Pietro Antonio Martini

Pietro Antonio Martini (1738–1797) was an Italian painter and engraver, active in a late Baroque style.

Biography

Born at Trecasali, he went to Paris to learn engraving working with Jacques-Philippe Le Bas. He also worked in London. He died in Parma.

One of his etchings are those depicting late 18th century exhibitions. For example, depicting a 1785 Salon exhibition at the Louvre,^[1] and an Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1787^[2] are historically instructive for showing the crowded displays of utilized in their day. Other etchings indicated that the admiring crowds may have been a stock image for use in other similar engravings.^[3]

Among his etchings:^[4]

• Plates after Teniers and other Flemish artists
• Heliodorus driven from the Temple, after Francesco Solimena
• Christ driving the Money-changors from the Temple, after Solimena
• Architectural Ruins, after Robert
• Pleasures of Summer, after Horace Vernet
• View of Spoletto, after Vernet
• View of Porto Ercole, after Vernet
• View of Avignon, after Vernet
• The Augurs, after Salvatore Rosa; etched by Martini, finished by le Bas.

References

1. Metropolitan Museum of Art, engraving of View of the Salon of 1785.
2. Victoria and Albert Museum collection
3. Art Institute of Chicago, engraving of Salon du Louvre of 1787.
4. Spooner, Shearjashub (1873). A Biographical History of the Fine Arts, Being Memoirs of the Lives and Works of Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects. Philadelphia: G. Gebbie. p. 527..