Giovanni Emo, Procurator of San Marco, after Angelo Trevisani

Reproductive printmaking nearly kept pace with the extraordinary developments of painting and drawing in 18th-century Venice. One of its leading masters, Faldoni cultivated a virtuoso style of pure burin work without supplemental techniques or even cross-hatching to indicate tone and texture. Achieving an iridescent color, a dappled light, and a nervous animation, this portrait of a Venetian official is the most audacious example.