Work
Rota has been described as one of the most significant graphic artists of the second half of the 16th century, though few if any of his prints were original compositions.
Chiefly an engraver of portraits, which he also painted, his drafting of the human figure is very correct, and he pays particular attention to extremities. He engraved plates entirely with the graving tool. Rota showed Durerian naturalism and a Venetian feeling for material. Like many printmakers of the period, he combined etching and engraving on the same plates, but in an unusually sensitive manner, exploiting the differences between the two techniques.
He also engraved paintings by masters of the Renaissance, in particular Titian, whose very important destroyed altarpiece of the Martyrdom of St. Peter Martyr is now best known from Rota's engraving; he also made engravings after work by Michelangelo and Dürer. His known work includes more than one hundred and seventy engravings and etchings on a variety of subjects, including maps, vedutes, portraits, illustrations for pamphlets, coats of arms, and depictions of the saints. He added to the fame of Sebenico and of his compatriot Antun Vrančić, called Antonius Verantius.
The art collector George Cumberland wrote in 1827 that
| “ | ...if such men as Martin Rota, Cort, Bloemart, or Goltzius, did not often adhere to the style and character of head of the Artist they copied, yet they always gave enough to enable us to comprehend the principles of the composition; and we often have well drawn figures to make us some amends for the loss of sentiment in the heads, expression of hands, or local colouring. | ” |
Rota's portrait of the Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564), pictured, may have been engraved from Deschler's medallion of 1561. Other portraits he engraved include the Emperors Maximilian II and Rudolf II and King Henry IV of France.
His masterpiece is considered to be an engraving after Michelangelo's The Last Judgment.
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