and delightful pencil; and it is to be acknow ledged, that he painted with a strength, relief, sweetness, and vivacity of colouring, which nothing ever exceeded. He understood how to distribute his lights in such a manner, as was wholly peculiar to himself, which gave a great force and great roundness to his figures. This manner consists in extending a large light, and then making it lose itself insensibly in the dark shadowings, which he placed out of the masses; and those give them this relief, without our being able to perceive from whence proceeds so much effect, and so vast a pleasure to the sight. It appears, that in this part the rest of the Lombard school copied him. He had no great choice of graceful attitudes, or distribution of beautiful groups. His design oftentimes appears lame, and his positions not well chosen The look of his figures is often unpleasing; but his manner of designing heads, hands, feet, and other parts, is very great, and well deserves our imitation. In the conduct and finishing of a picture, he has done wonders; for he painted with so much

union, that his greatest works seem to have been finished in the compass of one day; and appear as if we saw them in a lookingglass. His landscape is equally beautiful with his figures.

At the same time with Correggio, lived and flourished Parmegiano; who, besides his great manner of colouring, excelled also both in invention and design with a genius full of delicacy and spirit, having nothing that was ungraceful in his choice. of attitudes, or in the dresses of his tigures, which we cannot say of Correggio; there are pieces of Parmegiano's very beautiful and correct.

These two Painters last mentioned had very good disciples, but they are known only to those of their own province; and besides, there is little to be credited of what his countrymen say, for Painting is wholly extinguished amongst them.

I say nothing of Leonardo da Vinci, because I have seen but little of his; though he restored the arts at Milan, and had there many scholars.

Ludovico Carracci, the Cousin Ger

man of Hannibal and Augustino, studied at Parma after Correggio; and excelled in design and colouring, with a grace and clearness which Guido, the scholar of Hannibal, afterwards imitated with great success. There are some of his pictures to be seen, which are very beautiful, and well understood. He made his ordinary residence at Bologna; and it was he who put the pencil into the hands of Hannibal his cousin.

Hannibal, in a little time, excelled his master in all parts of Painting. He imitated Correggio, Titian, and Raffaelle, in their different manners as he pleased; excepting only, that you see not in his pictures the nobleness, the graces, and the charms of Raffaelle; and his outlines are neither so pure, nor so elegant as his. In all other things he is wonderfully accomplished, and of an universal genius.

Augustino, brother to Hannibal, was also a very good Painter, and an admirable Graver. He had He had a natural a natural son, called Antonio, who died at the age of thirtyfive; and who (according to the general

opinion) would have surpassed his uncle. Hannibal: for, by what he left behind him, it appears that he was of a more lofty genius.

Guido chiefly imitated Ludovico Carracci, yet retained always somewhat of the manner which his Master Denis Calvert, the Fleming, taught him. This Calvert lived at Bologna, and was competitor and rival to Ludovico Carracci. Guido made the same use of Albert Durer as Virgil did of old Ennius, borrowed what pleased him, and made it afterwards his own; that is, he accommodated what was good in Albert to his own manner; which he executed with so much gracefulness and beauty, that he got more money and reputation in his time than any of his Masters, and than all the scholars of the Carraccis, though they were of greater capacity than himself. His heads yield no manner of precedence to those of Raffaelle.

Sisto Badolocchi designed the best of all his disciples, but he died young.

Domenichino was a very knowing Painter, and very laborious, but of no great natural

endowments. It is true, he was profoundly skilled in all the parts of Painting, but wanting genius (as I said) he had less of nobleness in his works than all the rest who studied in the school of the Caraccis.

Albani was excellent in all the parts of Painting, and a polite scholar.

Lanfranc, a man of a great and sprightly wit, supported his reputation for a long time with an extraordinary gusto of design and colouring but his foundation being only on the practical part, he at length lost ground in point of correctness, so that many of his pieces appear extravagant and fantastical; and after his decease, the school of the Carraccis went daily to decay, in all the parts of Painting.

Gio. Viola was very old before he learned landscape; the knowledge of which was imparted to him by Hannibal Carracci, who took pleasure to instruct him; so that he painted many of that kind, which are wonderfully fine, and well coloured.

If we cast our eyes towards Germany and the Low Countries, we may there behold Albert Durer, Lucas van Leyden, Holbein,