Lorenz Natter

[1] On coming to Rome Natter was, on his own account, employed by the Chevalier Odam to copy the Venus of Vettori, to make a Danae of it, and put the supposed engraver's name Aulus to it.

[1] In 1741 or earlier, Natter came to England to work as a medallist and gem-engraver, bringing with him from Italy a collection of antique gems and sulphur casts.

Christian VI of Denmark gave him a room in his palace, where he worked at gem and die cutting for nearly a year.

[2][3] According to Rogers Ruding, Natter was employed as engraver or assistant-engraver at the English Royal Mint at the beginning of the reign of George III.

[1] Natter's talents as a gem-engraver were praised by Goethe, and Charles William King called him "one of the greatest of the modern practitioners of the art".

Georg Kaspar Nagler in his Künstler-Lexikon, and Heinrich Bolzenthal,[4] followed in Edward Hawkins's Medallic Illustrations, gave Natter's forenames as "Johann Lorenz"; Natter on his gems and medals and on the title-pages of his publications used only the Christian name "Lorenz" (or Laurent, Laurentius, etc.).

Natter himself does not mention visiting the Netherlands, but he was patronised by William IV of Orange and his family, and made for them portraits in intaglio and portrait-medals.

[1] At this period Natter was attacked by Pierre-Jean Mariette in Traité des pierres gravées (1750), as a self-conscious forger.

[2] During Natter's two visits to England he was patronised by the royal family, and in 1741 made the medal "Tribute to George II".

He engraved two or three seals with the head of Sir Robert Walpole, and produced a medal of him with a bust from John Michael Rysbrach's model, with on the reverse a statue of Cicero with the legend, "Regit dictis animos".