Costumi della Provincia

Franz Wenzel, better known by his Italianized name of Francesco, was a lithographer active in Naples between 1827 and 1850 based at Largo S. Caterina a Chiaja n.74 and 75. Wenzel belongs to the group of German artists in Naples from the first half of the 19th century, where the use of the German imported printing technique, lithography, became generalized. In 1816 Müller and Patrelli introduced the cheaper and faster lithography to the Kingdom, and in 1823 Military Lithography was born. After the introductory beginnings, lithographic establishments already active in the 1825s-30s grew (Cuciniello/Bianchi, Richter, Wenzel, Zezon), implanting in the second half of the century various lithographic-type enterprises (Nobile, Giannini, Morano).