Francesco Ratti (19 September 1819,

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

– 17 December 1895,

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

) was an Italian engraver.

Biography

He studied painting, then engraving under Luigi Sacchi. In the studio of Sacchi he completed illustrations for a publication of '' I Promessi Sposi'' of Alessandro Manzoni. Later with his colleagues in Milan, he founded a school of engraving attended by Giuseppe Balbiani, G. Gallieni, and Giuseppe Centenari. In 1845, he won a silver medal for work displayed at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

. In 1847 he moved to

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

to work under the Pomba publishing house. In 1848, due to political tumult, ''il Mondo illustrato'' ceased printing; Ratti moved to Genoa, then Milan, then again to Turin, where ''il Mondo illustrato'', was reissued. Mamiani, minister of public education, named Ratti to the position of directing a newly founded school of

wood-engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively lo ...

at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna. He was prolific as an engraver for journals and books, for example, depicting illustrations of the tragedies of

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

, translated by

Andrea Maffei Andrea Maffei (1798 – 1885) was an Italian poet, translator and librettist. He was born in Molina di Ledro, Trentino. A follower of Vincenzo Monti, he formed part of the 19th-century Italian classicist literary culture. Gaining laurea in ju ...

and published by Pirola. He published the anatomical plates for a publication by Sappey. He also engraved chemistry texts including ''All'assiduità degli studi chimici''.Collezione degli atti delle solenni distribuzioni de' premi d'industria fatte in Milano ed Venezia (1840-1852)
Volume VII, page 312.

References

1819 births 1895 deaths Italian engravers Academic staff of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna Artists from Milan {{Italy-engraver-stub