Cornelis Cort

From Italy he wandered back to the Netherlands, but he returned to Venice soon after 1567, proceeding thence to Bologna and Rome, where he produced engravings from all the great masters of the time.

[3] In Rome he founded the well-known school in which, as Bartsch tells us, the simple line of Marcantonio was modified by a brilliant touch of the burin, afterwards imitated and perfected by Agostino Carracci in Italy and Nicolaes de Bruyn in the Netherlands.

Before visiting Italy, Cort had been content to copy Michael Coxcie, Frans Floris, Heemskerk, Gillis Mostaert, Bartholomeus Spranger and Stradanus.

In Italy he gave circulation to the works of Raphael, Titian, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Baroccio, Giulio Clovio, Muziano and the Zuccari.

The art collector George Cumberland wrote in 1827 that[4] ...if such men as Martin Rota, Cort, Bloemart, or Goltzius, did not often adhere to the style and character of head of the Artist they copied, yet they always gave enough to enable us to comprehend the principles of the composition; and we often have well drawn figures to make us some amends for the loss of sentiment in the heads, expression of hands, or local colouring.