Artist
Giovanni Antonio da Brescia

Italian, 1460–1523
Giovanni Antonio da Brescia was an Italian Renaissance artist. 29 works are cataloged here, principally at National Gallery of Art. Giovanni Antonio da Brescia was born in Brescia.
Giovanni Antonio da Brescia was an Italian engraver of northern Italy, active in the approximate period 1490–1519, during the Italian Renaissance. In his early career he used the initials "Z.A." to sign some twenty engravings, and until recently Zoan Andrea was regarded as a distinct printmaker; it is now realized that they are the same person, and the "Z.A." stood for Giovanni Antonio, "Zovanni" being a north Italian spelling. Around 1507 he began to use formulae such as "IO.AN.BX.", and signed some prints more fully.
The real Zoan Andrea was a very obscure painter, documented as working in Mantua in the 1470s, who produced no engravings. The newly expanded oeuvre comprises at least 150 engravings, making Giovanni Antonio one of the most prolific Italian engravers of this period. A large number copy other prints, as was then common, and others are probably after drawings by Andrea Mantegna; "all his major works seem to have been based on designs by other artists" ("major" here presumably excludes the large number of ornament prints).
Beginning his printmaking career in a close but uncertain relationship with the aged Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431–1506) in Mantua, as some kind of pupil or collaborator, he then may have travelled around north Italy, and certainly spent his later printmaking years in Rome. He developed his technique, becoming a technical influence on other Italian engravers, notably Marcantonio Raimondi.
Works by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia
Christ before Pilate
The Entombment
Saint Jerome in His Study
Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the Infant Saint John
Hercules and Antaeus
Flagellation
Man Seated Holding a Forked Staff
Discovery of Joseph's Cup
Ornamental Panel Inscribed "Victoria Augusta"
The Entombment with Three Birds
Two Sibyls and an Angel
Saint Peter
Hercules and the Cretan Bull
Four Dancing Muses
Two Sibyls and an Angel
Ornament Panel: Triton and Two Infant Satyrs
Descent into Limbo
Bacchanal with Silenus
Holy Family with St. Elizabeth and the Infant St. John the Baptist
St. Jerome in His Study
Risen Christ Between Saints Andrew and Longinus
Entombment
Upright Arabesque with Masks, Cupids and Nereids
Allegory of the Rescue of Humanity: Virtus Deserta
29 works in the catalog · 24 shown
Collections represented