TESTA Giovanni Cesare

(Lucca ? c.1630 – 1655)

Italian engraver, probably born in Lucca. There is very little and fragmentary news about his artistic training. His fame is above all linked to the reproduction, with the technique of etching, of drawings by his uncle Pietro Testa.
After this latter’s tragical death (he committed suicide by drowning himself into the river Tiber), the request for his works raised so much that his nephew had to translate in engraving all his uncle’s drawings.
In particular, he made a series of etchings published after 1655 by the editor  F. Collignon in the “Collection of different drawings and thoughts of Pietro Testa found after his death”.
His etching style is substantially similar to that of his uncle.