DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73058#0048
Bartolozzi and his Works.
the printsellers had a common phrase, when looking over paintings and designs of a
mediocre description: " Bartolozzi will put it to rights"; and in some instances the
deficiencies or faults were so glaring, that an extra sum was paid and an express stipulation
made for their correction, and as a rule painters were anything but displeased with the
improvements. Even Sir Joshua Reynolds, in showing a print by Bartolozzi from one of
his own portraits, once said, "The hands in my picture are very slight, but here they are
beautifully drawn and finished, Mr. Bartolozzi having made them what they really ought
to be: we are all much indebted to him." It was, indeed, in the hands and feet, the all-
important and interesting forms of which have been too much neglected, both as regards
construction and character, by the English school, that the thoroughness of his science
showed itself most valuably. Sir Joshua recognised the national insufficiency of drawing
in this respect, and recommended Bartolozzi's carefulness to the imitation of English
students.
Bartolozzi's remarkable quickness in the production of his plates was due to the abso-
lute certainty of his manipulation ; he produced his effects without any of those slow and
discouragingly laborious alterations that most engravers are compelled to resort to ; and
his few progressive proofs, while showing nothing to undo, furnished him with a guide as to
what was still undone, and directed him how and where he should mellow the various parts
into complete and expressive unity. Woollett, who assiduously calculated every stage in the
progress of the plates of his celebrated line engravings, and had reduced his method to an
exact science, was filled with amazement in viewing Bartolozzi's extraordinary facility, and
spoke of him in terms of the most unqualified praise. Woollett used to own that he seldom
looked at a proof of one of his own prints in course of progress without feelings of anxiety
and dread ; and on one occasion, after he had taken a proof, these feelings so far mastered
him, that he put it away in a drawer, and kept it there for a fortnight without taking
courage to look at it : he feared that the proof would show him work to be undone rather
than progress made.
Working so quickly and so felicitously, Bartolozzi received and executed a prodigious
number of commissions. There are certainly many coppers bearing his signature, which
it is difficult to believe he could ever have touched ; some of his prints are utterly un-
worthy of his powers, and there are many examples which can find a place only in the
folio of a collector who is aiming at absolute completeness. This ease of manipulation
was so great that he is said to have worked with no less accuracy and more pleasure when
chatting with a visitor or friends than when entirely undisturbed. Mr. William Carey
relates that on the occasion of his introduction to Bartolozzi, at his house at North End,
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the engraver was engaged on a small plate of an Apollo, where
the outline of the figure was marked in with the dry point, and a portion of the back-
ground was etched in. During the progress of the work, Bartolozzi was kept almost inces-
santly conversing about his art with Mr. Carey and other visitors, and amused them with
many " sallies of pleasantry." Notwithstanding the apparent interruption, and the fact that
the conversation after dinner was prolonged an hour longer than usual, the plate was so
far advanced as to be proved the same evening, and only required half an hour's work the
next day for the finishing touches.
30 During
the printsellers had a common phrase, when looking over paintings and designs of a
mediocre description: " Bartolozzi will put it to rights"; and in some instances the
deficiencies or faults were so glaring, that an extra sum was paid and an express stipulation
made for their correction, and as a rule painters were anything but displeased with the
improvements. Even Sir Joshua Reynolds, in showing a print by Bartolozzi from one of
his own portraits, once said, "The hands in my picture are very slight, but here they are
beautifully drawn and finished, Mr. Bartolozzi having made them what they really ought
to be: we are all much indebted to him." It was, indeed, in the hands and feet, the all-
important and interesting forms of which have been too much neglected, both as regards
construction and character, by the English school, that the thoroughness of his science
showed itself most valuably. Sir Joshua recognised the national insufficiency of drawing
in this respect, and recommended Bartolozzi's carefulness to the imitation of English
students.
Bartolozzi's remarkable quickness in the production of his plates was due to the abso-
lute certainty of his manipulation ; he produced his effects without any of those slow and
discouragingly laborious alterations that most engravers are compelled to resort to ; and
his few progressive proofs, while showing nothing to undo, furnished him with a guide as to
what was still undone, and directed him how and where he should mellow the various parts
into complete and expressive unity. Woollett, who assiduously calculated every stage in the
progress of the plates of his celebrated line engravings, and had reduced his method to an
exact science, was filled with amazement in viewing Bartolozzi's extraordinary facility, and
spoke of him in terms of the most unqualified praise. Woollett used to own that he seldom
looked at a proof of one of his own prints in course of progress without feelings of anxiety
and dread ; and on one occasion, after he had taken a proof, these feelings so far mastered
him, that he put it away in a drawer, and kept it there for a fortnight without taking
courage to look at it : he feared that the proof would show him work to be undone rather
than progress made.
Working so quickly and so felicitously, Bartolozzi received and executed a prodigious
number of commissions. There are certainly many coppers bearing his signature, which
it is difficult to believe he could ever have touched ; some of his prints are utterly un-
worthy of his powers, and there are many examples which can find a place only in the
folio of a collector who is aiming at absolute completeness. This ease of manipulation
was so great that he is said to have worked with no less accuracy and more pleasure when
chatting with a visitor or friends than when entirely undisturbed. Mr. William Carey
relates that on the occasion of his introduction to Bartolozzi, at his house at North End,
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the engraver was engaged on a small plate of an Apollo, where
the outline of the figure was marked in with the dry point, and a portion of the back-
ground was etched in. During the progress of the work, Bartolozzi was kept almost inces-
santly conversing about his art with Mr. Carey and other visitors, and amused them with
many " sallies of pleasantry." Notwithstanding the apparent interruption, and the fact that
the conversation after dinner was prolonged an hour longer than usual, the plate was so
far advanced as to be proved the same evening, and only required half an hour's work the
next day for the finishing touches.
30 During