DOI Kapitel:
Chapter VIII
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62095#0097
68 Eighteenth-Century Colour-Prints
generous, rather dull than deserving. Bartolozzi seems to have had none of the Italian
fervour, none of the Italian passion. He was more dexterous than imaginative, more
fortunate than discriminating. The times were with him. There was a demand, and he
supplied it without endeavouring to raise the standard of taste. The patrons of Art were
of the type of Mrs. Delany, who found Gainsborough “ an impostor,” and would “ have
been sorry to have any one she loved set forth in such a manner.” The Society of
Arts that elected him a Member, and the Royal Academy that confirmed the selection,
were the same institutions that snubbed Romney, offended Joseph Wright, and suggested
to Wilson to change his style in landscape to that of Zuccarelli !
That Bartolozzi was generous seems to have been proved by his many benefit tickets
executed without payment, but that he understood their value better than the public is a
point of which we need not lose sight. That he was kind-hearted may be accepted on
the evidence of the plate he finished for Ryland, although when we remember what he
owed to that unfortunate man it does not seem a great repayment. But that, even if
good-natured and kind-hearted, he was something less than honourable, and something
more than unscrupulous, we may gather with equal certainty from stronger evidence.
That he deserted his wife, that he took pupils at high figures and used them to “ forward ”
his plates—a generic term often implying “ execute,” as well as to perform menial
household duties, is indubitable. We have not only the flight of Benedetti, who
eloquently dilates on the reasons that led him to this step, to confirm it, but also the
criticisms of his more celebrated pupil Minasi. That he drank to excess, has been con-
sidered as a natural tribute paid to the habits of the country that harboured him ; but, in
very truth, it was a sign of the same weakness of character that permitted the vagaries of
Gaetano to pass unchecked until idleness had come to a climax in debauchery, and
debauchery had inevitably led to disease.
Accepting then, as I cannot but do, the character of Bartolozzi as that of a man, who,
without ambition, without desire for distinction, disregarding domestic ties, and ignoring
alike the duties of a father and the privileges of a citizen, lived a life of animal ease,
content to provide each day for each day’s need, a man so featureless, so characterless,
so insignificant, that he neither excited enmity, beyond the mild contempt of his ap-
prentices, nor friendship, other than that of his countryman and fellow-exile Cipriani ; all
that remains to be done is to consider the definite importance of his work in the history
of Art-movements.
The scope and volume of Bartolozzi’s work must first be taken into consideration,
and this chiefly because, although it is quite impossible that he could have done all, or
nearly all, that was attributed to him, still there is a certain definite quality about those
plates that legitimately bear his signature which, being peculiar to this engraver, and a
copyright with which he could not part, entitles him to that special recognition he must
always obtain. As an historical engraver the faults in his character become apparent.
That he could not or did not translate honestly, the celebrated set of Holbein heads are
witnesses, Mr. Tuer’s amiable endeavour to fasten the blame for the alterations on to the
publisher notwithstanding. An engraver of character, of high integrity, would not have
offered such a fraud to the public. As well might we picture a Sharp or a Strange adding a
head-dress to a Rubens, and a jewelled pendant to a Murillo ; or a Valentine Green changing
generous, rather dull than deserving. Bartolozzi seems to have had none of the Italian
fervour, none of the Italian passion. He was more dexterous than imaginative, more
fortunate than discriminating. The times were with him. There was a demand, and he
supplied it without endeavouring to raise the standard of taste. The patrons of Art were
of the type of Mrs. Delany, who found Gainsborough “ an impostor,” and would “ have
been sorry to have any one she loved set forth in such a manner.” The Society of
Arts that elected him a Member, and the Royal Academy that confirmed the selection,
were the same institutions that snubbed Romney, offended Joseph Wright, and suggested
to Wilson to change his style in landscape to that of Zuccarelli !
That Bartolozzi was generous seems to have been proved by his many benefit tickets
executed without payment, but that he understood their value better than the public is a
point of which we need not lose sight. That he was kind-hearted may be accepted on
the evidence of the plate he finished for Ryland, although when we remember what he
owed to that unfortunate man it does not seem a great repayment. But that, even if
good-natured and kind-hearted, he was something less than honourable, and something
more than unscrupulous, we may gather with equal certainty from stronger evidence.
That he deserted his wife, that he took pupils at high figures and used them to “ forward ”
his plates—a generic term often implying “ execute,” as well as to perform menial
household duties, is indubitable. We have not only the flight of Benedetti, who
eloquently dilates on the reasons that led him to this step, to confirm it, but also the
criticisms of his more celebrated pupil Minasi. That he drank to excess, has been con-
sidered as a natural tribute paid to the habits of the country that harboured him ; but, in
very truth, it was a sign of the same weakness of character that permitted the vagaries of
Gaetano to pass unchecked until idleness had come to a climax in debauchery, and
debauchery had inevitably led to disease.
Accepting then, as I cannot but do, the character of Bartolozzi as that of a man, who,
without ambition, without desire for distinction, disregarding domestic ties, and ignoring
alike the duties of a father and the privileges of a citizen, lived a life of animal ease,
content to provide each day for each day’s need, a man so featureless, so characterless,
so insignificant, that he neither excited enmity, beyond the mild contempt of his ap-
prentices, nor friendship, other than that of his countryman and fellow-exile Cipriani ; all
that remains to be done is to consider the definite importance of his work in the history
of Art-movements.
The scope and volume of Bartolozzi’s work must first be taken into consideration,
and this chiefly because, although it is quite impossible that he could have done all, or
nearly all, that was attributed to him, still there is a certain definite quality about those
plates that legitimately bear his signature which, being peculiar to this engraver, and a
copyright with which he could not part, entitles him to that special recognition he must
always obtain. As an historical engraver the faults in his character become apparent.
That he could not or did not translate honestly, the celebrated set of Holbein heads are
witnesses, Mr. Tuer’s amiable endeavour to fasten the blame for the alterations on to the
publisher notwithstanding. An engraver of character, of high integrity, would not have
offered such a fraud to the public. As well might we picture a Sharp or a Strange adding a
head-dress to a Rubens, and a jewelled pendant to a Murillo ; or a Valentine Green changing