Antonio Maria Zanetti I

Venetian artist and collector Antonio Maria Zanetti claimed to have revived the art of chiaroscuro printmaking. He is best known for his prints after a group of Parmigianino drawings, which he bought in England in 1720 from the collection of the Earl of Arundel. Although the blocks were mostly cut in the 1720s, Zanetti gathered the prints in several volumes in 1731, 1739, and 1749. Unlike earlier artists, Zanetti often chose vividly contrasting colors rather than varying shades of the same color. As a result, the prints look less like the subtle tonal washes of the drawings.