BEATRICETTO Nicola

(Lunéville 1507 – Rome 1565)

French engraver, native of Lorraine, he was probably belonging to a family of goldsmiths active in Nancy. He has carried out most of his artistic work in Italy and especially in Rome.
Here he developed his career first as an engraver and later as an editor.
Arriving in Italy around 1540, he started to attend the school of engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi and changed his original name Beatrizet in Beatricius and later in Italianate Beatricetto.

Quickly he proved great ability in the use of the right balance of lines and points, and in the rendering of shadows and midtones, becoming the most appreciated engraver among the foreigners painters and printmakers active in Rome.

Influenced by Agostino Veneziano and Giorgio Ghisi, he chose his models in Raphael and Michelangelo.

In 1540, Nicola Beatricetto worked for the publisher Antonio Salamanca and from 1541 to 1548 for Antonio Lafrery that included many of his etchings in the Speculum Romanae Magnificenzae. Translational engraver par excellence in this period, he has translated subjects by Girolamo Muziano, as well as by minor artists, with religious and mythological scenes, architecture and buildings in the style of the time. He died in Rome, probably in 1565.