(b Treviso, 10 Feb 1759; d Pisa, 26 March 1838). Italian printmaker. According to Federici, he began as a painter at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice but soon specialized in printmaking. His early prints may have been influenced by the work of Giovanni Marco Pitteri (1702–86) and Francesco Bartolozzi. After his move to Florence in 1778, two series of Lasinio’s early prints were published: Punti ecclesiastici compilati e tramessi da sua altezza reale a tutti gli arcivescovi e vescovi della toscana e loro respettive risposte (1787) and Ornati presi da graffiti e pitture antiche esistenti in Firenze (1789). He apparently taught engraving at the Accademia in Florence (he was appointed Accademizo del Disegno in 1794 and Professor in 1800), and he may have assisted Raphael Morghen there. In 1783 he learnt the process of colour engraving from Edouard Gautier-Dagoty, and his most important work in this medium was the long series (over 350 prints) of colour engravings after the Uffizi’s collection of artist’s self-portraits (Ritratti de’ pittori esistenti nella Reale Galleria di Firenze ..., 1789). Lasinio’s early style and later interest in reproductive engraving were neatly combined in L’Etruria pittrice (1791–5). He executed not only many of the full-page etchings after Florentine paintings but also the decorative motifs that appear throughout this important publication. In 1807 Lasinio was officially appointed Conservatore of the Camposanto in Pisa. He saved the Camposanto and its contents from ruin, while having to preside over the confiscations exacted for the Musée Napoléon in Paris. His large-scale etchings of the frescoes in the Camposanto (Pitture a fresco del Camp Santo di Pisa ..., 1812) proved to be immensely influential on 19th-century European painters, notably the Pre-Raphaelites in England, despite John Ruskin’s unflattering comments in the Quarterly Review (June 1847). His son, Giovanni Paolo Lasinio (1789–1855), also a prolific printmaker, published smaller illustrated volumes on the Camposanto (Raccolta di sarcofagi, urne e altri monumenti di scultura del Campo Santo, 1814, and Pitture a fresco del Camposanto di Pisa, 1832). In Pisa Carlo Lasinio worked closely with Giovanni Rosini, Professor of Italian Literature at the university and his successor as Conservatore. Apart from serving as Conservatore, Lasinio also founded an academy in Pisa and acted as a dealer in Italian paintings. Later reproductive outline etchings by him include Affreschi celebri del XIV e XV secolo (1813–33) and Pitture a fresco di Andrea del Sarto esistenti nella Compagnia della Scalzo in Firenze (1830).

• Lasinio, Carlo
  • Mezzotint, §2(ii): 18th century
  • Pisa, §II: Art life
  • works
    • Gozzoli, Benozzo, §1: Life and work
    • Pisa, §III, 1(iii): Cathedral complex: Painting
    • Prints, §III, 6(ii)(a): Colour printing, 15th–18th centuries