ITALIAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



•f its grammar, as grammars of languages bear to each 

 other, yet its alphabet and idiom, or mode of expreffion, 

 are totally different ; if Englifli be made the vehicle of tlie 

 fame thoujihti which have previoufly been imparted to us by 

 painting, i: affords the means of affefting our minds in the 

 fame manner ; this fimilar aftec\ion of the mind has L-d to 

 the miftakc, and little doubt may be entertamed but that 

 Englilli would have been inconfiderately called an art of 

 copying Greek, if wc had nevor read any other EngUflithan 

 tranllations from the Greek. 



" The pretenfions of engraving, as of all the arts denomi- 

 nated fine, are fimplc, chade, unfophilHcated. Art ever 

 difdains artifice, attempts no impofition, but honelHy claims 

 attention, as being what it is. A ilatue is to be looked at 

 as being a ftatue, not a real figure ; a picture, not as a portion 

 of aftual nalure ; a print, not as a copy of painting. 



" Engravings, therefore, fuch as thofe of Volpato, are no 

 more copies of Raphael's original piilures, than the fame 

 compofitions, if fculpturcd, or modelled in low relief, would 

 be copies. In both cafes, they would be, not copies, but 

 tranjlations from one language of art into another language 

 of art. 



" But abfurdity bloiToms luxuriantly, when engrafted on an 

 original (lock of error ; and this vulgar and erroneous notion, 

 that an engraving is a copy of a painting, has been affidu- 

 oufly cultivated by the avarice or ignorance of the dealer? in 

 prints, who always follow and pamper the taile of the iiiob, 

 be it ever fo depraved, provided it be profitable. That grafs 

 was green, and that foldiers' coats were red, was known to 

 tlie moft ignorant of the gaping multitude, and has given 

 wings to credulity, and currency to empiricifm. Neither is 

 it of the fmallelx importance whether ignorance or the un- 

 principled love of gain have contributed moft to the produc- 

 tion of this effedt, fince the public tafte in either cafe has 

 equally fuffered. It is error fufficicntto call for animadver- 

 fion here, if the print-fellers, (poflefEng, or pofi'efled by, this 

 miftaken notion, and with the view of making the copy, in 

 their own vulgar eltimation, approach nearer to its original,) 

 have caufed colours to be literally and barbaroufly added to 

 engraving : for to colour a legitimate engraving is not lefs 

 palpably abfurd to an eye of talkful diicemment, than it 

 would be to colour a diamond, which, as every- one knows, 

 would but obfcure the native brilliancy and beauty of the 

 ftone. And if a good engraving muft thus fuffer by being 

 coloured, fo neither can bad ones be thus converted to good 

 pictures : at the utmoll, nothing better than a fort of mule 

 prodiidlion, (fuch as thofe by \clpato and Ducros, which 

 have fuggeiled the iniroduftion of thefe remarks) can thus 

 be generated, though with much more of the afs than the 

 norfe in its conftitution." Landfeers Lectures. 



Again, thefe obfervations acquire force in a compound 

 ratio to the merits in point of colouring, of the pitlurcs 

 from which coloured plates may be engraven. For example, 

 Fyt, Teniers, and Vandyke are among the number of thofe 

 painters who are juftly cileemed inimitable for the beauty 

 and harmony of their colours, and dextrous management of 

 their pencils. If children could be brought, even in the 

 way of copying, to pencil and colour like Fyt, Teniers, 

 and Vandyke, thofe mailers would lofe their high reputa- 

 tion, and this part of the painter's art would be in confe- 

 quence fo depreciated, as to become of very little value. 

 To pretend, therefore, to emu'ate the merits of a finely co- 

 loured and beautifully pencilled picture, fo as to meet the 

 eye, and merit a place in the cabinet, of a man of tafte, — and 

 to do this on prints, by the fcore or by the hundred, — is little 

 Icfs ridiculous than to talk of a machine for playing on the 

 violin or organ, or of a mill for making verfes. 



We (hall notice the works of this popular engraver, Nearly 

 in the order in which they were produced. 



While at Venice, and under the tuition of Bartolo/.zi, he 

 engraved 



Portraits, of the doge Fofcarini, and the procurator 

 Pafcal, of folio fize, after Bartolo//,i ; a fet of four from 

 the Old Teftament, in folio, from drawings by Baitolozzi, 

 after the original pifturcs by Amiconi, of which ihf fub- 

 jefts are, i. " The Finding of Mofes ;" 2. Liiban foarch- 

 ing for his Idols ;" ^. " The Servitude of Abraham," and 

 4. " Mofes erefting an Altar to the Lord.'' Eight convrr- 

 fational fubjeds, in fmall folio, after Muiotti ; " The Or- 

 gies, or Feaft of Bacchus," an hiilorical landfcape, done 

 for Wagner, after Zuccarelli ; "A Philofcpher proilrate 

 before an Altar, furrounded by Ruins," from the fame 

 mailer, both in large folio ; an Italian landfcape, with 

 filhers ; another landfcape, and peafants ; all from Zucca- 

 relh ; and two landfcapes after the elder Brand, ali of large 

 folio fize. 



Plates engraved at Reme. — " The Four Sibyls of the 

 Church of St. JVIary of Peace," after Raphael, in luge 

 folio ; " The Marriage of Alexander and Roxana," fro.-i 

 tlie fame painter ; " Modefty and Vanity," after L. da 

 Vinci, in fquare folio ; •< Perl'cus delivering Andromeda." 

 from P. de Caravaggio ; " Our Saviour praying on tlse 

 Mount of Olives,' from Coregglo, in hrge folio ; «• Mary 

 Magdalen walhing the Feel of Our Saviour at tl e Table i^i 

 Simon the Pharifee," after P. Veronefe ; " The Marriage 

 of Cana," after Tinloret, both of large folio fize ; and 

 " The Gamefters," after M. A. de Caravaggio, in folio ; 

 all of which were for Hamilton's collection. 



The Piaures of the Vatican, by RaJ>/.<aeI,et:^raveJ in ihs line 

 maimer, on a very large J'cak. — "The Sthoul of Athens;"' 

 " The Difpute on the Holy Sacrament," or "Theology ;" 

 " Heliodorus chaced from the Temple of Jerufaleni ;" 

 " The Progrefs of Attila arreftcd at the Appearance of 

 St. Peter and St. Paul ;'' " St. Peter delivered from 

 Prifon;" " Mount Parnafl'us ;" and "The Burning ot 

 the City of Rome." " The Miracle of the M;;fs of Bol- 

 fenna," belonging to this fet, is by Raphael Moigheu, the 

 fon-in-law and pupil of Volpato. 



Suh]etls from -various Italian Painters, all i-eiy large. — 

 " The Defcent from the Ciofs," from a painting by Ra- 

 phael, in the Borghefe palace ; " The Holy Vir,,in," named 

 " La Saggiola of Florence," from the fame painter ; " The; 

 Holy Virgin of St. Mark," after Fra. Bartolomeo ; " The 

 Marriage of the Virgin," from Guercino ; " Piety, or 

 the Virgin of Pity ;" "n<l " Aurora," both from i^idurcs 

 by GueVcino, in the Villa Ludovifi ; "Day" and "Niglit," 

 which form a fet with the Aurora,' by the fame painter ; 

 " The Crucifixion," from a picture by Guido, in the chuivh 

 of St. Lorenzo, in Lucina ; " The Venus" of Paolo Vero- 

 nefe, from the gallery of the Colonna palace ; two fubjefts, 

 ■with children, from Mohi ; a pair from the firft naviga- 

 tor of Gefner, after F Gianni ; another pair aft-r the fame 

 painter, taken fro.m Gcfner's Idyllia ; two landfcapcs from 

 Claude Lorraine, of which the ori)>inals were in the Colonna 

 palace ; a fet of fix, or rather three pairs, after Gavin Ha- 

 milton, of which the fubjcds are i. " The Death of Lucrc- 

 tia ;" 2. " Innocence," a plate of confiderable m.crit and beau- 

 ty; 5. " Juno ;" 4. " Hebe ;" 5. " II Pcnforofo ;' 6. " L'AI- 

 legro," and the two prophets and two fibyls, from Michael 

 Angelo's pitlures in the Silline Chapel. 



The following are of fmaller Dimenfions A fet of thirty- 

 fix, in fmall folio, from the antique ftatues, with the dimen- 

 fions, &c. an elementary work f<ir ftudents in the arts ; a fet 

 from the Farnefe gallery, confiding of tlirce larger and three 

 4 B i Imdler 



