In 1568 the painter Giorgio Vasari and his assistants developed for printing a large historical document: the second edition of ‘Lives of Celebrated Painters, Sculptors and Architects’. The book became the main source of information on Old masters of Renaissance. Specially for that book, the young German engraver Cristoforo Coriolano created xylographs with portraits of the artists, based on drawings by Vasari himself and by one of his disciples. Vasari failed to create portraits of all the artists: no one knew how some of them looked. Vasari had to collect sketchy information from historical sources of that time period. He had to invent part of the portraits, and to leave another part unillustrated: instead of the face, the painter placed an empty frame made in a Mannerism style.

The portrait of the Florentine master Sandro Botticelli is made in the technique of xylography, the most adequate method of book illustrations of the 16th century. Carved wooden boards were used to press hundreds of clear prints both on cheap paper and on expensive parchment.

Little is known of Cristoforo Coriolano. He was born in 1540 in Nuremberg, and his real name was Lederer. The engraver changed his name after he had moved to Venice. Coriolano is known to have engraved illustrations for ‘The Ornithology’ by the Italian scientist and naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi. They collaborated for at least 15 years, therefore most illustrations in the books by Aldrovandi are attributed to Cristoforo Coriolano.
Coriolano died around 1600.Coriolano died around 1600.