ITALIAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



rtiis artift, were all executed at I^ondon, from which it ap- 

 pears, that after lie had once ingratiated himfelf into the 

 good graces of Angelica, he engraved no more. 



The fiibjefts of Zucchi's prints are as follow : — " The 

 Mafe Erato," after Angelica KaufFman, in folio ; " The 

 Mufe Urania ;" " The Symbol of Simphcity ;" " Calypfo 

 invoking Heaven and Earth to witnefs her AffeAion for 

 UlyfTes," in large folio, from Ang. Kauffman ; " Tlie 

 Judgment of Hercules,' from P. Cortona ; " An Offering 

 to Ceres," both in large folio ; " Eneai and Dido taking 

 refuge in the Grotto," after Guido ; " The Virgin with 

 the Holy Infant in the Clouds, furrounded by Angels," 

 from the fame mafter, in folio ; " The Virgin and Child 

 with St. .John, between two Saints," Bartolomeo pinx. ; 

 " The Denial of St. Peter," from Guercino ; '• Jupiter 

 and Europa accompanied by Nymphs ;" and " Jupiter and 

 Europa on the Waves of the Ocean, accompanied by 

 Cupids," all of folio dimenlions. 



Giovanni (or John) Volpato, was born at Baflano, in 

 the Venetian territory, in the year 1738, and in his early 

 youth pnidtifed embroidery, which he learned of liis mo- 

 ther, but afterwards applied himfelf to the ftudy of en- 

 graving, which he followed for fome time without any 

 mailer, urged by the force of his own inclination, or at- 

 tracted by fuch beauties of the art, as he faw in the print 

 fhops of Baffano. 



He made a journey to Venice for the fake of obtaining 

 information on what had now become the fettled fubject of 

 iiis lludies. Here, for fome reafon that has not ti-au- 

 fpired, perhaps from youthful affeftation, perhaps from 

 diffidence, he publiflied his lirfl plates under the affumed 

 name of John RcnarJ, and here he was iirft made known 

 to the celebrated and benevolent Bartolozzi, who inte- 

 refted himfelf in the welfare of the young artill, and im- 

 parted to him the information of which he came in queft. 



Volpato now felt more confidence ; no longer withheld his 

 name from the public, and foon produced engravings after 

 Amicoiii and Piazetta, which obtained him approbation and 

 encouragement, and were followed by others after Maiotto, 

 Zuccarelli, and Marco Ricci. 



From Venice our engraver travelled to Rome, where his 

 abilities foon eRabliflied him as a reputable engraver, and 

 where his largeft and bell works were performed. A fociety 

 of amateurs, very fortunately for him, had about this time 

 conceived the projeft of patronizing the firll engravers of 

 the country, in the produftion of a fet of large plates after 

 Raphael's pictures in the Vatican ; and among thofe who 

 were engaged, none diilinguiflied himfelf more by his in- 

 duftry, nor perhaps by his talents, than Volpato, who 

 continued for many years to enrich the public with large 

 plates, which have obtained him much praife from the critics 

 and connoilFeurs of the continent, and which are engraved 

 after the very fined piftures that have been produced fince 

 the revival of art. 



Tiiis was a noble race for an engraver to run, and his 

 pv.pil and fon-in-law Raphael Morghen is now following 

 with fuperior brilliancy in the fame courfe. 



The works of Volpato have been the febjeft of eulogium 

 with Roll, Huber, and fome other of the German, French, 

 and ItaHan writers upon art, but, in the ellimation of the 

 prefent writer, are deficient in richnefs and variety, and are 

 more the refult of mechanical care and patient indullry, than 

 of tafte and feehng. His liglits efpecially, when compared 

 with thofe of Gerard Audran, Giacomo Frey, fir Robert 

 Strange, or his countryman Schiavonetti, of wliom we are 

 Iibont to ipct-li, :;rc either j;apery, or cold and metallic. 

 TUore is no playfuluefs of pencil ; no evidence of a mind 



that glows and moves through its work with painter-like 

 fehcity, but the fpeftator is perpetually reminded o; the 

 rigid and undeviating courfe of the graving-tool ; and 

 though the chade forms and pathos of Raphael will always 

 give a certain value to the works of Volpato, and even afford 

 fome argument in favour of the di-ynefs of his ftyle, pofterity 

 will not place him in the very firii rank of engravers. 



Indeed, fo dead was our artift to the more exquifite fuf- 

 ceptibilities of his art, er fo eager for the obtinment of 

 profit, that (like thofe in our own country wlio have con- 

 verted Macbeth into a burletta) he joined with Du Cros, and 

 his little fchool of petty colourers, in a fcheme for painting 

 over with water colours, his fmaller fets of engravings from 

 the gallery of Caracci at the Farnefe palace, and the Loggio 

 and Stanzas of Raphael at the Vatican, bellces fome fets of 

 prints on a larger fcale, of views in Rome and its en- 



Now, in works of this kind, the addition of colour, ef- 

 pecially if fome of tlie pigments employed be opaque, (as is 

 the cafe in the coloured prints of Volpato,) inevitably 

 dellroys the beauty of the engraving, which in its tuni mars 

 tliat of the colours. It is, therefore, a mode of mutual" 

 dellruction in art, which is juftly regretted by thofe who 

 know, or who believe, that the art of engraving is capable 

 of becoming, of itfelf and without extnnfic addition, an 

 appropriate vehicle for rendering every perfection that 

 painting has yet attained. 



In England we are but emerging from the millakes into- 

 which coloured works of this kind, aided by the cupidity of 

 dealers, had plunged the national tade. and we tiierefore 

 may at lead dand excufed, if we dwell upon the misfortune 

 to art that mud enfue when a didinguifhed profeffor joins 

 his efforts with thofe of the midaken fons of commerce, to 

 break down the natural barriers between one art and another, 

 and obliterate the delicate hnes of demarcation which the 

 finger of fcience has traced upon the orb of the inteliettual 

 world. 



" According to an ancient fable, which has an excellent 

 moral, the hindering mufic of Pan did for a while feem fuc- 

 cefsfuily to filence the chade harmony of Apollo ; and as 

 tlie fenfes of the vulgar, we knou-, are powerfully affailed 

 by red, blue, and yellow, however " idly fpread," it may 

 yet be fome time before the multitude are fufiiciently in- 

 formed, entirely to difcard coloured engravings ; but as 

 even the tea-gardens have at length lliut out coloured datiies, 

 we cannot defpair. Tiiough the gaudy bubble may float 

 awhile in the denfe atmofphere with which fadiion has fur- 

 rounded and chilled the fphere of Britifli engraving, it will 

 fooner or later burft ; and though fome few, perhaps more 

 than a few, (hallow and inaccurate obfervers mav for a time 

 be pleafed to their coft, all mechanical modes of picture- 

 making will eventually fink into contempt, and painting and 

 engraving will triumph as didinft and feparate arts. 



"As we frequently hear the uninformed talk as if they con- 

 ceived the highed effort of painting was merely to copy na- 

 ture as nature appears to them, fo it is very common to hear 

 unreflefting people fpesk of engraving, as if it were no 

 other than an art of copyir.g that of painting ; which, 

 though a great midake, is yet a very pardonable midake on 

 the part of thofe who have been led into it, when we con- 

 iider the date in which the art of engraving has hitherto 

 exided, and the difliculties, and the degradation, under 

 which, in this country, it has hitherto laboured. 



" Now engraving is no more an art of copying painting, 

 than the EngHfli language is an art of copying Greek oc 

 Latin. Engraving is a diftincl language of art ; and though 

 it may bear fuch refemblance to painting in the condruilion 



of 



