was then and there taken of the principles 

 and praaical energies of engraving, thougn painting and 

 the art of the ftatuary were abundantly honoured with the 

 li^erary attentions of their Italian profelTors and critics ? or 

 laMy, how far it was owing to the circumllance ol engraving 

 being lefs ftudicd and praaifed,in Italy, as a diihna pro- 

 feflion from that of painting, than in the north of Europe ? 

 The name and the works of Piranefi, which we now ap- 

 - - • ' ' ' hich wearied 



ea, 



may iiiea lome i<iiui..ii_v ..5..- „.....- - -- j'y^ 



queftions, or will at leaft prove that the genius of Itahan 

 ensravino- had not fled for ever to lefs genial climates. 



"Giovanni Batifta Piranefi, was born in the Roman territory 

 early in the eighteenth century ; Huber fays in the year 

 ,707, and di«d in the city of Rome in 1778. He was at 

 once architea, antiquary, draughtfmaa, and engraver, and 

 in all, but more particularly in the latter art, evinced the 

 moil vigorous and original powers. He appears to have 

 had no tutor, at leail none has been mentioned by his biogra- 

 phers, and excepting a found mathematical foundation, with 

 which books or a mafter muft prefumptively hav^ fupplied 

 Wm, he built his tlyleof engraving on his own llrong and 

 keen obfervation of nature. In his praa.cal knowledge of 

 pcrfpeaive, as in his treatment of ruined editices, he had 

 fmpredecefTor.-and though he will always have numerous 

 imilators, he has yet met with no rival in Italy, nor even in 



proach with all the refrefhing pleafure with which wean 

 attention is infpired by the appearance of a worthy obje 

 may flied fome falutarv light on the difcuffion of th 



Europe, fave and except our 



ivn Edward Rooker, and an- 



other, whom, with aill more propriety* we Cyclopcdians may 

 call our own. , ,. . _ _. ^ 



• The authors of the French Encyclopedic fay of Piranefi, 

 that he was the bell draughtfman of rums, and the molt pic- 



turefquc engraver that the country produced. This is no 

 cold praife, though not warm cnougli for tlic ardour of the 

 fubjed. His profefllonal induftry was unremitting, yet his 

 mind and his hand have fo far outllripped time, tiiat though 

 we know this, we remain in aftonilhment at the vail quantity 

 of his works, which, when their number and magnitude are 

 taken together, exceed the produaions of any other en- 

 graver whatever. A pile of more than twenty large folio 

 volumes, replete with taile and intelligence, fcems too much 

 to have been produced by the labour of a finglc individual* 

 even after we have made ourfelves acquainted with the rapi- 

 dity of his powers ; yet all thefe are etched from drawings 

 made by himfelf, and fome of thefe drawings, of whicli thf? 

 fubjeas are the Greek temples at Ps:tlum, and wliich atteft 

 the" vivid feeling and mailerly powers of execution which Pi- 

 ranefi poifeifed in that branch of the art, are now in thi; 

 country, having been purchafed within thefe few years in 

 Itah-, bv Charles Lambert, efq. of the Inner Temple. 



Towards the middle period of his life, or rather before, 

 our engraver became a member of the Roman academy or 

 arts, but on account of fome feuds, with the merits of which, 

 if any merit attached to them, we are not acquainted, 

 he v.as expelled by the voice of the majority of academi- 

 cians. After fome few years, however, had elapfed, and 

 animofity was cool, motives were explained, or miftakes 

 were difcovered, and Piranefi was honourably invited by his 

 brother artifls to return. He was, about the iame time, per- 

 haps to give the greater eclat to his return, created a Roman 

 knight, but was always belter known by his name than his 

 title. 



Of many irrefragable proofs that might be adduced to ren- 

 der idle the fopbifms of thofe who aiTert that engraving is not 

 an original 3.vi, Piranefi is one, having never, to the bell of the 

 prefent writer's knowledge, engraved after any other pic- 

 tures or drawings than were the produaion of his own hand, 

 which fometimes prefent us with the magnificent remains of 

 ancie-.it Italy, and are fometimes the ready oifspring of a 

 mind ilored with architeaural wonders. , ,. , 



Wherefore, unlefs thofe arts which are capable of independ- 

 ent exillence, might juftlylofe their claim to originality, by 

 condefcending to copy, where the general and infeparable 111- 

 teretts of art and fociety require fuch condefccnlion, no man, 

 and no privileged body of men, ihould fay of engraving that 

 " it is not an original art," for no man of fenie denies ori- 

 ginality to a pidure, becaufe a Ikctch or carioon of the 

 fame fubjea has previouily exilled, nor to the ar of the 

 fculptor," becaufe he models in clay before he chifl-Is in mar. 



Though the human iigures which he introduced into his 

 landfcapes, are extravagant in their attitudes, and ill drawn, 

 they ad the parts which they were intended to ad ; they 

 ferve to flievv that the fcenes he has reprefented were inhabited 

 (if not by whom), and they arc a fcale whereby he induces 

 tlie fpedator unwittingly to meafure the relative magnitude 

 of thofe edifices which were tiie real and the oilenfible ojw 

 jeas of his art. In his charaaerillic treatment of thole edi- 

 fices, and of the vafes and other ornamental reir.ains of an- 

 tiquity, his fine, varying as occafion admitted or required, 

 was peculiarly exprelTive of Hone, bronze, llucco, brick, 

 and all the various materials of which Greek and Roman 

 fculptureand architeaure confift, dilcrm-inatmg wi:h ex- 

 quilfte obfervation and inimitable Ikill. whether thofe mate- 

 rials retained their original (liarpnefs of workmaniaip, or 

 were mouldered by the hand of Time ; or ilained by the 

 weather ; or fplit and cracked by the fro I, by Vand .1 b .- 

 barity, or other fudden cafualty ; and whatever h s fubje.r. 

 he always ferns to have worked with ealy vigour, wt:. un- 



limited, 



