Giovanni Volpato

Born in Bassano del Grappa (Veneto region) in 1735, Giovanni Trevisan Volpato worked as an engraver, excavator, dealer in antiquities and manufacturer of biscuit porcelain figurines. He was trained by Giovanni Antonio Remondini (1700–1769), of the famous Remondini firm of print publishers. In 1762 he went to Venice to work for the engravers Joseph Wagner and Francesco Bartolozzi producing prints after paintings by prominent rococo and baroque artists. In 1771 he went to Rome where he worked on his own account and trained many others. He engraved a series of landscapes and vedute of Rome with Louis Ducros. Volpato’s activities as an excavator in Ostia (1779), Porta San Sebastiano (1779) and Quadraro (1780) enabled him to generate archaeological scenes of his own invention which found a ready market through his links to British antiquarian dealer Thomas Jenkins and his Scottish counterpart, Gavin Hamilton. In 1785 Volpato founded a factory for biscuit porcelain after famous Roman statues.