Valerio Spada

Valerio Spada (1613–1688) was an Italian printmaker.^[1]

Life and work

Valerio Spada, View of the city of Florence from the walls of the lawn of the fathers of S.Francesco al Monte, circa 1650 (Rijksmuseum).

Spada was born in Colle di Val d'Elsa, Tuscany. He Studied drawing with Lorenzo Lippi.^[1]

He was a draughtsman, etcher and calligrapher, and also worked as a public scrivener and teacher of calligraphy.^[1]

Collections

Spada's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois^[2]
• British Museum, London^[1]
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York^[3]
• Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts^[4]
• Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam^[5]
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London (as designer,^[6] and as engraver^[7])
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.^[8]

References

1. "Valerio Spada". British Museum. Retrieved 2025-08-22.
2. "Valerio Spada". The Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2025-08-22.
3. "Results for "Valerio Spada" - The Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2025-08-22.
4. "Harvard Art Museums". harvardartmuseums.org. Retrieved 2025-08-22.
5. "Search". Rijksmuseum. Retrieved 2025-08-23.
6. "Search Results | V&A Explore the Collections". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2025-08-22.
7. "Search Results | V&A Explore the Collections". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2025-08-22.
8. "Valerio Spada". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 2025-08-22.

Further reading

• Phyllis Dearbon Massar, Valerio Spada, Seventeenth-Century Florentine Calligrapher and Draughtsman, Master Drawings, vol.19 no.3, 1981, pp.251–75+319–44
• Phyllis Dearborn Massar, The Prints of Valerio Spada - I, Print Quarterly, vol.3 no.3, 1986, pp.217–38
• Phyllis Dearborn Massar, The Prints of Valerio Spada - II, Print Quarterly, vol.4 no.1, 1987, pp.19–39