Jacopo Caraglio (c1503 - 1565). Jacopo Caraglio, Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio or Gian Giacomo Caraglio known also as Jacobus Parmensis and Jacobus Veronensis was an Italian engraver, goldsmith and medallist, born at Verona or Parma. His career falls easily into two rather different halves: he worked in Rome from 1526 or earlier as an engraver in collaboration with leading artists, and then in Venice, before moving to spend the rest of his life as a court goldsmith in Poland, where he died. In Italy, he was one of the first reproductive printmakers, rendering versions of specially made drawings or paintings rather than creating new works for the print medium, although detailed comparison of surviving drawings with the prints made from them show he had input into the creative process. He was in Rome at the brief period when the small but flourishing printmaking industry created by Raphael working with engravers to diffuse his work had been disrupted by Raphael's sudden death in 1520, cutting off the supply of new designs, and other artists were recruited fill the gap. A. Hyatt Mayor describes Caraglio as the most individual member of the group, who had a particular influence on French printmaking of the First School of Fontainebleau, although unlike Rosso he never went there. His skill in engraving was available to artists developing the early style of full-blown Mannerism, and played a significant role in diffusing advanced Mannerist style around Italy and Europe. Caraglio was probably trained as a goldsmith before learning advanced engraving techniques from Marcantonio Raimondi, in whose circle in Rome he first appears in records in 1526. Raphael's former associate il Baviera, who probably acted as his publisher, introduced him to Rosso Fiorentino, with whom he collaborated on numerous prints, including sets of The Labours of Hercules, Pagan Divinities in Niches and Loves of the Gods. He engraved gems and designed and cast medals as well as producing reproductive engravings after the works of Rosso, Parmigianino, Giulio Romano, Baccio Bandinelli, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, and Perino del Vaga. Bartsch records 65 prints, though missing perhaps another five. His style is summarized by Françoise Jestaz: Numbered with Agostino dei Musi and Marco Dente in the Roman school of engravers in the circle of Raimondi, Caraglio showed a greater freedom of line. With Rosso Fiorentino and Parmigianino, he discovered new modelling effects with subtler lighting and more animated forms, for example in his engraving of Diogenes and in the first state of the Rape of the Sabine Women. He worked from drawings created by Rosso and others for the purpose, and a proof of a print after Rosso at Chatsworth House has a landscape background in pen added to printed figures, presumably by one of the two, Rosso's initial drawing having only included the figures. He worked closely with Rosso and Parmigianino, and a number of their drawings for his prints survive, usually at the same size and in the reverse sense of the prints. His Loves of the Gods were, with I Modi, one of the two best-known series of Renaissance erotic prints, and altogether one of the most successful Renaissance print series. Unlike I Modi they successfully avoided censorship by avoiding depicting genitals and actual penetration in favour of slung leg positions, and by virtue of their ostensibly mythological subjects. This was despite one showing two males, Apollo and Hyacinthus, together, if not actually making love. Both sets were much copied, with five different copies of Caraglio's set, and in 1550 a dealer bought 250 sets of French copies, a very large number for the time. They were even used as sources for illustrations in medical textbooks later in the century, as well as one of a set of Flemish tapestries of about 1550, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The first two designs were by Rosso, but the pair then fell out, and Pierino did most of the rest, probably with an unknown weaker artist contributing some designs. Caraglio's prints were also often used as sources to be expanded into designs for maiolica. Caraglio fled to Venice on the Sack of Rome in 1527, in which his colleague Marco Dente was killed, and the whole circle dispersed. He seems to have remained there until at least 1537, working with Titian and others. In 1539 he is recorded at the Polish court of Sigismund I. He had probably been introduced there through Pietro Aretino, a friend in Venice, and his contacts with the circle of the Italian-born Polish Queen Bona Sforza, such as Allesandro Pessenti, Bona's organist. In Poland he mostly worked for the court on medals, gems and goldsmithing rather than printmaking.
more...