Giovanni Antonio Lorenzini

1665–1740, Bologna

Giovanni Antonio Lorenzini, an etcher active in Bologna, studied under the history and portrait painter, Lorenzo Pasinelli (1629–1700). However, he soon gave up painting to devote himself exclusively to etching. Nagler says Lorenzini was so fascinated by monastery life while working in the Church of San Francesco in Bologna that he entered the Franciscan order and was subsequently called Fra Antonio. As an artist he produced a quite considerable printed oeuvre, although Bartsch records only eight of his prints. The works by Lorenzini he refers to are without exception from his early period. According to Nagler, they are “intelligently treated”, while the works from his late period often appear somewhat stiff and dogmatic.