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Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727–85). Italian artist Giovanni Battista Cipriani was noted for his historical paintings and murals and especially for his pen and ink drawings. He was one of the first exponents in England of neoclassicism and played an important part in directing 18th-century English artistic taste.
Richard Earlom (London, 1743–1822). One of the greatest eighteenth century mezzotint and stipple engravers, Richard Earlom was apprenticed to the London based engraver, Cipriani, in his youth. He began work for John Boydell in 1774, taking five years to create the two hundred plates which comprise the Liber Veritas set. These engravings showed the world the remarkable effects a combination of mezzotint and etching could produce on landscape art and gained for both Earlom and Boydell a long-lasting fame. In fact, in the following century, these Earlom mezzotints directly influenced the landscape art of Turner. |
