Carlo Biffi

1605 – ca. 1675, Milan

The sculptor and engraver, Carlo Biffi, was the son and student of the cathedral sculptor, Gianandrea Biffi the Elder. He continued his training at the Accademia Ambrosiana, where his father taught sculpture, and is subsequently thought to have been apprenticed to Camillo Procaccini. According to Orlandi (1733), Biffi was a talented painter. However, he soon gave up painting and from 1631 worked as a sculptor at Milan Cathedral. Biffi’s activities as an engraver are interesting. Bartsch records just one engraving, the Portrait of the Actor Francesco Gabrielli (1633), which he commends with the words “Elle est d’un dessin parfait, et gravée d'une pointe ferme et nourrie”.