Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

PIETRO FONTANA (Bassano 1762 - Rome 1837) DANCER WITH HER HANDS ON HER HIPS (after Canova)
Etching and engraving, 1814-15; after the sculpture by Antonio Canova (Ermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), the intermediary draughtsman was Giovanni Tognoli; Pezzini Bernini - Fiorani XLIV. A fine impression of an early undescribed state, before the title and inscriptions of the first state of Pezzini Bernini and Fiorani. For an impression of the first state see here. Printed on wove paper, with large margins, lightly foxed and other minor faults. To the platemark 450 x 330 mm, the entire sheet measuring 690 x 555 mm. See G. Pezzini Bernini, F. Fiorani, 'Canova e l'incisione', 1993; cat. no. XLIV.

Pietro Fontana was a pupil of the painter Giovanni Battista Mengardi in Venice. In 1785 he moved to Rome, where he devoted himself exclusively to engraving, his masters being Giovanni Volpato and Raffaello Morghen. Pietro Fontana was a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and Venice.