A Man with a Beret and a Fur Collar c. 1750s

A student of the renowned painter and draftsman Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682–1754), Marco Pitteri was an accomplished and sophisticated reproductive printmaker in Venice in the 18th century. Pitteri was prolific, producing over 450 prints in his lifetime. This includes some 150 prints after Piazzetta's drawings and paintings, which established not only his own reputation, but can largely be credited for promoting Piazzetta's international fame. Piazzetta's highly finished and inventive character heads and portrait drawings were prized by Venetian collectors and became celebrated across Europe. Pitteri developed an innovative etching and engraving technique that skillfully replicated Piazzetta's soft, crumbly handling of black and white chalk. A Man with a Beret and a Fur Collar, which reproduces an early self-portrait drawing by Piazzetta, encompasses all the sought-after qualities of Piazzetta's character heads and Pitteri's printmaking. In appearance and pose, Piazzetta created a quintessentially 18th-century figure. He is a blend of nature and fantasy, and strikes an evocative pose that is simultaneously animated and blasé. Pitteri, in turn, imparts an extraordinary sensual richness to the print surface, depicting the subject with vibrant softened lines and an impressive range of tones. He also deftly distinguishes a range of textures in his technique, such as the fur of the collar, the velvety beret, and the smooth thick flesh of the sitter's face.