ITALIAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



fmaller plntes, coloured ; a fet of eight views at Tivoli, felfifh advantage of the yielding fimplicity of Schiavonetli' 

 coloured byDucrosand his afliftants ; another fct of twenty and the credulity of Bartobzzi, with tht view of convert- 

 views in Rome and its vicinity, coloured in the fume manner, ing to his own ufe and profit the abilities of the former, and 

 both folio books ; another of fourteen ditto ; another fet of the hofpitality of the latter ; and as the accufed party lins 

 forty, from the Mufeuni Clementinum ; another fct, printed publicly required time for the collcftion of fuch documents 

 on four iarge (heets, from Raphael and Julio Romano. as might exculpate him from the cliargc, uliich documents 



It is much to the honour of modern Italy, that we have he has not yet produced: -in fuch a ftate of evidence, it 

 to ciofe our catalogue of its fchool of engravers with the may be fufficient to fay of our engraver, that, after enduring 

 mention of two ftars, than which no brighter have flione in fome further difficulties and difaripoin.tments, and after re- 

 the hemifphere of the art. fiding a while under the roof, and receiving the inftrntlion, 



Luigi or Lewis Schiavonctti, v,-as born at BalTano, in of Mr. Bartolozzi, he, in concert with his brother Nicholas, 

 the Vcneiian territory, in the year 1 76 J. His father was commenced an independent eftablifliment. 

 aftationer, whofe moderate circun. (lances enabled him to give From Bartolozzi's houfe at Northend, lie removed to 

 to his cin-ht children, the eldefl; of wliom was Lewis, n ufe- Sloane fquare, and from thence to Brompton, where he 

 ful but limited education. From his infancy he had a .afte continued, to the j'onr of his death, to cultivate and im- 

 for drawing, and while his companions wei-e at play, he was prove the talent that Providence had bcftc-wed on bin-., nn- 

 often feen "kneeling on a llool in his fatlier's fliop, copying cheered by the funfhinc of patronage: — or cheered, orcl.illcd, 

 prints. By thefe, and fuch other means as he pofiefled, he by fuch patronage only as confifted with the purblind vit^vs 

 attained fuch prolkicncy. that Julius Golini, (an ab!e painter, of commercial fpeculators, and expofed to the thoufaud 

 to whom fome of thele early attempts were flicwn,) under- natneiefs wrongs, 

 took to in!lrua_hini in tlie art of drawitjg. <. That patient merit from th' unworthy takes." 



At the age ot tmrtecn, Lewis was placed under his care, ^ ' 



and the high opinion which he had formed of the boy's ge- Some time about the year 1792, he entered into a part- 

 iiius, was confirmed by the rapid progrcfs he made, while nerfi-iip with certain printfellers, of which he had foon reafon 

 Lis amiable diipofition endeared him fo much, that Gohni to repent ; and, the partnerfliip being diffolved, and himfelf 

 loved him as his own fon. After three years, however, of in poifeffion of fome few engraved plates, he difmifi'cd a 

 iifeful initriiclion on the one part, and docile attention on youn:;er brother to the continent en a printfelling miffion^ 

 the other, his tutor, unfortuna'ely for our young artiil, was whicii alfo ended in dif^ppointment : for, the wretched va- 

 atratked by a mortal difeaf?. Lewis attended him during cillation of Pruffian po'itics, and the inroads of French am- 

 his illnefs with filial afliduity, received with becoming reve- bitiun, foon fwept av,-ay the younger Schiavonctti from 

 rcnce his iying counfcl and admonitions, and had tlie heart- Berhn, which had been fixed upon as the head-quarters of 

 piercing grief to fee his mailer expire in his arms. their commerce. 



Being nuv.-left to purfue his own courle, or sffifted only During the lliort interval of peace between this country 

 by fuch advice as could be obtained in a town where Gohni and France, he availed himfelf of the opportunity of vifiting 

 had been the only painter, he turned his views towards count Paris, with the twofold objeft in view,— of i-.r.provlrig his 

 Remaudini, who, though ennobled by this title, is proprietor natur.l talent, of which he never loft fight,.— and, obtaining- 

 (as it fiiould feem) of an extenfive typographical and chal- fuch tree accefs to the galiery of the Louvre, which was 

 cographical concern, and has infcribed on marble how much then thrown open to the public and fuppofed to contain the 

 he feels himfeif honoured by having pubhrtied fome of the fined piftures in Europe, as might cna! le him to gratify 

 works of Bartolozzi and Volpato. himfelf with the pleafure and advantage of feledting one cr 



The works of thefe dillinguilhed artifts gave frefh impulfe mors fubjeCts to engrave, fnited to his own abilities. This 

 to young Schiavonetti's ardour for improvement, and becon> is a ijratification in which engravers of genius are but too 

 ing acquainted about this time with one Lorio, an indifferent rarely indulged. The difficulties and delicacies of folicitar 

 engraver, who was barely competent to -.each the mechanical tion, the demands of commerce, and the purblind ilate of 

 procefs of the art, he applied to him for inllruftion. Un- Enghlh patronage, (which, with all its benevolence, and alt 

 able to fupport himfelf and family by his graver atone, Lo- its power, has not yet emancipated itfelf from the milhikes 

 rio oificialed as faeriftan to a church, and could ofier our and the fetters of trade,) are bars which, in this country, 

 ai-tiil no better accommodation for a ftudy than the facrilly none have been able to overleap : yet nothing is more men- 

 afforded, but which, his circumilanccs not allowing him to t.tlly obvious, than that other rtien can only judge of the 

 apply elfewhere, he was obliged to accept. talents of an engraver by what he has done, while the fecl- 



Schiavcmetti remained, with this matter about twelve ings of the engraver himfelf, if he has any, inform him., at 

 months, when finding he had exhaulled his fund of inllruc- the fight of a gallery of fine piclures, v.diat latent gern:S cf 

 tion, and feeling an averfion to ftudying occafionally among genius or talent he ir.ay poifefs, aJ.equate to the ta!k of 

 dead bodies, he refolved to alter his fitnation. A copy tranflating fuch of them as are panned with a fpirit con- 

 which he had executed in the line manner, of a Holy Fa- genial to his own ; what elements it^ra the intfllcctnal chaos 

 mily, from Bartolozzi's print after Carlo Maratti, gained of his untried powers m.ay be called into exillence ; how far, 

 lum employment from count Remaudini, and attraded the through his means, the boundauies of the art itfelf may be 

 notice of another printfeller of Baffano, of the name of extended. 



Suntach ; and between thefe rival printfellers it is probable The fliortnefs, ho-wevcr, of that lucid interval, marred, in 

 that Schiavonctti might have long continued lo exill on fome degree, the excellence of our artiil's defign, and com- 

 fuch patronage as confilled with their views of profit, but pelled him to compromife with the ir.adnefs cf Enrope, and 

 for the kinder and more adva;itageous notice of fome Ve- his ov^-n '.mtoward fortune. One of the fnbjedts wiiich he 

 iielian noblemen, and the occurrence of tliofe circumilances fixed upon was the Madre Di.lorofa of Vandyke: but the- 

 wliich ended in his migration to England. return of war left liim no alternative but to endeavour to 



As thefe circumilances have been detailed in print, in fatisfy himfelf as well as he could with a copy by another 

 fuch a manner as to (ligmatife a certain naturalized fnbjeft hand. The copy did not turn out very ciirreft ; yet fro.n 

 uf tbefe redms with the reproach of having taken mean and this indifl'crcnt copy, aided bv Bolfwert's print from t'ne 



4 ' fan,e 



