Bartolozzi, FRANCESCO

Bartolozzi, FRANCESCO, an eminent engraver, was born in Florence, September 21, 1727. After practising his art under Joseph Wagner at Venice, he went to Rome, where he executed his admired plates from the life of St Vitus. He was afterwards commissioned by Mr Dalton, librarian of George III., to engrave a series of drawings by Guercino, and was induced by the same patron to settle in England. Here Bartolozzi produced his exquisite line engravings of 'The Silence' and 'Clytie,' after Annibale Carracci, which entitle him to occupy the front rank in his profession. He also engraved numerous specimens of the works of his friend Giovanni Cipriani, of Michael Angelo, Carlo Dolci, Sirano, and others, with equal truth and effect. He likewise enriched Alderman Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery with many fine engravings. In 1769, on the formation of the Royal Academy, Bartolozzi was nominated one of the original members, and executed, from a design by his friend Cipriani, the diploma, which is still in use, and ranks as one of his masterpieces. In 1802 he accepted a flattering invitation from the Prince Regent of Portugal, to take the superintendence of a school of engravers at Lisbon, whither he repaired three years afterwards in his seventy-eighth year, and there resided until his death, March 7, 1815. He was the grandfather of the celebrated actress, Madame Vestris. His prints are said to be more numerous than those of any engraver, home or foreign; and include line engravings and stippled works, printed in brown and red. See Bartolozzi and his Works, by Tuer (2 vols. 1882), where the dates of his birth and death, about which a singular diversity of opinion appears to have existed, are verified.