An Inquiry Into the Origin and Early History of Engraving, Upon
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.-•,v ^'4 ^.- ^^m li^rf!^ u.'-" ' I vV AN INQ^UIRY INTO THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF ENGRAVING, tJPON Copper anti in lEooti. VOL. II. AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF ENGRAVING, UPON Coppei* autr in 12aootr» WITH AN ACCOUNT OF ENGRAVERS AND THEIR WORKS, FROM THE INVENTION OF CHALCOGRAPHY BY MASO FINIGUERRA, TO THE TIME OF MARC ANTONIO RAIMONDI. BY WILLIAM YOUNG OTTLEY, F.S.A. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN AND ARTHUR ARCH, 61, CORNHILL, BY J. M'CREERY, BLACK-HORSE-COURT. 1816. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Research Library, The Getty Research Institute http://www.archive.org/details/inquiryintoorigi02ottl TABLE OF THE CONTENTS OF VOLUME THE SECOND. CHAPTER VII. parts of the North of Italy. Engravers Of the Venetian State, and other ANeiENT Andrea conjectured to be by Francesco Squarc.one. Zani's account of an Engraving, Bra- Fogolino. Benedetto Montagna. Mantegna. Girolamo Mocetto. Marcello Gio. Battista del Porto G.o. Mana Inte Nicoletto da Modena. Altobello. unknown Engravers, distinguished by and Gio. Antonio da Brescia. Works of .... page 47 y Cyphers or Monograms CHAPTER VIII. and the Low Countries and their account of the principal Engravers of Germany Some van time of Albert Durer and Lucas Works, from the earliest period until the by the talents of ^^^ert Durej^ Leyden. Wood Engraving brought to perfection P^^^ Hans Bergmair, and Holbein CHAPTER IX. Giulio and Domenico Campagnola Sequel of the Engravers of the Italian Schools. The Conclusion .... page 7bi. Jacomo Francia. Marc' Antonio Raimondi. , page 821 Index to both volumes AN INQ^UIRY INTO THE HISTORY OF ENGRAVING, CHAPTER VIL Ancient Engravers of the Venetian State, and other parts of the North conjectured to be hy of Itahj. Zani's account of an Engraving, Francesco Sqiiarcione. Andrea Mantegna. Girolamo Mocetto. Marcello FogoUno. Benedetto Montagna. Bramante. Nicoletto da Modena. Altobello. Gio. Battista del Porto. Gio. Maria and Gio. Antonio da Brescia. Works of unknown Engravers, distin- guished hi) Cyphers or Mo7iograms. In the three foregoing chapters, I have endeavoured to trace the progress of Chalcography in Florence, from its invention, by Maso Finiguerra, until the commencement of the sixteenth century. That the art of engraving on copper, or other metal, was practised the nume- during this interval at Rome, also, is sufficiently proved by printed there rous plates in the edition of the " Geography of Ptolemy," VOL. II. 3 P* 480 FRANCESCO SQUARCIONE. [chap. VII. in 1478:* that it was known likewise in other places south ofFlorence, can scarcely be doubted : and yet I am not prepared to mention the name of even one Italian engraver, a native of those parts, who flourished prior to 1527, the j^ear in which the sackage of Rome took place. In the northern provinces of Italy the new art appears to have met with the early attention of men qualified by their abilities to ensure its advancement. Of these, Andrea Mantegna has been commonly considered the most ancient. Zani, however, suspects that his master, Francesco Squarcione, engraved before him. f - Francesco Squarcione Avas born at Padua, in 1394, and died, aged eighty, in the year 1474. Lanzi observes of him, that if he was not himself the best artist of the state of Venice of his time, he was, certainly, the best instructor of others. Not content with the " * A description of this curious work, ac- portion of iron. The other materials are companied by fac-similes, will be found in " lead, block-tin, and regulus of antimony. the Supplement to Mr. Dibdin's Bibliotheca " Albert Durer began by copying of old Spenceriana. " prints, as you will see when you come to in to liis ' History " him; this print is older than that of 1467, f- Palmer, an appendix " of Printing,' 1733, (p. 390, and seq.) gives a which stands by it, which was taken to be Catalogue of the chief contents of a Volume of " the oldest of any one with a date by the early engravings ; " Exactly copied," he tells " author, who mentions this for want of " us, from the R. H. the Earl of Pembroke's " knowing of that. As for the year 1412 " curious Book of those Prints, iu which " above-mentioned, it agrees with the time iu " each Piece hath its own particular account " which A. de Murano flourished ; and Bal- " of its manner, Scc.in manuscript, in a right " dinucci speaks in one place as if other au- " progressive order as follows." " thors were uncertain how near 1400, the After a description of Pollajuolo's battle " invention of prints was. Yet he seems to of naked figures, and two pieces by Israel van " say, that Ma$o Finiguerri was not long Mecken, we find the following unintelligible " before Pollaiolo, who followed Baccio " passage ; from which some writers have been Baldini, who imitated I\Iaso the inventor led to suppose that Lord Pembroke's collec- " of prints, by taking off some from engraved " tion really possessed the impression of an en- silver work, to see the impression : but un- graving on metal, with the date of 1412. " less he did so some years before, this print " 4. A.M. was, as is supposed, Andrea de " must be older." " Murano, 1412. This print is upon that I should not have given this nonsense a " mixt metal on which goldsmiths used to place in my book, had not the passage been " engrave their first proofs. It is now like- often referred to by other w riters. There can " wise used by other artists. Founders call be no doubt that the author of the MS. ob- " it the hard metal, and printers the type- servations mistook the date. " metal, though the latter has a greater pro- ; CHAP. VII.] FRANCESCO SQUARCIONE. 481 means of study which his native city and other parts of the Venetian states afforded, he travelled all over Italy, and even to Greece designing whatever he found best worthy of his attention in paint- ing and sculpture, and, occasionally, making purchases of such things as came within his reach. Upon his return to Padua, he there arranged his collection, Avhich was the richest then known not only in designs, but also in ancient statues, fragments, and bassi-relievi. With the help of such models, rather than by means of the example of his own works, he instructed the young artists committed to his charge ; and so great were the benefits which were found to result from this mode of teaching, that it is said the number of his scholars amounted to no less than an hundred and seventy -three. " By this respectable artist," says Zani, (Materiali, p. 59, et seq.) " I flatter myself Avith having discovered an engraving, executed " with the burin, which I shall now describe. " This print measures twenty inches and nine lines in width, by " fourteen inches and two lines in height,* is a little rounded off " at the four corners, and is marked in the middle, at bottom, in " large characters, thus : S E. The subject, which is familiar " and grotesque, contains nine figures. In the middle, stands an " old woman, with a high toupee, who, Avith her right hand, holds " a spit, well laden with sausages, and, with her left, presents the " foot of a hog to a young man. Another man, Avho is kneeling " on the ground before the old woman, appears to supplicate her " favours ; and in the back-ground are two others, seated, and seen " in profile, one on each side, bloAving trumpets. -j- The buttons on " the habits of all these men, are so many bells ; the fore-ground, " which occupies the entire width of the print, at bottom, appears " like a frame, from which rise various plants, several of them * As I have before said, I am doubtful f The reader will observe, that, although whether or not Zani measures by the old Zani says this piece contains nine figures, he French foot. only describes five. 3 Q ; 482 FRANCESCO SQUARCIONE. [chap. vii. " with flowers; and the ground, higher up, has tlie form of" a regular " horizontal stripe, and is enriched with numerous minute sprigs " of foliage : all the rest of the back-ground is white. The figures " are all of large dimensions, and at their feet are a few short " horizontal lines, intended to indicate the shadows projected from " them on the ground." Zani informs us that he has seen four impressions of this en- graving : the first at Padua, in the Library of S. Giustina, apper- taining to the Benedictine Monks ; the second, in the collection of the Ducal Gallery at Florence ; the third, in the National Cabinet at Paris ; and the fourth, in the collection of an amateur, M. Michel Nitot Dufresne, in the same city. * It is difficult, from the observations with which Zani endeavours to explain his reasons for ascribing this engraving to Squarcione, to form any distinct idea of the manner in which it is engraved. He tells us, that it is quite in the taste of the old school of Padua " that is," says he, " in the style of the master who engraved the " ' ;'* Giuoco di Tarocchi of Mantegna ; of the two engravers of " Brescia; of Montagna, and other similar artists." So that it is impossible to conjecture whether it is finished with diagonal hatch- ings, like the engravings of Mantegna, and many of those of Gio. Antonio da Brescia; with close hatchings, crossed in various direc- tions, like the pieces of the Giuoco di Tarocchi ; or in the bolder and less neat style of workmanship adopted by Benedetto Montagna.