ABSTRACT
Antonio Tempesta (1555?-1630) is an almost forgotten figure in the history of later sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century printmaking. Yet his output was astonishing in both its quantity and its range of subject matter. Although active as a painter and draughtsman, Tempesta produced an immense number of etchings - Adam von Bartsch listed some fifteen hundred and more have come to light since. 1 His etchings were apparently very successful and were well known in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were produced using strong, deeply-bitten lines, but the plates became worn through overuse, and many of them were later recut.
