Francesco Polanzani (1700–after 1783)

• Francesco Polanzani was an Italian engraver.
• He worked first in Venice, near his hometown of Noale, before moving to Rome around 1742.
• Upon his arrival in Rome he became a master carver at l’ Ospizio di San Michele a Ripa.
• Shortly after arriving in Rome, Polanzani established a working relationship with Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the master etcher.
• One of Polanzani’s most famous works is an etching of Piranesi, which was used as the frontispiece for Piranesi’s book of engravings, Antichità Romane in 1756.
• He is also well known for engraving a series of twenty-two plates depicting the Life of the Virgin based on drawings that are attributable either to the French painter Nicolas Poussin, or to the French painter and printmaker Jacques Stella.
• Polanzani also engraved works by A. van Dyck, Carlo Cignani and Marco Benefiali.

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