ers_. Jackson was
to make cuts for the headpieces, but the project was eventually dropped,
and he continued to Bologna, where he remained a month chiefly in the
company of the woodcutter G. M. Moretti, who showed him some original
blocks cut by Ugo da Carpi for printing in chiaroscuro. He then
proceeded to Venice, arriving "three Days before the Feast of the
Ascension in 1731, and was highly surprized to find no one Engraver on
Wood capable to do such poor Work, he has seen at Bolonia." Jackson was
amply supplied with strong recommendations from Florence, and on showing
his work to leading printers was urged to settle in Venice, where a fine
woodcutter capable of both designing and executing cuts was urgently
needed. Here he also met Count Antonio Maria Zanetti, who was well-known
as a chiaroscuro woodcutter besides being a collector and patron of the
arts. Their first meeting is described in the _Enquiry_:

... very soon after his [Jackson's] Arrival he had an Interview with
Signior _Antonio Maria Zannetti_; from the Accounts he had heard
from Mr. _Marriette_ in _France_ of this Man's Work in _Chiaro
Oscuro_, he expected to see some wonderful Performance, but
_Parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus_ is a most applicable
Proverb on this Occasion. I who have perused this grand Raccolta of
_Zannetti's_, must acknowledge that they are a trifling Performance,
inferior to any Attempts of this Kind in our Times; and indeed it is
no Wonder, when we come to know that this Man never used a Press,
nor so much as a Hand Roll to print his Works with. Our Countryman
says he had room to suspect he neither did cut or print these Works,
which was confirmed by the poor Men who performed both. But such was
the Vanity of this Author, that he told the Public in his
Dedications that he was the Restorer of that lost Art, whereas he
only drawed them on the Blocks, which might have been done as well
by those that cut and printed them. At this first Interview the low
Cunning of this Man was discovered....[24]

[Footnote 24: Zanetti certainly cut many of his own blocks, as the
prints with the signature "A. M. Zanetti, sculp." attest. But he
also made use of craftsmen in the traditional fashion for other
blocks and for the mechanical phase of printing.]

Jackson undoubtedly disliked Zanetti's soft and delicate treatment, so
characteristic of 18th-century work, and considered his interpretation