Antique engraving by C.lasinio with Grotesque decoration after the Poccetti workshop, 1789

Etching from 1789, colored in tempera and watercolor. Plate no. 38 from the work "Ornati presi da graffiti e pitture antiche esistenti in Firenze", engraved by Carlo Lasinio (Treviso 1759 - Pisa1838), signed lower right "C. L. fr.".
This engraving, with its grotesque motifs and shimmering colors, is a reproduction of a fresco painted towards the end of the 16th century by Bennardino Poccetti in the Florentine palace where the Minister of France once sat, indicated by the writing at the bottom "graffito di Bar. Poccetti asistente nel Cortile del Palazzo abitato dal Ministro di Francia".

Carlo Lasinio (Treviso 1759 - Pisa 1838) was an Italian engraver specializing in the reproduction of works of art, who established his reputation with two large series of engravings in 1787 and 1789. He made a point of reproducing decors to protect them from oblivion. The decorations immortalized by Carlo Lasinio Firenze are taken from frescoes and bas-reliefs in Florentine palaces (Santa Maria Novella, the Laurentian Library, and the Certosa del Galluzzo...) by Michelangelo, Bernardino Poccetti, Giovanni da Udine, Cosimo Feltrini and Benedetto da Rovezzano. Lasinio's series of ornamental prints are a precious testimony, constituting an important register of frescoes that were later seriously damaged.
Lasinio also taught engraving at the Florence Academy, becoming a professor in 1800. He moved to Pisa in 1807, acquiring the post of curator at the Pisa Camposanto. In 1812, he began writing another famous book of engravings, in which he depicts the frescoes of the Camposanto, entitled "Pitture a fresco del Camposanto di Pisa".

The engraving shown here is plate no. 38 from Lasinio's collection of engravings published in 1789, entitled "Ornati presi da graffiti e pitture antiche esistenti in Firenze" (40 plates in all).
Dimensions: 25.5 cm x 39 cm; 22.3 cm x 35 cm (engraved part)

Several institutions own this collection or fragments thereof: INHA, V&A (London), MAK - Museum of Applied Arts (Austria), Musei Civici di Monza (Italy, Lombardy), Yale University (US)

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