Giulio Bonasone

Italian, c. 1510 - after 1576

(not assigned)Bologna, Italy, Europe

BiographyBorn Bologna, c. 1510; died Bologna, after 1576.

Italian printmaker and painter. He was a pupil of Lorenzo Sabbatini and evidently a late follower of Marcantonio Raimondi. He is now credited with 410 prints (almost all Rome, 1st. N. Graf.), as against Adam von Bartsch’s attribution of 354. They include reproductive as well as original prints, and his independence of vision makes him one of the most interesting interpreters of his time. His activity in this field began c. 1531, as is indicated by the date on the Raphaelesque St Cecilia (b. 74). Parmigianino entrusted him with the copper engraving of his drawings, for example Mercury and Minerva (b. 168). While in Rome c. 1544–7 Bonasone interpreted works including Michelangelo’s Last Judgement (b.80) and Raphael’s Toilet of Psyche (b. 167). He often combined the techniques of etching and engraving in the same print.

In Bologna after c. 1547 Bonasone began his most important work, the illustration of the 155 symbols (b. 179–328) of the Symbolicarum quaestionum de universo genere quas serio ludebat libri quinque (Bologna, 1555) by Achille Bocchi (1488–1562), which show elements derived from Raphael, Michelangelo and Parmigianino, although they generally reproduce drawings (e.g. London, BM) by Prospero Fontana. The plates, first published in 1555, were completely retouched by Agostino Carracci and reprinted in 1574. They are unique among contemporary illustrations of such emblems in that, instead of being subordinated to the text, they actually add meaning to it. After 1560 Bonasone achieved new effects and greater freedom in his etchings, such as the Adoration of the Shepherds (b. 39), and in works modelled on Titian, for example Rest during the Flight into Egypt (b. 67), in which he anticipated the refined solutions of his later years, for example in St George (b. 77), his last dated engraving.

Stefania Massari. "Bonasone, Giulio." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T009830 (accessed March 22, 2012).

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