Biography from Rogallery.com:
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The most renowned student of Joseph Wagner in Venice, Francesco
Bartolozzi began his career engraving* plates after the designs of
Italian masters. In 1764, he was invited to come to England in
order to engrave the Guercino drawings in the Royal collection. A new
printmaking* process had recently been developed in London at this time
and although, Francesco Bartolozzi could not claim its invention, his
name is forever linked with the 'Stipple' engraving. Briefly, a
stipple* engraving is created by employing a multitude of flicks or
dots rather than the lines used in etching or engraving. The higher the
density of dots in an area the darker the plate will print and
therefore, the stipple is a tonal as opposed to a linear method,
producing light and dark contrasts.
Francesco Bartolozzi quickly
recognized that this very demanding method of original printmaking was
best suited for decorative works and portraits and scenes displaying
flesh tones. He thus set up his famous London workshop, which
published renderings of either sentimental or mythological subjects,
with such well known painters as Francis Wheatly, Angelica Kauffmann,
Cipriani and Diana Beauclerk specifically creating designs for him to
engrave.
Francesco Bartolozzi's success with the stipple was
enormous. He was one of the first engravers granted a full
membership to the Royal Academy* of England, and in the last decades of
the eighteenth century, a large following of English and transplanted
Italian students sat in his studio to learn his techniques. (Some of
his students later engraved the popular Cries of London
series.) Stippling, however, was destined to live a very short
life. It was extremely labourous and time consuming and soon gave way
to the more convenient and mass produced forms of printmaking in the
nineteenth century. | Source:
rogallery.com |
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