PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS.
with Giovanni Battista Bertucci, flourished at
Faenza about 1530, and painted in the manner of
Raphael. He is supposed to be the same as
Jacopone da Faenza, who, Vasari tells us, painted
in San Vitale at Ravenna.
BERTUCCI-PINELLI, Antonia, was, according to Malvasia, a native of Bologna, and was instructed in art by Lodovico Carracci. She painted some pictures for the churches ; among others, the 'Guar- dian Angel,' in San Tommaso ; and ' St. Philip and St. James,' in the church dedicated to those saints. But her most celebrated performance is her picture of ' St. John the Evangelist,' in the Annunziata, painted from a design of Lodovico Carracci. She died in 1640. Her maiden name was Pinelli, but she married Giambattista Bertucci (not Giovanni Battista da Faenza). Zani places her death, and that of her husband, in 1644.
BEKVIC, Charles Clement, the most eminent of modern French engravers, was born in Paris on the 23rd of May, 1756. His family name was Balvay, but this he used only in legal documents, preferring to adopt as his usual signature that of Bervic, which was a surname of his father. His baptismal names were those of Charles CUment, which he bore in his youth and which are found on his earlier works, until, having need of his certifi- cate of baptism, he was astonished to see himself named therein Jean Guillaume, and to find himself obliged to rectify formally all the documents which he had executed in his accustomed names. Upon examination, however, of the parish registers, which at this period were deposited at the Hotel de Villa, it transpired that the duplicate copy sent to the Palais de Justice was in error, and that the names of Jean Guillaume assigned to Bervic in the latter were in reality those of the infant baptized before him. Nevertheless, through obstacles which arose in the rectification of his family papers, he never resumed his baptismal names. At a very early age young Bervic showed a decided taste for drawing: he amused himself by copying all the prints which fell into his hands, and, although entirely without instruction, he succeeded fairly well. This led to his entering the studio of Jean Baptiste !e Prince, where his talent rapidly developed, and he grew ambitious of becoming a painter ; but to this his father was averse, fearing that he might not attain to eminence in the art. However, by way of compromise with a passion which could not be subdued, he was allowed in 1769 to become a pupil of Jean Georges Wille, one of the best line-engravers of the day. His earliest work is unknown, but the first plate to which he put his name was that of ' Le petit Turc,' aftei P. A. Wi;le, which he completed in 1774. This engraving bears evidence of being the work of an inexperienced although not unskilful hand, and has the metallic lustre and other defects of the school of Wille. Marked progress was shown in his engravings of ' La Demande acceptee ' and ' Le Repos,' after Lepicie. and in his portrait of S4nac de Meilhan, after Duplessis, all of which were finished in 1783. The portrait of S^nac de Meilhan first revealed the power which Bervic possessed of freeing himself from the influences of his early education, and of rendering truth- fully and characteristically the varied details of his subject. This talent soon met with its due reward, for in 1784 he was elected a member of the Academy, and requested to engrave for his reception a portrait of Count d'Angiviller; but commencing soon after the portrait of the King, that of the Count was laid aside, and he never became an academician.
The full-length portrait of Louis XVI. in l.ia coronation robes, after the portrait by Callet at Versailles, established the reputation which Bervic had obtained by the wonderful brilliancy and soft- ness with which he reproduced in black and white the diverse tones and textures indicated in paint- ing by the aid of colour. Bervic kept pace with the revolutionary movement, and at one of the meetings of the 'Soci^t^ populaire des Arts' broke the copper-plate of the king's portrait, and tore in halves all the proofs of it which he possessed. The plate has since been skilfully repaired by Chollet, and later impressions taken from it. His next works of importance were ' The Education of Achilles by the centaur Chiron,' after Regnault, and its pendant, ' The Rape of Deianeira by the centaur Nessus,' after Guido, the originals of both of which subjects are in the Louvre. The latter gained the decennial prize awarded by the French Institute for the best engraving executed between the years 1800 and 1810. But Bervic's master- piece is undoubtedly his plate of the renowned antique group of the ' Death of Laocoon and his two Sons,' engraved for the Musie Fran^ais, in which he appears to have endeavoured to rival the ' suffering marble,' as it has been aptly termed, which the Rhodian sculptors Agesandcr, Polydorus, and Athenodorus seem to have ani- mated with the breath of life. Yet such was his modesty, that when his task was done he com- plained of having been able but partially to reahze his aims.
Sovereigns and nations hastened to do homage to Bervic's talents. Louis XVI. gave him, in 1787, the apartments in the Louvre which had been vacant since the death of the painter Ldpici^. The order of the Reunion was conferred upon him in 1813, and the Legion of Honour in 1819. Most of the academies of Europe enrolled him among their members, and in 1803 he became a member of the Institute of France. Failing sight at length compelled him to lay down his graver, and the ' Testament of Eudamidas,' a bust of Napoleon, and a half-length portrait of Louis XVllI., of which but three proofs exist, remained unfinislied at the time of his death, which occurred in Paris on the 23rd of March, 1822. He was twice married : first, in 1788, to Mile. Carreaux de Rozemont, a portrait painter and pupil of Madame Guyard, who died in the same year; secondly, in 1791, to Mile. Bligny, who died in 1793. Bervic established a school of engraving, in which his constant aim was to warn his pupils against the baneful in- fluence of servile imitation, and to guide each ono according to the bent of his own individual genius. Toschi and Henriquel-Dupont are the most cele- brated among his many scholars. The following are his most important works :
St. John the Baptist in the 'Wildemess ; after Raphael, (Florence Gallery.) The Education of Achilles ; after Regnault. The Ilape of Deianeira ; after Guido. The Laocoon ; after a drawing by Pierre B uillon, from the antique. (Miisce Fran(;ais.) Innocence ; after Merimee. La Demande acceptee ; after Lepicie. Le Repos ; after the same. Le petit Turc; after P. A. Wille.
The Testament of Eudamidas ; after N. Poussin. (This plate was finished by Toschi.)
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