Bacchanals

Children at play; a putto sitting on the ground, pushing away a young boy who pulls his hair, watched by a third child who stands behind with his right arm raised and holding a staff in his left, all three wearing floral crowns, a bunch of grapes lying in the foreground; after Lady Diana Beauclerk.

Etching and stipple, 1791, lettered below image with production and publication detail: "Lady Diana Beauclerk Delint. / Engraved by F. Bartolozzi / London, Published May 20th,, 1791 by W. Dickinson, No,, 24. Old Bond Street."

Francesco Bartolozzi, the son of a Florentine goldsmith, met German engraver Joseph Wagner at whose workshop, the most important in Venice, where he moved in August 1748. In the lagoon city Bartolozzi remained for sixteen years, participating in artistic life and coming into contact with major publishers and printers, as well as men of culture. He alternated between his own works and translations by other artists in collaboration with Wagner, such as the series devoted to Guercino to which he devoted himself almost exclusively between 1761 and 1765. These are the years when Bartolozzi becomes the owner of his own workshop. He then moved to England, where he stayed for about forty years, and where he devoted himself mainly to the activity of translation, alternating with equal success between interpreting the works of famous painters of the past and those of his contemporaries. In addition to drawings by Guercino in the royal collection, the artist reproduced drawings by the Carracci, Pietro da Cortona, Guido Reni, Carlo Maratta, and his friend Giovan Battista Cipriani.

A good impression, printed on contemporary paper, trimmed to the platemark, good condition.

Bibliografia

Calabi & De Vesme, Francesco Bartolozzi. Catalogue des estampes et notice biographique d'après les manuscrits de A. De Vesme entièrement réformés et complétés d'une étude critique par A. Calabi n. 1252.IV.