Biography

German painter and engraver. He was born in Bonn, Germany in 1749, and worked in England and Italy. He was a pupil of Francesco Bartolozzi in London, before becoming a Royal Academician. Metz was renowned for beautiful classical illustrations, particularly of figures like Mars, Venus and Diana, best known by his numerous imitations and facsimiles of drawings by the old masters. He published in 1790 a set of thirty-three engravings after George III's collection of drawings by Parmigianino and in 1791 a set of sixty-three plates in a similar style, after the designs by Polidoro da Caravaggio. In 1802 left for Rome, where he was to engrave Michelangelo's Last Judgement. He died there in 1827.