THE ARTS AND ARTISTS. LEONARDO DA VINCI. LEONARDO DA VINCI became in succession the contemporary of Michael Angelo Buonarotti, of Titian, of Raffaelle, and of Correggio. The elegance of his person and manners, as well as his great and brilliant genius, rendered him always a welcome visitor at the most splendid courts of Europe. He lived with honour, and he died in the arms of his patron and friend, Francois Premier. CORREGGIO'S CELEBRATED ALTAR-PIECE, IN THE CHURCH OF THE FRANCISCANS, AT CORREGGIO. THE sum of one hundred ducats having been bequeathed to the Franciscan Convent of Minor Friars at Correggio, for the erection of an altarpiece in their church, they selected Antonio Allegri for the work; and with the consent of his father, Pellegrino, he entered into an agreement, for the purpose, on the 30th of August, 1514. The price stipulated was one hundred ducats, of which fifty were paid in advance, exclusive of the wood, which was provided by the community, at the expense of twenty-two ducats more. Ten ducats were also assigned for leaf gold, besides the charge for erecting the scaffolding and other preparations. This sum, as his recent biographers justly argue, indicates no ordinary degree of reputation, and completely refutes the idle assertions of Vasari and his superficial copyist, that Correggio was ill paid for his works; since such a recompence, according to the comparative value of money, would be deemed a liberal reward, for so young an artist, even at the present day. This altar-piece represented the Virgin, supporting the infant Saviour in her lap, with St. Joseph on one side, and on the other St. Francis, kneeling. The height was two braccia, and the breadth, one and two thirds, or nearly five feet by four. The painting remained in its place until August, 1638, when it was stolen, and an inferior performance substituted, as was supposed, by a Spanish painter, who, by the permission of the governor, Annibale Molza, was suffered to take a copy. The loss of so valuable a picture was regarded as a public calamity, and almost occasioned a commotion; for after the convocation of a general council, above two hundred persons of all ranks assembled in the antechamber of the governor's palace, to complain of the robbery, and demand justice on the offenders. A deputation of nobles was also sent to the Duke of Modena and to the Bishop of Reggio, for permission to prosecute the friars, who had connived at the theft. Memorials were presented to the Pope, to the sacred college, and to the general and provincial of the order; but all these efforts were ineffectual, and no traces of the original have been since discovered. SALVATOR ROSA'S DEATH OF REGULUS. THE DEATH OF REGULUS, one of Salvator Rosa's grandest compositions, was painted for Carlo Rossi, who paid for it one hundred piasters, A hundred doubloons were immediately offered for a replico, but in vain. All that could be obtained from the uncomplying artist, whose genius was beyond all sordid controul, was a bold and spirited etching by the same master-hand that painted the subject. "Had I that subject now to paint," said Salvator, in a letter to Recciardi, "I would not take less than four hundred doubloons!" On the death of Carlo Rossi, his heirs, the Sig nori Valtore and Tarpenti, sold and dispersed the greatest part of his pictures. The Regulus was purchased at an enormous price by the Colonna family. The mal-administration of the revenues of this once illustrious house, about the beginning of the last century, and more lately the greedy division of moveable property by litigious and contending heirs (and not, as has been falsely supposed, the contributions levied by the French,) had caused the dispersion of the treasures of the superb gallery of Colonna. Of the twenty-six admired Salvators, mentioned in the Colonna Catalogue of 1783, two only now remain in the gallery, and these are his two Johns preaching in the Wilderness. The vacant space, however, where the Regulus once hung, is still pointed out by the old Cicerone as a consecrated spot. The Regulus, together with Salvator's well known" Pythagoras teaching his doctrines to the fishermen," is now in the possession of the Earl of Darnley, at Cobham Hall. It was purchased by his lordship at a large price from an Italian, who brought part of the debris of the Colonna and other Roman galleries to England. There is also an on dit, that his lordship pays five hundred pounds a-year for this picture. Of the etching, Salvator himself observes, in one of his letters to Ricciardi, “Per soddisfarvi circa a quel pinxit delle mil carte, vel'ho messo per mia cortesia, e per far credere ch'io intanto l'ho intagliate |