ROTA, Martino

Croatian engraver, painter and sculptor. He engraved after Marcantonio Raimondi the series of Christ and the Twelve Apostles. He made no original engravings but transcribed on copper, by etching or with the burin, the works of Luca Penni, Raphael and Michelangelo. His most famous work is a very reduced copy of the Last Judgement by Michelangelo. In 1558 he settled in Venice, where, in the absence of Cornelis Cort, Titian entrusted him with the reproduction of several of his paintings. In the same city he also worked after Cornelis Cort and Federico Zuccaro and discovered the work of Dürer, after whom he copied the scenes of the Small Passion. In 1568 he left for Vienna, where he apparently worked as a painter and sculptor. His oeuvre comprises c. 120 prints, of which more than half are portraits.