Lady Montegle
December 1, 1796
Medium
Stipple engraving on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 33 × 19.2 cm (13 × 7 9/16 in.); Plate: 35.1 × 23.6 cm (13 7/8 × 9 5/16 in.); Sheet: 45.7 × 33.5 cm (18 × 13 1/4 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
133339
Art Historical Context
**Lady Montegle** is a delicate stipple engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi, dated December 1, 1796, and housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings Department. Bartolozzi, an acclaimed Italian engraver who flourished in late 18th-century London, specialized in the "dotted manner" or stipple technique, which uses fine dots to create soft, tonal gradations ideal for capturing the elegance of portrait subjects. This print, measuring 33 × 19.2 cm in its image area, exemplifies the period's fascination with aristocratic portraiture, rendering Lady Montegle—a noblewoman of the era—in...
About the Artist
Francesco Bartolozzi · 1727–1815
Francesco Bartolozzi (1727–1815) was an Italian engraver whose most productive period was spent in London, where he became the leading exponent of stipple engraving and a founding member of the Royal Academy. Born in Florence and trained first as a painter before turning to engraving in Venice, he established his reputation in Rome before being recruited by the English Royal Librarian Richard Dalt...