BARTOLOZZI.* Tars book purports to be a " biographical and
descriptive account of the life and career of Francesco Bartolozzi, R.A., with some observations on the present demand and value of his his prints, be. ;" but it would be better described as a discur- sive essay upon prints and print-collecting, with a few inci- dental references to Bartolozzi's life, and a very complete cata- logue of his works. For, as a matter of fact, Bartolozzi's life and career are begun and finished in the first two chapters of the first volume, and the remaining forty-'five chapters treat of diverse matters. Of course, it is necessary to have a name, and a good one, to hang a discourse upon ; but it may be doubted whether, in the present instance, it would not have been more judicious to let the work stand on its own merits as a guide to print collectors, than to label it as a history of a man of whose life but little is known, and perhaps less is desired to be known.
The few facts which are known about Bartolozzi are briefly these. He was born in 1727, at Florence, and his father was a goldsmith by trade. The son's talent soon showing itself, his father abandoned his intention to educate him in his own calling, and placed him at the age of fifteen in the Florentine Academy. It is a coincidence worthy of note that the first master of Bewick (Ralph Beilby) was a goldsmith and engraver. After three years at this Academy, Bartolozzi went to Venice, and was there articled to a historical engraver and printseller of the name of Wagner. Soon after his time of apprenticeship had expired, he married a Venetian lady, Lucia Ferro, and went with her to reside at Rome, where his son Gaetano was born. Here he seems to have resided for several years, after which he returned to Venice, whence be removed to England in 1764. He stayed in this country for thirty-eight years (having been elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1769), and when he left it, went to Portugal, at the invitation of the Prince
• Barfolorsi. By Andrew Tner. London: Yield And-Tner.
Regent, who eventually made bins a knight, and gave him a pension. He died at Lisbon, in 1815, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
There are a few little anecdotes about him,—as to his friendship with Cipriani, his fondness for snuff, and his liking for good living, and such matters; but there is no attempt to realise the man's life or character for us. Nor was any such needed. We may venture to assert, all fashion for his engravings (?) notwith- standing, that Francesco Bartolozzi was not a great artist, and not even a great engraver. His work shows the worst quality of fine art, a washy prettiness. His grace, is feebleness ; his passion, triviality. He is laboured rather than complete ; finick- ing, rather than finished. He, or rather, his work, bears to Nature, much the same relation as do the pastorals of the Restoration, or the groups of shepherds and shepherdesses that delight the connoisseur of Chelsea china. He passed his life using the graver for a purpose for which it was never intended, and in which it could only be successful by the surrender of its most essential quality. He attempted to make an engraving re- semble an evenly stippled chalk drawing, a form of art which has, perhaps, less variety and less attraction, than any other medium in which good drawing can be executed.
This is the truth about Bartolozzi as an engraver and an artist, and the reasons of his popularity at the present time are equally simple. The first and the chief is that he worked, to a great extent, in red ink, and red prints go well with black wood and gold, old-fashioned tables, and general Queen-Anne-iness. And a very bad attack of Queen-Anne-iness is just passing over the English nation. The other reason is, that of all qualities in art which need little appreciation to distinguish, and little genuine taste to like, the most striking are meaningless grace and softness of contour, and these are manifested by Bartolozzi in a very uncommon degree. It "needs no ghost come from the grave" to see that the soft-tinted women, in floating draperies, of his engravings, are grace and prettiness itself, but one looks to these in vain for any of the greater qualities of Art.
When Mr. Tner talks, or rather writes, about this part of his subject, he becomes rather common-place. He heaps together nearly every complimentary epithet that he can remember, and then leaves his readers to choose from the moles incongesta. Thus, we find in one paragraph that his subject's work possesses grace, mellowness, classic purity, ideal beauty, sweet tenderness; that his grouping is always harmonious, his backgrounds and subordinate objects are treated with an unfettered carelessness; that his historical works show strength and power, and that when he had a bad picture to copy, he improved it. This would seem to be a pretty good catalogue, but it is nothing to what Mr. Tuer has in store for us, a little later on. We find that in truth " he worked in all styles, and always without affectation." He could be " grand," " graceful," " fanciful," " fiery," " gentle," or " powerful ;" and while no engraver was ever more faithful to the spirit of his original, he softened hardness of treatment, corrected errors of drawing, added dignity, force, sweetness, or grace, as the occasion demanded.
This part of the work may be left to correct itself. When Mr. Tuer speaks on his own subjects, the qualities of the en- graving, qua engraving, and the different states of prints, their rarity, and all cognate matters, he is not only instructive, but most interesting; when he begins to criticise the artistic qualities of the work, he is travelling into a region with whose geogra- phy he is little acquainted, and wherein he is consequently a very unsafe guide. His estimate of Bartolozzi's artistic merit is absurdly high, and his remarks as to his style are vitiated by this excessive admiration. For the rest of the book, we have nothing but praise. It contains a large amount of matter, which is almost equally curious and instructive. It is written in a pleasant, easy style, and it says, what it has to say, clearly and to the point.
The chapters on print-collecting, the deceptions of print- sellers, the notes on reprints, worn-out plates, &c., are all of great interest, and contain many hints which amateurs will find of considerable value. A word must be said of the getting-up of the book, which has been done by the author himself. It is a luxurious specimen of old-fashioned type, bound in vellum and gold, and printed on thick, hand-made paper. It has only one fault,—the volumes are too big and heavy to be held easily in the hand; and they are so unnecessarily, the print being unduly extended, and the margins and spaces unduly large. The work has some good staff in it, despite its rather gorgeous ap- parel, and can be read with pleasure, though it cannot be held
with ease. It is the work of an expert in printing, and when experts will give us clear information on their special subjects, they have a right to our careful attention, if not even to our gratitude.
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