Giovanni Battista Cecchi (1748/9 – after 1815) was an Italian engraver, active in a neoclassical style in his native Florence, Region of Tuscany, Italy.

Biography

Initially trained as a carpenter, an injury to his dominant right hand prompted apprenticing under Francesco Conti, and subsequently became a follower of the engraver Ferdinando Gregori. He initially dedicated himself to printed copies of major paintings, for example, a reproduction (1767) of the Madonna and Child by Annibale Carracci (On display at Istituto nazionale per la grafica) and a copy (1768) of the Mystical Marriage of St Catherine by Francesco Vanni.

Group of Musicians, 1784 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

He was one of the artists commissioned by the Grand-Duke Leopold in 1769 to complete a 12 volume work: Serie degli uomini i più illustri nella pittura, scultura, e architettura con i loro elogi, e ritratti incisi in rame cominciando dalla sua prima restaurazione fino ai tempi presenti, containing over 300 engravings of artist portraits.[1]

Among his portraits were depictions of the violinist Pietro Nardini, sculptor Vellano da Padova, painter Battista Franco, and reproductions of Habsburg-Lorraine family portraits painted by Giuseppe Piattoli in 1785 and 1791. He collaborated with the engraver Benedetto Eredi in a two volume set of Bonarum artium splendori XII tabulae a praestantissimis Italiae pictoribus expressae 1776–1779. He engraved the sculptural collections of Gaetano Vascellini.[2] Cecchi engraved a calendar with designs by Giuseppe Zocchi.[3] He created engravings for the first two volumes of L'Etruria pittrice ovvero Storia della pittura toscana dedotta dai suoi monumenti che si esibiscono in stampa dal secolo X fino al presente by Marco Lastri.[4]

In 1800, he created engravings recalling the resistance against Napoleonic invasions: Insurrection of Arezzo against the French, the Battle of the Piazza del Duomo of Arezzo, The loyalty of the Aretini and Cortona freed from the yoke of the French.[5]

Giovanni Battista Cecchi, Interior of Egyptian bath House, 1808

Other works

Note

  1. ↑ Serie degli uomini i più illustri nella pittura, scultura, e architettura con i loro elogi, e ritratti incisi in rame cominciando dalla sua prima restaurazione fino ai tempi presenti, Firenze, 1769–1775
  2. ↑ Firenze, presso Niccolò Pagni e Giuseppe Bardi, 1786.
  3. ↑ Firenze, Giuseppe Bardi, tra 1750 e 1799.
  4. ↑ Firenze, Niccolò Pagni & Giuseppe Bardi, 1791-1795.
  5. ↑ L'Italia nella Rivoluzione; pp. 332-335.

Bibliography

  • Ulrich Thieme - Felix Becker (c. 1900s), E. A. Seeman (ed.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. 6: Carlini-Cioci, Leipzig, p. 8 s. Ad vocem
  • Luigi Servolini, Dizionario illustrato degli incisori italiani moderni e contemporanei, 1955, p. 185, Gorlich, editor, Milan.
  • Giuseppina Benassati; Lauro Rossi, eds. (1990), L'Italia nella Rivoluzione 1789 1799, Casalecchio di Reno: Grafis Edizioni, pp. 332–335, L'Italia nella Rivoluzione Catalog of Exhibit at Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma.
  • Translated from the Italian Wikipedia entry
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