can occasion no surprise that the elder boy should have taken refuge in a convent from this laborious application to an art, towards which he was perfectly indifferent. Rafael, the younger of the two, patiently persevered however, though such drudgery must have been sufficient to have inspired even an enthusiast with disgust. At twelve years of age his father took him to Rome, and there the rigid old martinet used to shut the young student up in the Vatican, day after day, for three years, permitting him to regale himself on a loaf of bread, and pitcher of water, and to eke out the feast by mentally banqueting on the works of Raffaelle, Michael Angelo, and the other giants of Italian art, excellent company, no doubt, but not altogether incapable-con rispetto parlando-of producing a surfeit. When he was at home, little Mengs was equally a prisoner; his time was consumed in the performance of allotted tasks, and to prevent his indulging in any of the innocent pleasures natural to early boyhood, his father locked the young artist in his studio, and put the key in his pocket.

CHAPTER II.

Versatility of painters, as instanced by an enumeration of a few only of those who have been conspicuous for the varied powers of their minds :-Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Rosa, Agostino Caracci, Giovanni Battista Paggi, Federigo Zucchero, Andrea Orgagna, Antonio Viniziano, Timoteo d'Urbino, Rosso, Fra Giocondo, Andrea del Verrocchio, Giulio Romano, Girolamo Genga, Dario Varotari, Pablo de Cespedes, Lucia Scaligero, Worsdale, Angelica Kauffman, Anna Maria Schuurmans, Eugenio de las Cuevas, Antoine Renou, Lorenzo Lippi, Flatman, Anne Killegrew, Gainsborough, Thomas Heaphy, Allan Ramsay, Opie, Fuseli, Abraham Pether, Giorgione, Primaticcio, Tibaldi, Solimene, Sebastian del Piombo, Lauri, Frank Floris, Berruguete, De Heere, Pacheco, Rubens, Du Fresnoy, Metelli, Flemael, Lairesse, Koeck, Parrocel, Franquaert, De Laar, Koeberger, Van Mander, Schooréel, Hoefnaeghel, Vanderhelst, Lobkowitz, Wynants, Vromans, Victoria, Quellinus, El Greco, Mengs, Porta, Gaudin, the Biographers of Artists, Mademoiselle Verelst, Mademoiselle Cheron.

ART, that branch of it at least with which we are more particularly concerned, exacts no selfish and exclusive homage from its devotees, nor rejects an allegiance in which others claim a share. It permits its votaries to listen to the alluring voice of song, encourages them to cultivate the plastic arts which have a visible alliance with itself, and does not interdict the severer pursuits of moral and physical science. Versatility, indeed, appears to be a special

characteristic of the genius of painters no less than of painters of genius, and the attainment of the highest eminence in their own profession has been shown, in repeated instances, to be not at all incompatible with the acquirement of success in the study of other arts and sciences. The mere enumeration of the names of those who have displayed this versatility of genius will suffice to illustrate the truth of this remark, and the muster-roll-imperfect though it bewill be found to comprehend a catalogue of worthies whose titles to admission into Chaucer's "House of Fame" have been affirmed beyond dispute. If we glance at them very briefly, it is because the list is long and necessarily as monotonous as a catalogue.

The genius of MICHAEL ANGELO expressed itself not only in painting and sculpture, but in poetry and architecture. Music, astronomy, hydraulics, and mechanics, shared with painting the attention of LEONARDO DA VINCI. (D) SALVATOR ROSA was scarcely less eminent as a musical composer, a musician, a dramatic actor, and a poet, than as an artist. AGOSTINO CARACCI was at once a philosopher, a geometrician, and a poet. GIOVANNI BATTISTA PAGGI, is said by Lanzi, to have been highly accomplished in letters, and to have been assisted in the composition of his pictures by his various attainments in poetry, philosophy, and history. FEDERIGO, the brother and pupil of Taddeo (ZUCCHERO) we are told by the same author, excelled in sculpture and archi

ORGAGNA, VINIZIANO, ETC.

49

tecture, and was not without some pretensions as a writer. ANDREA ORGAGNA combined the abilities of a painter, sculptor, and architect; and ANTONIO VINIZIANO United the qualifications of a physician to those of an artist, having left honourable memorials of his existence in both these arts. TIMOTEO D'URBINO, was an accomplished lyrist, and a facile improvisatore; Rosso, the Florentine, is described as having been an excellent musician and noted for his extensive acquirements in philosophy; FRA GIOCONDO, the Veronese, was a philosopher, theologian, architect, and engineer; ANDREA DEL VERROCCHIO, says Vasari, was at once a goldsmith, a master in perspective, a sculptor, a carver in wood, a painter, and a musician; the abilities of GIULIO ROMANO (E) appear to have been of a most varied character; and GIROLAMO GENGA, in common with so many of his countrymen, was not only a painter, sculptor, and architect, but a good musician also.

DARIO VAROTARI, the younger, was in repute as a painter, engraver, poet, and physician. Linguist, theologian, and painter, the varied acquirements of PABLO DE CESPEDES are recorded in his epitaph at Cordova :

Paulus de Cespedes hujus almæ

Ecclesiæ porcionarius, picturæ,
Sculturæ, architecturæ, omniumque

Bonarum artium, variarumque

Linguarum peritissimus, hic situs est.

"Few men," says Mr. Stirling, "have ever excelled

D

Cespedes in versatility of talent and in the variety of his accomplishments. He wrote a poem

on painting in the stanza of Ariosto, the most elegant and delightful of his works, which, if indeed it ever were complete, has come down to us only in fragments. By Quintana, it is called the graceful Georgic of painting, and Cespedes the happiest of the Castilian followers of Virgil."

LUCIA SCALIGERO, an accomplished artist of Venice, was also celebrated for her attainments in music, and in the ancient and modern languages. WORSDALE, one of Sir Godfrey Kneller's pupils, and dismissed by him for marrying Lady Kneller's niece without the consent of her uncle, produced some clever dramatic works and sustained characters in them very cleverly himself. ANGELICA KAUFFMAN, to the reputation she enjoyed as an artist, added that of being a first-rate musician, and a good linguist. Another female artist, ANNA MARIA SCHUURMANS, of Utrecht, not only excelled in music, painting, sculpture, and engraving, but was also competently versed in geography, astronomy, and the sciences, deeply read in divinity and theology, mistress of the Italian, German, French, and English languages, acquainted with the Syriac, Chaldean, Arabic, and Ethiopic tongues, and thoroughly familiar with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages. And all this had been accomplished before she