Follower of VICENTE MARIANI I TODOLÍ (Valencia, 1765 - Madrid, 1819). "Ponte Veccio, Florence. Oil on copper. Size: 29,5 x 46 cm; 134 x 71 cm (frame). Vicente Mariani y Todolí (Valencia, 1765 - Madrid, 1819) was a Spanish intaglio engraver. Descended from an Italian family who settled in Spain, it seems likely that he began his studies at the Royal Academy of San Carlos in Valencia, although he soon moved on to the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, where he was already enrolled in 1784. Under the protection of the Count of Fernán Núñez, Spain s ambassador in Paris, who made him his draughtsman and amanuensis, he was able to travel to the French capital in 1787, where he continued his studies with Jean Pillement. Some of the original landscape drawings in the Biblioteca Nacional de España and the Museo del Prado bear witness to this influence. On returning to Spain with the appointment of academician of merit he was involved in some of the projects promoted by the Royal Printing Works and the National Chalcography, such as the collection of Portraits of Illustrious Spaniards, in which he painted the portrait of Andrés Laguna, based on a drawing by José Maea, and the unfinished Views of Spanish Ports, for which he signed the views of the ports of Seville and Luarca (1795-1796). In December 1797 he joined the large group of engravers responsible for translating into print the drawings and observations of the flora of Peru and Chile obtained by the botanical expedition led by Hipólito Ruiz and José Pavón, a costly publishing project of which three volumes were published between 1798 and 1802 under the title Flora Peruviana et Chilensis, sive descriptiones et icones plantarum Peruvianarum, et Chilensium.... although his contribution to the project was reduced to one plate. He engraved a complete Apostolate on a drawing by Raphael Sanzio consisting of fourteen plates (the twelve apostles, the Saviour of the World and Saint Paul) for which he received 2,800 reals from the Royal Chalcography, which acquired the plates in 1799, and on behalf of the Company for the Engraving of the Paintings of the Royal Collections set up in 1789, he engraved a Virgin and Child by Murillo on a drawing by José Beratón. In 1818 the Royal Chalcography also bought two plates of Saint Michael and the Holy Cross from him for 1500 reales each. A member of the Academy of San Carlos in 1806 and chamber engraver, from July 1818 until his death the following year he held the post of caretaker of the Royal Gallery of Paintings, the origin of what would later become the Museo Nacional del Prado.