DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73058#0051
Bartolomei's Improvements in Copying.
their best points made the most of. Miss Hester Choppin and her two sisters, Mrs. Towne
and Mrs. Bale—wife of the well-known physician—tall, graceful, classically featured girls,
frequently sat to Bartolozzi and Cipriani ; and a descendant of the family now living has
assured the writer that Bartolozzi many times introduced the three beautiful sisters into his
tickets, and also into more important subjects.
The well-known line engraver, William Sharp, was employed by Macklin (best
remembered in connection with his Bible) to engrave Sir Joshua Reynolds' " Holy Family,"
and produced a plate which is generally admitted to be almost unsurpassable for light,
shadow, brilliancy, and all the highest attributes of the art. A hundred proofs and a few
prints were taken from it, when Bartolozzi, at the instance of Macklin, but only after
repeated protests, undertook to improve—some of his critics say "spoil "—it, by nearly
obliterating the lines and converting it into a dotted engraving.
As Bartolozzi was known to have the habit of improving the weak parts of works in
which improvement was desirable, he has been accused of altering where he was bound by
respect for a great master to do nothing but copy and translate. The charge was brought
against him by Dr. Dibdin,* with regard to the " Holbein Portraits of the Illustrious
* Vide " Library Companion," vol. ii. p. 102, by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, F.R.S., A.S. London, 1824.
Persons of the Court of Henry VIII." The sumptuous work containing Bartolozzi's
engravings from the portraits was published in 14 parts by Mr. John Chamberlaine, in the
year 1792, the biographical notices being written by Mr. Edmund Lodge, then Lancaster
Herald. It may be as well to give Dr. Dibdin's accusation in his own words in extens0 : —
" First, let it be observed that all the engravings are taken from Original Drawings in the
possession of his late and present Majesty. These engravings are eighty-two in number.
They are executed in the stippling manner, with great freedom of outline and delicacy of
execution. But there is some reason to believe that a few of them are faithless perform-
ances; and I will tell the reader why. Bartolozzi had a notion that he could improve
everything he touched ; and he also knew the force of his own powers, and the popularity
of his own name with the public. He was fond, too, of Italianising his faces; and you
generally see something like the same face in all his graphic productions. This, however,
may be mere surmise or declamation. Now for 'proof positive.' Do any of my readers
remember the fast anonymous female portrait, which has been thought to be Margaret
Roper, Sir T. More's eldest daughter? That portrait, as engraved by Bartolozzi, is NOT
the portrait as drawn by Hans Holbein. Most of the ornaments are added, and the features
are wholly different. I have examined the facsimile of the original drawing, executed by
Mr. Frederick Lewis, the engraver, in a manner so minute and so faithful to the original
(allowed by those who have seen both) as to leave it beyond dispute that the production of
Bartolozzi is, comparatively, faithless. Those who have seen Mr. Lewis's facsimiles of the
drawings of Sir Thomas Lawrence, will be readily disposed to admit the extraordinary
truth and delicacy of that artist's burin. Even to an experienced eye these drawings may
now and then be mistaken for originals. They are singularly sweet and masterly. What
should follow? First, in every degree of probability, a few other of these portraits by
Bartolozzi are faithless; and, if faithless to the extent which appears in this of Margaret
33 Roper,
VOL. I.
D
their best points made the most of. Miss Hester Choppin and her two sisters, Mrs. Towne
and Mrs. Bale—wife of the well-known physician—tall, graceful, classically featured girls,
frequently sat to Bartolozzi and Cipriani ; and a descendant of the family now living has
assured the writer that Bartolozzi many times introduced the three beautiful sisters into his
tickets, and also into more important subjects.
The well-known line engraver, William Sharp, was employed by Macklin (best
remembered in connection with his Bible) to engrave Sir Joshua Reynolds' " Holy Family,"
and produced a plate which is generally admitted to be almost unsurpassable for light,
shadow, brilliancy, and all the highest attributes of the art. A hundred proofs and a few
prints were taken from it, when Bartolozzi, at the instance of Macklin, but only after
repeated protests, undertook to improve—some of his critics say "spoil "—it, by nearly
obliterating the lines and converting it into a dotted engraving.
As Bartolozzi was known to have the habit of improving the weak parts of works in
which improvement was desirable, he has been accused of altering where he was bound by
respect for a great master to do nothing but copy and translate. The charge was brought
against him by Dr. Dibdin,* with regard to the " Holbein Portraits of the Illustrious
* Vide " Library Companion," vol. ii. p. 102, by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, F.R.S., A.S. London, 1824.
Persons of the Court of Henry VIII." The sumptuous work containing Bartolozzi's
engravings from the portraits was published in 14 parts by Mr. John Chamberlaine, in the
year 1792, the biographical notices being written by Mr. Edmund Lodge, then Lancaster
Herald. It may be as well to give Dr. Dibdin's accusation in his own words in extens0 : —
" First, let it be observed that all the engravings are taken from Original Drawings in the
possession of his late and present Majesty. These engravings are eighty-two in number.
They are executed in the stippling manner, with great freedom of outline and delicacy of
execution. But there is some reason to believe that a few of them are faithless perform-
ances; and I will tell the reader why. Bartolozzi had a notion that he could improve
everything he touched ; and he also knew the force of his own powers, and the popularity
of his own name with the public. He was fond, too, of Italianising his faces; and you
generally see something like the same face in all his graphic productions. This, however,
may be mere surmise or declamation. Now for 'proof positive.' Do any of my readers
remember the fast anonymous female portrait, which has been thought to be Margaret
Roper, Sir T. More's eldest daughter? That portrait, as engraved by Bartolozzi, is NOT
the portrait as drawn by Hans Holbein. Most of the ornaments are added, and the features
are wholly different. I have examined the facsimile of the original drawing, executed by
Mr. Frederick Lewis, the engraver, in a manner so minute and so faithful to the original
(allowed by those who have seen both) as to leave it beyond dispute that the production of
Bartolozzi is, comparatively, faithless. Those who have seen Mr. Lewis's facsimiles of the
drawings of Sir Thomas Lawrence, will be readily disposed to admit the extraordinary
truth and delicacy of that artist's burin. Even to an experienced eye these drawings may
now and then be mistaken for originals. They are singularly sweet and masterly. What
should follow? First, in every degree of probability, a few other of these portraits by
Bartolozzi are faithless; and, if faithless to the extent which appears in this of Margaret
33 Roper,
VOL. I.
D