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ANTONIO DA TRENTO
Active in Bologna around 1530

Little is known about the Italian woodcutter Antonio da Trento other than what Giorgio Vasari wrote in his Le Vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani. Thirty-six woodblock prints have been attributed to Antonio, all after drawings by Parmigianino, but the total remains subject to scholarly disagreement; only two prints have his signature and four other prints are mentioned by Vasari. Antonio probably left Bologna around 1530. Vasari writes that early one morning while living with Parmigianino Antonio stole his master’s engravings, woodcuts and drawings. Vasari’s account seems credible, since Vasari himself was in Bologna in 1529. Scholars have long wondered what became of Antonio. Many have argued that he eventually went to France and worked with other artists at Fontainebleau under the name Antonio Fantuzzi, who was active there from 1537 to 1550, but the most recent scholarship disputes this theory.