Nicolas Beatrizet, printmaker

A French engraver whose life was spent in Rome, Nicolas Beatrizet was another who built upon Marcantonio Raimondi’s system of engraving. In this work, Beatrizet reproduces the flat textures of fresco painting by surrounding his forms with extensive dotting.

This shaped copperplate comprises one of ten plates that together reproduce Michelangelo’s 1541 Last Judgment, painted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. When assembled, the prints measure almost five feet high. One of three artists to undertake this ambitious project, Beatrizet probably copied an earlier set of plates by Giorgio Ghisi; therefore this print was twice removed from the original. Prints after the Sistine Chapel frescoes proved enduringly popular in the Renaissance, providing an intimate view of works by Michelangelo that many would never see in person, and certainly not at such close range.