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sober and rational equability of temper and conduct, so opposite both to the low excesses of Morland and the morbid cynicism of Barry, which this distinguished artist preserved throughout his life, notwithstanding his early exposure to so many influences well calculated to corrupt both his understanding and his heart, forms another ground on account of which his example is exceedingly worthy of being held up to the imitation of all, and especially of such as may have to tread a path so perilous as his, in the commencement of life.

CHAPTER VIII.

Foreign Painters-Giotto; Greuze; Ehret; Solario.-Other cultivators of the Fine Arts-Canova; Bewick.

If we were to go over the long catalogue of foreign painters, we should find many names to add to those we have already enumerated of individuals who have attained the highest distinction after acquiring their art originally without a teacher, or practising it for a considerable time in unnoticed obscurity. GIOTTO, for instance, one of the great revivers of the art in the beginning of the fourteenth century, was the son of a peasant in the village of Vespignano, near Florence, and was employed, when a boy, in tending sheep. While in this condition, he was one day found by Cimabue drawing the figure of one of his flock on a large stone which lay on the ground; and that master (the first who practised anything deserving to be called painting in modern Europe) was so much pleased with this attempt, that he took the boy with him to Florence, and carefully instructed him in his art, in as far as he knew it himself. Giotto afterwards greatly surpassed his master, and, indeed, had no equal in his own age, either as a painter or a sculptor. Or to descend to much later times, BATONI, the principal artist whom Italy produced in the last century, taught himself painting while working with his father as a goldsmith; and, although he afterwards went to study at Rome (being sent there by some admirers of his genius, who subscribed to defray the expense of his residence) he merely availed himself of this opportunity to copy some of the works of the great masters, and to pursue the acquisition of his

art under the direction of his own taste and judgment. His contemporary, GREUZE, whom the French reckon their most eminent portrait-painter of that day, and who obtained besides great fame for his compositions from humble life, was likewise a selftaught artist. Having begun at a very early age, we are told, to cover the walls and furniture of the house with his sketches, he was strictly forbidden by his father to continue that amusement. But the bias of his genius was too strong for the paternal interdiction; and he was again and again found with his chalk or charcoal in his hand, and busy at his old employment. At last, one day, when his father had been scolding him on this account, a painter of the name of Grandon, from Lyons, happened to pay them a visit (they lived in the town of Tournus in Burgundy, at no great distance from that city); and it was agreed by all parties that young Greuze should be taken home by him to Lyons, and regularly instructed in the art to which he had shewn so strong an attachment. It is affirmed, however, that he was already nearly as good a painter as the master to whom he was thus consigned, and that in his subsequent progress also he was chiefly his own instructor. Another artist of the same period, distinguished in a different line, GEORGE DIONYSIUS EHRET, whose admirable drawings of botanical objects are so well known from the engravings in the Hortus Cliffortianus and other splendid works, was the son of a working-gardener, employed in the gardens of one of the minor German princes, and, when a boy, acquired his skill in delineating flowers so entirely by his own efforts, and, it may be even added, with so little consciousness of the progress he was making, that he had formed a valuable collection of the productions of his pencil before he was aware that his labours were worth anything. Dr. Trew, a physician of Nurem

berg, had accidentally heard of him; and, having desired to see his drawings, found that he had already executed representations of about five hundred plants in a style of extraordinary excellence. These paintings had been merely the amusement of the young and self-taught artist; and his surprise may be conceived when Dr. Trew offered to purchase them from him for four thousand florins, or above two hundred and fifty pounds sterling. Even the money was not so welcome as the assurance thus given him of the value of a talent which he had hitherto rated so lightly. Ehret, who from this moment determined upon making botanical drawing his profession, eventually, as we have mentioned, earned the highest distinction in this line of art— especially after the intimate acquaintance he formed with the celebrated Linnæus, who directed his attention to the importance of minute fidelity in delineating some of the details of vegetable nature, which he had been accustomed too much to overlook. After having resided in different parts of the Continent, he came to England in 1740, when he was about thirty years of age, and remained in this country till his death, in 1770. He had educated himself diligently in other branches of literature and science, as well as in those immediately connected with his profession, and had been a Fellow of the Royal Society many years before his death.

To these instances we may add the strange and romantic story of the Italian painter, ANTONIO de SoLARIO, commonly called Il Zingaro, or The Gipsey, to which, after it had been long almost forgotten, attention has very recently been recalled, in consequence of the discovery of one of the artist's paintings at Venice. On this painting, which was purchased from a dealer by the Abbé Louis Celotti of that city, Solario designates himself a Venetian; and the circum

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stance appears to have been received as matter of no small gratification and triumph by those who consider themselves as hence entitled to claim him as their countryman. A Signor Moschini has published a small pamphlet* upon the subject, which he dedicates to the Abbé Celotti, and in which he details the particulars of Solario's history, as they are given in Bernardo Dominici's "Lives of the Neapolitan Painters," one of the few writers by whom even his name had heretofore been noticed. Dominici, however, represents him as having been a native of the province of Abruzzo, in Naples; and Moschini therefore addresses himself, in the first place, to refute this error, as he conceives it to be, and to maintain the claim of Venice to the honour of having been the Gipsey's birth-place. His argument upon this point, though rather long, issues, after all, merely in a reference to the inscription upon the Abbé Celotti's picture, which, in the absence of all other direct evidence, he contends ought to settle the question. But, wherever he may have been born, it is agreed on all hands that Solario was originally a gipsey, or wandering tinker, and that it was in this character he first made his appearance at Naples in the beginning of the fifteenth century. He was, at this time, in the twenty-seventh year of his age, having been born, it is said, although about this date there is some doubt, in the year 1382. While here, he chanced to be employed to do some work in the way of his craft by a painter of the name of Colantonio del Fiore. This painter had a very beautiful daughter; the young lady was seen by Solario; and the tinker at once felt deeply in love with her. It was taking a bold step, certainly, and one not very likely to be successful; but, impelled by his passion,

* Memorie della Vita di Antonio de Solario, detto, il Zingaro, Pittore Viniziano. Venezia, 1828.

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