FANTUZZI, Antonio

(b. ~1508 ?, d. ~1550 Fontainebleau)

Italian painter and printmaker. All that is known about his early life is that he was born in Bologna, from the accounts at Fontainebleau and one inscription on a print (see illustration).

He is recorded as a painter of the First School of Fontainebleau from 1537 into the 1540s, apparently a principal assistant to Francesco Primaticcio, who had taken charge of the “school” decorating the Palace of Fontainebleau after the suicide in 1540 of Rosso Fiorentino. He became a leading member of the printmaking workshop at Fontainebleau and nearly 100 etchings survive, 16 dated between 1542 and 1545. Most copy designs by Rosso (about 25), Giulio Romano (21 at least), or Primaticcio. He is last recorded at Fontainebleau in 1550.

In the past, art historians often confused him with Antonio da Trento, another north Italian at Fontainebleau, but the two identities have now been securely disentangled. Antonio da Trento specialized in chiaroscuro woodcuts, a technique also used by Fantuzzi, and used to be assigned Fantuzzi’s prints, partly because their monograms are similar.

Holy Family

This print was made after Rosso Fiorentino.

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The Muses at the Foot of Mt. Parnassus

In its rough execution, claustrophobic composition, and stylised, attenuated figures, this print is characteristic of the school of printmaking that arose at Fontainebleau, the palace of Francis I (r. 1515-47) outside Paris. Fantuzzi was apparently called to Fontainebleau to assist his fellow Bolognese Francesco Primaticcio, who was frescoing the walls of the palace with tales of the ancient gods and heroes. There, Fantuzzi took up etching, producing more than one hundred prints after drawings by Primaticcio, Rosso Fiorentino, and others. There is no known model for this etching, however, which could be the etcher’s own design.

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