‘After’ Holbein

Sir Thomas More – lawyer, philosopher, statesman and Lord High Chancellor to King Henry VIII of England – was executed for treason on this day, 6 July, 485 years ago in 1535. More has been the subject of literature (most recently ‘Wolf Hall’), theatre and film (‘A Man for All Seasons’, ‘Anne of the Thousand Days’), a television miniseries (‘The Tudors’) and art.

Hans Holbein’s portrait of Sir Thomas More is the artwork discussed by Xavier Salomon in the most recent episode of ‘Cocktails with a Curator’ from The Frick Collection. This can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZchPHt2xW8U&list=PLNVeJpU2DHHR_0y_Zvgn3MgZQQFcFx2eI&index=3&t=0s

The National Gallery of Victoria has a collection of more than 30 etchings ‘after Holbein’ including one of Sir Thomas More. The engraving in the NGV collection is a reproduction of the original Holbein drawing which is still in the Royal Library in Windsor Castle. It is a ‘colour stipple engraving’ from 1793 by Francesco Bartolozzi that was published by John Chamberlaine.

In a ‘new edition’ of ‘Utopia’ by Sir Thomas More with ‘copious notes, and a biographical and literary introduction’ by the Rev T. F. Dibin F.S.A (London 1808), this portrait is described as: ‘Of all the portraits of More, this has probably the strongest resemblance to the Original. Its execution, by Bartolozzi, is unrivalled … there is a shrewdness and sagacity about the portrait, manifested by the keen retired eye, protuberant nose, and thin lips … it has a powerful effect upon the beholder’.

Most of the etchings ‘after Holbein’ in the NGV collection date from the late 18^th and early 19^th century and the majority (and finest) are stipple engravings and signed: ‘Engraved by F. Bartolozzi R. A. Historical Engraver to his Majesty.

Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815) was an Italian engraver who lived in London for almost 40 years and, as his signing indicates, was both a member of the Royal Academy and the favourite engraver of King George III.

Born in Florence, his artistic drawing abilities meant that Bartolozzi did not become a gold- and silversmith, like his father Gaetano, but was instead apprenticed aged 15 to local artists who instructed him in anatomical drawing and painting. From Ignazio Hugford, Francesco learned about early neoclassicism and from Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, he discovered Italian rococo.

After studying art in Florence for three years, Francesco moved to Venice to learn engraving from Joseph Wagner. Wagner was a German who had studied painting in Venice under Jacopo Amigoni. Amigoni was impressed with Wagner’s drawing skills and encouraged him to take up engraving which resulted in a very successful and productive career in Europe and England. Wagner had many notable students but his most well-known is Bartolozzi, who spent six years learning from him.

Bartolozzi worked in Venice and Rome making etchings of the works of Old Masters and provided portrait heads for a new edition of Vasari’s ‘Lives of the Painters’. Within a short time his reputation had grown and, in 1763, Richard Dalton, the English Royal Librarian, who was travelling in Italy looking for acquisitions for the King’s collection, offered Bartolozzi an appointment as engraver to the King. The offer of a royal appointment and £300 a year was irresistible and the 37-year-old Bartolozzi left his Venetian wife and son and moved to London.

Within a year of arriving in England, Bartolozzi joined the incorporated Society of Artists and in 1768, was made an original member of the Royal Academy. This was particularly noteworthy as the Royal Academy excluded engravers from membership as part of its charter. However, Bartolozzi was held in sufficiently high regard so he was admitted in the category of ‘Painter’.

For the next thirty-eight years in England, Bartolozzi completed many engravings based on the work of European artists including Guercino, Guido Reni, Michelangelo, Annibale Caracci, and Andrea del Sarto. He also engraved works by several of his fellow Royal Academicians, including Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West and Angelica Kauffman, and by his longterm friend and compatriot, Giovanni Cipriani.

The National Gallery of Victoria has more than 30 works by Bartolozzi in the collection. These include religious, allegorical and rococo images as well as portraits and narrative Shakespearean subjects. However, the most important and highly-regarded engravings are those based on sketches by Hans Holbein the younger.

Bartolozzi was a master of both ‘stipple engraving’ (building up images with thousands of dots to produce a smooth, soft-focus effect) and ‘red-chalk engraving’. Red-chalk (or crayon) engraving originated in France by Gilles Demarteau (engraver to King Louis XV) and used coloured inks (red, orange and brown) and a roulette to give the effect of a soft chalk-like line in the work. Both these styles of etching became extremely popular in England and replaced the previously valued line-engraving works – giving rise to the distinctive ‘school of Bartolozzi’.

In 1802, probably due to the promise of a knighthood in Portugal, through reforming the royal printing press, the 75 year old Bartolozzi moved to Lisbon to take charge of the National Academy. He died there in his studio in 1815 at the age of 87 years.

Bartolozzi was an amiable man, a hard worker, a beloved teacher, generous and profuse in his spending (although without financial prudence), and also had ‘an eye for the ladies’ – despite his family joining him in England. In his correspondence, Thomas Gainsborough comments on both Bartolozzi’s skill as an engraver and also his reputation as a womaniser: ‘Why will Bartolozzi … spend his last precious moments f____ g a young Woman, instead of out doing all the World with a Graver; when perhaps all the World can out do him at the former Work?’ (John Hayes, ed., ‘The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough’, New Haven and London, 2001, p. 168)!

Melchior Missrini, Bartolozzi’s effusive biographer, sums up how he sees the engraver’s place in art history: ‘Palladio was the architect of the Graces, Correggio the painter of the Graces, Metastasio the poet of the Graces, and Bartolozzi was their etcher.’

Postscript: Gaetano Bartolozzi, Francesco’s son, also became an engraver. He married the outstanding pianist, Theresa Jansen (who was a close friend of Joseph Haydn) and they had a daughter, Lucia Elizabeth Vestris who became a celebrated actress and theatre manager. A fascinating lineage of intergenerational creativity.