Angelo put out the candle as if by accident, and Vasari lost his errand.

GUIDO RENI AND THE ROMAN TAILOR.

A ROMAN tailor was so enraptured with the caricatures of Caravaggio, that he engaged the young and unknown Guido Reni to paint him several heads in that peculiar style. This obscure artist, the future creator of the celestial Aurora, gladly engaged with the patronizing tailor at seven scudi per head; but the Mæcenas of the needle was so pleased with his productions, that he raised his price to twelve, and at last to thirty scudi. At the same moment the Cardinal Farnese was haggling with Guido's immortal master, Annibale Carracci, who died the victim of the ostentatious parsimony of this mean and princely protector.

THE ACADEMY OF DOMENICHINO, AND THE SCHOOL OF SALVATOR ROSA.

WHEN Bernini led the arts in Rome, many of the galleries of the virtuosi and of the leading artist were open during the winter evenings to the young students of Rome. They were effectively lighted, and supplied with living models; and to the congress of students thus assembled, the name of "accademia" was given. Domenichino first introduced this mode in Rome for the benefit of his own pupils; and Nicolo Poussin and other foreign artists were proud to avail themselves of the

advantage of working under the eye of the greatest painter of the age. Since the fortunes of Domenichino had "fallen into the sear," and he had taken up his residence in Naples, the most fashionable accademia in Rome was the studio of Andrea Sacchi, where a certain "Caporale Leone," a military Apollo, and a living rival of him of the Belvidere, presented one of the finest models, for the grace and spirit of his attitudes that art had ever studied; but Salvator frequented none of these associations, which belonged more to the pretensions of the modern school, than to the genius of the old masters. When not shut up in his solitary workroom in the Brancaccia palace, he was transfixed in the Sistine Chapel before the gigantic splendours of Michael Angelo's Last Judgment. This he was wont to call his school of anatomy; and though enthusiastic in his admiration for Titian's colouring, the genius of Michael Angelo was that with which his own alone associated. If he followed any school save that of nature, it was the school of this his great prototype, whose "Three Fates" in the Pitti Palace at Florence, might pass for the "Weird Sisters" of Shakspeare, or "The Sorceresses" of Salvator Rosa.

POPE BARBERINI AND BERNINI.

WHEN Bernini presented himself to Urban, a few days after his elevation, the Pope addressed

him in the following flattering manner: “E gran fortuna la vostra Bernini, di vedere Papa il Card. Maffeo Barberini; ma assai maggiore è la nostra, che il Caval. Bernini viva nel nostro pontificato." "It a singular piece of good fortune for you, Bernini, to behold Maffeo Barberini Pope, but much more so for us to have Bernini living in our pontificate."

THE COOK TURNED PAINTER.

In his thirty-sixth year, Claude Gelée was cooking cutlets and grinding colours; in ten years afterwards, Claude Lorraine appears on the scene, the friend of the elegant Cardinal Bentivoglio the distinguished favourite of Urban VIII., the courted of him who was courted by all, Bernini, and the patent painter of fashion to all the aristocracy of Europe. "The road to his gallery (say some of his historians) was closed against all who held not the highest rank in the state." Pontiffs, potentates and princes, became the exclusive candidates for the splendid products of his creative genius. His enormous prices limited his purchasers to the wealthiest classes; and the public were in a manner shut out from bidding for pictures, of which three popes successively, and two sovereigns, sought to be the exclusive monopolists.

SIR JAMES THORNHILL AND MATT. PRIOR.

IT is well known that Sir James Thornhill drew

the portraits of the visitors at Down Hall, under which their host, Matt. Prior, wrote verses. They frequently amused themselves in this way with select parties of friends, and with any kind of nonsense that occurred, between the intervals of dinner and supper. Under the head of Mr. Timothy Thomas, Chaplain to Lord Oxford, Prior wrote:

"This phiz so well drawn, you may easily know,

It was done by a Knight for one Tom with an O.”

Under Christian, the seal engraver's head, Prior

wrote:

"This done by candle-light and hazard,

Is meant to show Kit Christian's mazard."

SALVATOR ROSA'S FIRST ALTAR PIECE.

WHILE the chapel of the Nerli, in the Chiesa de' Fiorentini, was crowded with spectators, all pressing forward to see the "Martyrdom of Saint Cosmus and Saint Damian," the first altar-piece ever exhibited in Rome by Il Signore Salvatore," the Signor Salvator himself was taking his wonted evening's lounge on the Monte Pincio, arm in arm with his dear friend Carlo Rossi. The graphic description of Passeri's interview with him on that day, as given by the quaint and reverend painter himself, is well worth citing" He (Salvator) had at last exposed his picture in the San Giovanni de' Fiorentini; and I, to recreate myself, ascended on that evening to the

heights of the Monte della Trinita, where I found Salvator walking arm in arm with Signor Giovanni Carlo dei Rossi, so celebrated for his performance on the harp of three strings (tre registri,) and brother to that Luigi Rossi, who is so eminent all over the world for his perfection in musical composition. And when Salvator (who was my intimate friend) perceived me, he came forward laughingly, and said to me these precise words :— "Well, what say the malignants now? are they at last convinced that I can paint on the great scale? Why, if not, then e'en let Michael Angelo come down and do something better. Now at last I have stopt their mouths, and shewn the world what I am worth." I shrugged my shoulders, and the Signor Rossi changed the subject to one which lasted us till night-fall; and from this (continues Passeri in his rambling way) it may be gathered how gagliardo he (Salvator) was in his own opinion. Yet it may be denied but that he had all the endowments of a marvellous great painter! one of great resources and high perfection; and had he no other merit, he had at least that of being the originator of his own style. He spoke this evening of Paul Veronese more than of any other painter, and loved the Venetian school greatly. To Raffaelle he had no great leaning, for it was the fashion of the Neapolitan school to call him hard, "di pietra" dry, &c.