Funerary Monument

Francesco Bartolozzi · n.d.

Medium

Pen and black ink, with brush and gray wash and blue gouache, over black chalk, on cream laid paper, laid down on ivory wove paper

Original size

33 × 25 cm (13 × 9 7/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

Funerary Monument carries the quiet gravity of an eighteenth-century mind grappling with mortality — rendered not in paint but in the delicate layering of pen, wash, chalk, and gouache that gives Bartolozzi's drawings their distinctive, almost luminous depth. Francesco Bartolozzi was a Florentine-born draughtsman and engraver who rose to become one of the most celebrated printmakers in Georgian London, eventually serving as engraver to King George III. Though best remembered for his refined stipple engravings, Bartolozzi's preparatory drawings reveal a more intimate hand — fluid linework grounded in black chalk, then built up with transparent washes and subtle flashes of blue gouache that lend volume and atmosphere without heaviness. This particular work, held in the Art Institute of Chicago, demonstrates that layered approach at its most considered. Bartolozzi's reputation was international enough that he was among the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, a mark of the esteem in which his draftsmanship was held across Europe. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Bartolozzi's tonal subtlety and compositional stillness onto canvas, preserving the contemplative mood of the original while giving it the physical presence and warmth that only a painted surface can offer.