all parts of painting. He imitated Corregio, 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.

Agostino, brother to Annibale, was also a very good painter, and an admirable graver. He had a natural son, called Antonio, who died at the age of thirty-five; and who (according to the general opinion) would have surpassed his uncle Annibale: for, by what he left behind him, it appears that he was of a more lofty genius.

Guido chiefly imitated Lodovico Caracci, yet retained always somewhat of the manner which his master, Denis Calvart, the Fleming, taught him. This Calvart lived at Bologna, and was competitor and rival to Lodovico Caracci. 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 Caraceis, 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.

Lanfranco, 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 Caraccis 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 Annibale Caracci, 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, Aldegrave, &c. who were all contemporaries. Amongst these, Albert Durer and Holbein were both of them wonderfully knowing, and had certainly been of the first form

of painters, had they travelled into Italy; for nothing can be laid to their charge, but only that they had a gothic gusto. As for Holbein, his execution surpassed even that of Raffaelle; and I have seen a portrait of his painting, with which one of Titian's could not come in competition.

Amongst the Flemings appeared Rubens, who had, from his birth, a lively, free, noble, and universal genius: a genius capable not only of raising him to the rank of the ancient painters, but also to the highest employments in the service of his country; so that he was chosen for one of the most important embassies in our time. His gusto of design savours somewhat more of the Flemish than of the beauty of the antique, because he stayed not long at Rome. And though we cannot but observe in all his paintings ideas which are great and noble, yet it must be confessed, that generally speaking, he designed not correctly; but, for all the other parts of painting, he was as absolute a master of them, and possessed them all as thoroughly as any of his predecessors in that noble art. His principal studies were made in Lombardy, after the works of Titian, Paolo Veronese, and Tintoret, whose cream he has skimmed (if you will allow the phrase), and extracted from their several beauties many general maxims and infallible rules which he always followed, and by which he has acquired in his works a greater facility than that of Titian; more of purity, truth, and science

than Paolo Veronese; and more of majesty, repose, and moderation than Tintoret. To conclude; his manner is so solid, so knowing, and so ready, that it may seem this rare accomplished genius was sent from heaven to instruct mankind in the art of painting.

His school was full of admirable disciples; amongst whom Vandyck was he who best comprehended all the rules and general maxims of his master; and who has even excelled him in the delicacy of his carnations, and in his cabinet-pieces; but his taste, in the designing part, was nothing better than that of Rubens.