Villamena Francesco

Villamena Francesco an Italian designer and engraver, was born at Assisi about 1566. He went to Rome during the pontificate of Sixtus V and studied designing from the antique and the works of the great masters. His plates are executed entirely with the graver, in a masterly style. His prints are considered defective on account of the lights being too equally distributed over the whole subject, but the defect receives a compensation in the correctness of the drawing and the admirable expression of the heads. Among his principal works are, Moses Showing the Brazen Serpent to the Israelites, after Ferran da Faena: — The Virgin and Infant Christ, with St. Francis, after the same: The Holy Family, with St. John, St. Elizabeth, and St. Anne, after Raphael (1602, 1611): — St. Bruno and his Companions Doing Penance in the Desert, after Lanfranco: — the Taking-down from the Cross, after Baroccio — the Presentation in the Temple, after Paolo Veronese a set of twenty scriptural subjects from Raphael's paintings in the Vatican. See Spooner, Biog. Hist. of the Fine Arts, s.v.