ANDREANI Andrea

(Mantua 1558 ca. – 1616)

Italian printer and engraver active in the late 16th century.
Born in Mantua, most of his training, studies and activities carried out during his juvenile life is unknown. In 1584 he appeared in Rome where he published in 8 sheets the famous Triumph of Faith by Titian. In the same year he moved to Florence, where he started to perform reproduction works with the ‘chiaroscuro’ technique: a wood engraving variant in which the tonal effects are achieved by the use of more wooden matrices so as to obtain, on one sheet, two or more shades of the same color or similar.
This technique, invented by Ugo da Carpi in Venice, spread rapidly in Germany thanks to the works of Burgkmair, Cranach and Baldung Grien, and in Italy with those of Antonio da Trento and Nicolo Vicentino, but it ran out quickly, so that Andreani was the only significant engraver of chiaroscuro in the second half of the century.
He was active mainly in Siena and Florence, where he had his own workshop. His prints took subjects from Domenico Beccafumi, Giambologna, Parmigianino. His most famous work was certainly the engravings of the Triumphs of Caesar derived from Andrea Mantegna cartons.

Andreani, very celebrated in life, was rather too severely judged later. Criticism against him were based mainly on the fact that he used some chiaroscuro by Ugo da Carpi and his followers in the early sixteenth century, by putting his initials on the original matrices and reprinting these for sale.
Critics did not consider the role he had as a carver in that enterprise where worn matrices have been reworked, often with additions and improvements, essentially increasing the final quality of the work.