DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73058#0082
Bartoloz^i and his Works.
CHAPTER XV.
Cipriani.
/T) a 4? I’D TfDVJZT and CiPriani are said to have played int°
U1 each other's hands ; but it would be more
A J correct to say that their artistic tastes were by education and natural inclina-
tion in close union. They may be said to have been born for each other. Henry
Angelo—who, when a lad, took lessons from both—says in his " Reminiscences " :
" They thought and felt like twin brothers, designed by nature with similar perceptions
and coequal capacities in art. . . . Cipriani possessed the readiest and most
prolific fancy for composition, practising as a painter; yet Bartolozzi, as an engraver,
drew with no less spirit and correctness. Such indeed was his knowledge of drawing,
and such the freedom of his hand, that he has been known in many instances, when
urged to despatch, to sketch the figures for a concert ticket with his etching-point upon
the copper without any prototype, and to finish the plate with his graving tool. Some
of those inimitable engravings now purchased by collectors of vertu at a large price,
were the productions of only a few days." While according full praise to his friends
and instructors, Angelo probably errs, or rather hardly goes far enough, in stating that
some of Bartolozzi's tickets were the " productions of only a few days," for, as has been
said, he is known to have begun a ticket in the morning, and finished it completely
during the course of the day. Angelo relates that he distinctly remembers, when a boy,
Bach and Abel—whom he describes, the former as the "celebrated performer on the
harpsichord," and the latter as the "memorable professor on that now obsolete
instrument the Viol di Gamba "—and Bartolozzi and Cipriani, frequently meeting under
his father's roof, and amusing themselves with drawing, music, and conversation until
long after midnight. Cipriani used to make sketches of heads and groups of figures, to
which Bartolozzi would, with red, black, and white chalks, add the effect. One of these
—a head of a Bacchante—is described, although the work of but two or three hours,
as beautiful in sentiment, and apparently the labour of a whole day. Angelo's father had
a collection of these productions of joint genius, some of which he presented to Queen
Charlotte, and others to his friend and patron the Earl of Pembroke.
62
Giovanni
CHAPTER XV.
Cipriani.
/T) a 4? I’D TfDVJZT and CiPriani are said to have played int°
U1 each other's hands ; but it would be more
A J correct to say that their artistic tastes were by education and natural inclina-
tion in close union. They may be said to have been born for each other. Henry
Angelo—who, when a lad, took lessons from both—says in his " Reminiscences " :
" They thought and felt like twin brothers, designed by nature with similar perceptions
and coequal capacities in art. . . . Cipriani possessed the readiest and most
prolific fancy for composition, practising as a painter; yet Bartolozzi, as an engraver,
drew with no less spirit and correctness. Such indeed was his knowledge of drawing,
and such the freedom of his hand, that he has been known in many instances, when
urged to despatch, to sketch the figures for a concert ticket with his etching-point upon
the copper without any prototype, and to finish the plate with his graving tool. Some
of those inimitable engravings now purchased by collectors of vertu at a large price,
were the productions of only a few days." While according full praise to his friends
and instructors, Angelo probably errs, or rather hardly goes far enough, in stating that
some of Bartolozzi's tickets were the " productions of only a few days," for, as has been
said, he is known to have begun a ticket in the morning, and finished it completely
during the course of the day. Angelo relates that he distinctly remembers, when a boy,
Bach and Abel—whom he describes, the former as the "celebrated performer on the
harpsichord," and the latter as the "memorable professor on that now obsolete
instrument the Viol di Gamba "—and Bartolozzi and Cipriani, frequently meeting under
his father's roof, and amusing themselves with drawing, music, and conversation until
long after midnight. Cipriani used to make sketches of heads and groups of figures, to
which Bartolozzi would, with red, black, and white chalks, add the effect. One of these
—a head of a Bacchante—is described, although the work of but two or three hours,
as beautiful in sentiment, and apparently the labour of a whole day. Angelo's father had
a collection of these productions of joint genius, some of which he presented to Queen
Charlotte, and others to his friend and patron the Earl of Pembroke.
62
Giovanni