DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73058#0047
Analysis of Slyle.
execution, enfeebles rather than enriches if carried beyond the point necessary for the best
development of the subject. The engraver who obtrusively forces attention to the me-
chanical excellence of his work by glittering details, does not altogether understand his
art; and in this respect Bartolozzi never erred. His lightness, simplicity, and play of
stroke are always adapted to the most perfect expression of the subject on which he is
employed. He scorned the tricks of brilliant tooling, because his work had a truer com-
pleteness. His figures are modelled and palpable; his drapery is flowing and dignified; and
his trees, water, clouds, and other background accessories are lightly and vividly indicated ;
for, whereas the dexterous school of French engravers gave such passages too much im-
portance by the finish of the work applied to them, Bartolozzi always kept them in com-
plete subservience to his principal subject.
Bartolozzi was essentially Italian in taste and grace; his somewhat luscious charm
was founded on a study of the antique which the Italians have never neglected, and
which, as we have said elsewhere, he practised with special devotion. That affection for
softness and beauty which is so often the companion of weak draftsmanship, was with
him the flower of a severe training in anatomy and the forms. Still, the Italians called
him the engraver of the graces, for grace is his most apparent quality, as tone and texture
constituted that of Sir Robert Strange, a perfect command of outline that of Marc' Antonio,
and a full richness that of Woollett. And it is well, in this art as in others, that distinctive
tastes should be delighted by distinctive merits, that an especial love of delicacy should find
keen gratification in the marvellous elaboration and high finish of detail marking the works
of Edelinck and other French engravers of the same school, that Rembrandt's grand effects
of light and shade should satisfy the stronger tastes of one dilettante, and that the free and
sportive grace and delicate pencil of Bartolozzi should please the more luxurious fancy of
another. The beauty and elegance of which so much has been said were frequently
sensuous, but never vulgar and never licentious. There are, indeed, a few examples of
classical subjects, which must now-a-days perforce be relegated to an abiding place in the
portfolio; but then, in spite of our increased freedom of thought and expression on some
subjects, eyes and ears are notoriously more easily shocked by pictorial and literary
freedoms now than they were a hundred years ago.
Bartolozzi's "style" is sometimes spoken of as if it were a distinctive " manner,"
sealing his work with an unmistakable cachet. But, in truth, he had neither manner nor
mannerism ; for he worked in all styles, and always without affectation. In dealing witli
great originals, he was grand or graceful, fanciful or fiery, gentle or powerful, according to
the temper of the artist after whom he was at work. No engraver ever reproduced with
more truthful fidelity the character of the painter; but it cannot be denied that while he ad-
hered to the spirit of the original, he often added a dignity and force, or infused a sweetness
and grace, as the subject demanded, softening hardness of treatment, and even correcting
drawing, in a manner which in many cases added vastly to the reputation of the painter.
He possessed, moreover, a creative capacity, which was often happily used in developing
effects but dimly and indecisively suggested in the originals. It became generally under-
stood at last, and even expected, that when Bartolozzi was employed to engrave works of
second or third-rate artists, he would correct any deficiency or neglect in the drawing, and
29 the
execution, enfeebles rather than enriches if carried beyond the point necessary for the best
development of the subject. The engraver who obtrusively forces attention to the me-
chanical excellence of his work by glittering details, does not altogether understand his
art; and in this respect Bartolozzi never erred. His lightness, simplicity, and play of
stroke are always adapted to the most perfect expression of the subject on which he is
employed. He scorned the tricks of brilliant tooling, because his work had a truer com-
pleteness. His figures are modelled and palpable; his drapery is flowing and dignified; and
his trees, water, clouds, and other background accessories are lightly and vividly indicated ;
for, whereas the dexterous school of French engravers gave such passages too much im-
portance by the finish of the work applied to them, Bartolozzi always kept them in com-
plete subservience to his principal subject.
Bartolozzi was essentially Italian in taste and grace; his somewhat luscious charm
was founded on a study of the antique which the Italians have never neglected, and
which, as we have said elsewhere, he practised with special devotion. That affection for
softness and beauty which is so often the companion of weak draftsmanship, was with
him the flower of a severe training in anatomy and the forms. Still, the Italians called
him the engraver of the graces, for grace is his most apparent quality, as tone and texture
constituted that of Sir Robert Strange, a perfect command of outline that of Marc' Antonio,
and a full richness that of Woollett. And it is well, in this art as in others, that distinctive
tastes should be delighted by distinctive merits, that an especial love of delicacy should find
keen gratification in the marvellous elaboration and high finish of detail marking the works
of Edelinck and other French engravers of the same school, that Rembrandt's grand effects
of light and shade should satisfy the stronger tastes of one dilettante, and that the free and
sportive grace and delicate pencil of Bartolozzi should please the more luxurious fancy of
another. The beauty and elegance of which so much has been said were frequently
sensuous, but never vulgar and never licentious. There are, indeed, a few examples of
classical subjects, which must now-a-days perforce be relegated to an abiding place in the
portfolio; but then, in spite of our increased freedom of thought and expression on some
subjects, eyes and ears are notoriously more easily shocked by pictorial and literary
freedoms now than they were a hundred years ago.
Bartolozzi's "style" is sometimes spoken of as if it were a distinctive " manner,"
sealing his work with an unmistakable cachet. But, in truth, he had neither manner nor
mannerism ; for he worked in all styles, and always without affectation. In dealing witli
great originals, he was grand or graceful, fanciful or fiery, gentle or powerful, according to
the temper of the artist after whom he was at work. No engraver ever reproduced with
more truthful fidelity the character of the painter; but it cannot be denied that while he ad-
hered to the spirit of the original, he often added a dignity and force, or infused a sweetness
and grace, as the subject demanded, softening hardness of treatment, and even correcting
drawing, in a manner which in many cases added vastly to the reputation of the painter.
He possessed, moreover, a creative capacity, which was often happily used in developing
effects but dimly and indecisively suggested in the originals. It became generally under-
stood at last, and even expected, that when Bartolozzi was employed to engrave works of
second or third-rate artists, he would correct any deficiency or neglect in the drawing, and
29 the