Raffaello Sanzio Morghen
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
engraver.
He was born in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, apparently to a German family of engravers. He received his earliest instructions from his father, himself an engraver; but, to obtain more advanced training, he was placed as a pupil under the celebrated Giovanni Volpato
Giovanni Volpato
Giovanni Volpato was an Italian engraver of the 18th century.He received his first training from his mother, an embroiderer, and then studied under Giovanni Antonio Remondini...
. He assisted this master in engraving the famous pictures of Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
in the Vatican City
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, and the print which represents the miracle of Bolsena is inscribed with his name. He married Volpato's daughter, and, being invited to Florence to engrave the masterpieces of the Florentine Gallery
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery , is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.-History:...
, he removed thither with his wife in 1782. His reputation now became so great as to induce the artists of Florence to recommend him to the grand duke
Rulers of Tuscany
The rulers of Tuscany have varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region.-Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197:House of Boniface*Boniface I, 812-813...
as a fit person to engrave the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
; apart, however, from the dilapidated state of the picture itself, the drawing made for Morghen was unworthy of the original, and the print, in consequence, although an admirable production, fails to convey a correct idea of the style and merit of Leonardo. Morghen's fame, however, soon extended over Europe; and the Institute of France, as a mark of their admiration of his talents, elected him an associate in 1803. In 1812 Napoleon invited him to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and paid him the most flattering attentions. He died in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
.
A list of the artist's works, published at Florence in 1810, comprised 200 compositions; the number was afterwards considerably increased. Amongst the most remarkable, besides those already mentioned, may be noticed the Transfiguration from Raphael, a Magdalen from Murillo
Bartolomé Estéban Murillo
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children...
, a Head of the Saviour from da Vinci, the Car of Aurora from Guido
Guido Reni
Guido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...
, the Hours and the Repose in Egypt from Poussin
Poussin
Poussin refers to:*Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian mathematician*Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian geologist and mineralogist, father of Charles Jean*Nicolas Poussin , French painter...
, the Prize of Diana from Domenichino, the Monument of Clement XIII. from Canova
Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor from the Republic of Venice who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh...
, Theseus vanquishing the Minotaur, Francesco Moncado after Van Dyck, portraits of Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
, Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
, Leonardo
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
, Ariosto, Tasso
Tasso
-People:*Torquato Tasso, the famous Italian 16th-century poet, author of Gerusalemme liberata**Tasso, Lament and Triumph, a symphonic poem by Franz Liszt based on the poet*Bernardo Tasso, his father, also a poet...
, and a number of other eminent men. His prints have hardly maintained the reputation which they enjoyed during the artists lifetime. Though carefully and delicately executed, they are somewhat mechanical and wanting in force and spirit. A pupil of Volpato, then of Morghen himself, was Giovanni Folo
Giovanni Folo
Giovanni Folo was an Italian engraver of the Neoclassic period, active in Italy.He originally studied with Giulio Golini and G.B. Mengardi in Venice...
of Bassano. Giovacchino Cantini
Giovacchino Cantini
Giovacchino Cantini was an Italian engraver, active in Florence as one of Raffaello Sanzio Morghen's most successful pupils. He engraved a Virgin and Child, with Saints Sebastian & Anthony after Fra Bartolommeo; a Virgin with her hands folded after Pompeo Batoni; Judith with the Head of Holofernes...
was also a pupil of Morghen.