After having studied art for several years he was employed by Testolini, an engraver of very indifferent abilities, to execute imitations of Bartolozzi's works, which he passed off as his own. In 1790 Testolini was invited by Bartolozzi to join him in England, and, it having been discovered that Schiavonetti, who accompanied him, had executed the plates in question, he was employed by Bartolozzi and became an eminent engraver in both the line and the dot manner. Among his early works are four plates of subjects from the French Revolution, after Benazech.
He also produced a "Mater Dolorosa" after Vandyck, and Michelangelo's cartoon of the "Surprise of the Soldiers on the Banks of the Arno." From 1805 to 1808 he was engaged in etching Blake's designs to Blair's Grave, which, with a portrait of the artist engraved by Schiavonetti after T Phillips, R.A, were published in 1808. The etching of Stothard's "Canterbury Pilgrims" was one of his latest works, and on his death the plate was taken up by his brother Niccolo, and finally completed by James Heath.
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.