Count Anton oMaria Zanetti (1689–1767) was a Venetian artist, engraver, art critic, art dealer and connoisseur. He formed a collection of

engraved gem An engraved gem, frequently referred to as an intaglio, is a small and usually semi-precious gemstone that has been carved, in the Western tradition normally with images or inscriptions only on one face. The engraving of gemstones was a major lux ...

s, of which he published a lavish catalogue.

Life

Zanetti spent his early manhood making wise investments in

marine insurance Marine insurance covers the physical loss or damage of ships, cargo, terminals, and any transport by which the property is transferred, acquired, or held between the points of origin and the final destination. Cargo insurance a sub-branch of mari ...

, accumulating sufficient capital to support his true vocation, as a writer and artist, and as an art dealer, doing much of his business with the English aristocrats who passed through Venice on the Grand Tour. He acted as paintings agent for Philippe d'Orléans in forming the Orléans collection, Paris, and

Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein Josef Wenzel I (Josef Wenzel Lorenz; 9 August 1696 – 10 February 1772), often referred to as just Wenzel, was the Prince of Liechtenstein between 1712 and 1718, and 1748 and 1772, as well as regent of Liechtenstein between 1732 and 1745. He f ...

, in expanding the

Liechtenstein collection The Gartenpalais Liechtenstein (eng.: Liechtenstein Garden Palace) is a baroque palace on Fürstengasse in Vienna's 9th district, Alsergrund. The palace is owned by the Princely Family of Liechtenstein, rulers of Liechtenstein. It sits on the sou ...

, Vienna.

Pierre Crozat Pierre Crozat (1665–1740) was a French financier, art patron and collector at the center of a broad circle of ''cognoscenti''; he was the brother of Antoine Crozat. Biography The brothers Crozat were born in Toulouse, France, the sons of a wea ...

, being in Venice in 1715, persuaded Zanetti and his protégé

Rosalba Carriera Rosalba Carriera (12 January 1673 – 15 April 1757) was an Italians, Italian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures. Carriera would later become known for her pastel portraits, helping popularize the medium ...

to go to Paris. Zanetti also visited London, where he purchased Jan Petersen Zoomer's three large volumes containing 428 Rembrandt etchings in outstanding impressions of the various states. He formed a collection of

s, both Greco-Roman and modern, of which he published a lavish catalogue, in the form of A.F. Gori's ''Le gemme antiche di Anton Maria Zanetti'' (1750), illustrated with eighty plates of engravings from his own drawings. The drawings for the engravings, and many of his intaglios and cameos, are conserved in the

Museo Correr The Museo Correr () is a museum in Venice, northern Italy. Located in Piazza San Marco, St. Mark's Square, Venice, it is one of the 11 civic museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The museum extends along the southside of the squar ...

, Venice. His prize piece, a black cameo of Hadrian's favourite,

Antinous Antinous, also called Antinoös, (; ; – ) was a Greek youth from Bithynia, a favourite and lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Following his premature death before his 20th birthday, Antinous was deified on Hadrian's orders, being worshippe ...

, which he had pursued for years before acquiring it,"Le fameux amateur, et un peu marchand d’antiques à Venise, Antonio Maria Zanetti – je ne sçais s’il vit encore – fit une fois vingt-trois ans l’amour à un Antinoüs (une antique dont il fit l’acquisition), qu’il épousa enfin. Il auroit, disoit-il, vendu sa maison pour l’acheter, s’il eût été parfait." (Pierre Clément, 1756, quoted i
Antinous website
was bought by

George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, (26 January 1739 – 29 January 1817), styled Marquess of Blandford until 1758, was a British courtier, nobleman, and politician from the Spencer family. He served as Lord Chamberlain between 1762 a ...

and gained the sobriquet of the " Marlborough gem". As a

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...

, Zanetti advanced the art of the

Chiaroscuro woodcut In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

, producing many prints after paintings by

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, ...

Tintoretto Jacopo Robusti (late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594), best known as Tintoretto ( ; , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized th ...

and others.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zanetti, Antonio Maria 1689 births 1757 deaths Republic of Venice artists Italian engravers Italian art collectors Italian art historians 18th-century Italian artists 18th-century Italian male artists 18th-century engravers 18th-century Italian historians 18th-century Italian male writers Italian male non-fiction writers

Life

Further reading

Notes

External links