Johann Gottlieb Prestel was born 18 November 1739 in Grönenbach in the Princely Abbey of Kempten, Swabia (now part of Bavaria, Germany).

[6] When he first arrived, he began to replicate an altarpiece that he discovered in a church when a man knelt nearby to pray then gestured him to follow as Prestel didn't speak Italian.

[5] Admiring Prestel's ambition, Nogari housed him, taught him, and proposed making him heir by marrying his young heiress cousin.

[2] Seizing an opportunity arranged by Wagner, Prestel traveled to Rome with a canon from Mainz Cathedral after living in Venice for two years.

[5] While in Rome, Prestel learned various techniques, from protecting frescoes to restoring paintings and improving plaster casting, but he never exploited these skills for personal gain.

[4] Finding his shadowless contour style unpopular, Prestel transitioned to a broader approach, excelling in etching, pencil, and wash methods.

[7] He sought to merge the brush's mildness with the drawing's precision in copperplate printing, eventually leading to his invention of the Prestelian manner, the techniques of which he kept secret.

[2] Prestel soon shifted his focus to mainly reproducing master drawings using aquatint, a technique recently invented by French painter Jean-Baptiste Le Prince.

[8] Maria Katharina, his wife, trained under Prestel, and the couple collaborated on various prints in etching, aquatint, and in the crayon manner (known as Stipple engraving).

[5] The Düsseldorf Academy appointed Johann Gottlieb Prestel as an honorary member in 1779, and a year later, Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria sent him a letter of appreciation for his work on the Praun Cabinet.

[5] While still finishing the Praun Cabinet, Prestel announced reproductions of 30 sheets from Gérard Joachim Schmidt's collection in Hamburg, published in 1779.

[9] After his wife's departure, Prestel's productivity declined, affected by personal turmoil and the political unrest of the French Revolution in the late 1780s.

[1] During his stay in Frankfurt in 1794, Prestel taught German landscape painter Anton Radl from Vienna copperplate engraving, etching and gouache painting.

[5] Prestel's publishing house produced many large sheets, printed in brown or multiple colors, both individually and in collections.

In 1798, Prestel, accompanied by his daughter and Radl, visited Brabeck to sketch all the gallery's landscape paintings for copperplate engraving.

[5] Prestel later became affiliated with the newly created museum society in Frankfurt and began mentoring a student again, Schulz from Weilburg.

[9] When Prestel died at the age of 69, Karl Ritter, a prominent Berlin scholar and a young man residing in Frankfurt, gave a respectful eulogy in the newly built museum.