The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Bologna, in Italy, about 1489. Died there, about 1537.] The most celebrated of all the early engravers. The first impression from any engraved metal plate is dated 1454. Within sixty years, Marcantonio had carried the art to perfection. At Rome he was patronized for some years by Raffaelle, who employed him to engrave some of his most exquisite designs. The finest works of Marcantonio now bear a very high value for their beauty and rarity. Unhappily he was a bad man. He began his career as an artist by using his skill to pirate some of the works of Albert Durer. After Raffaelle’s death, he was banished from Rome by Clement VII. for gross immorality, fled to Bologna, fell into poverty, and is supposed to have died assassinated. [By Massimiliano Laboureur. The best specimens of Marcantonio’s engraving are in the Imperial collection at Vienna.]