Category: Biographies
This work is not a mere compilation, or republication of anecdote. It will be found to contain much original matter, and much of the most interesting and instructive portions of the history of art. For a list of authorities, the reader is referred to the author’s Dictionary of...
“The polite and vain Frenchman was easily prevailed upon to roll out several long speeches, from Racine and Corneille, with much gesticulation and many a well-rounded _R_. This...
10. Part 10“‘Sir,’ said I, ‘do not condemn me without examining the easel. I have finished the picture: please to look at it.’ He did so, complimented me highly, and I had ample revenge fo...
14. Part 14“Amidst the applause,” says Cunningham, “which these works obtained for him, the President met with a loss which the world could not repair--Samuel Johnson died on the 13th of D...
17. Part 17The researches and discoveries of the learned Tiraboschi, the indomitable Dr. Michele Antonioli, and the zealous and impartial Padre Luigi Pungileoni, have thrown much light upo...
18. Part 18Lionardo da Vinci was endowed by nature with a genius uncommonly elevated and penetrating, eager after discovery, and diligent in the pursuit, not only in what related to painti...
19. Part 19The authenticated works of Da Vinci are exceedingly scarce; he bestowed so much labor upon them that they were never very numerous, and time and casualty has reduced the number....
13. Part 13The personages represented in this picture are as follow: the Emperor; the Empress Josephine; the Pope; Cambaceres, Duke of Parma, arch-chancellor; the Duke of Plaisance, arch-t...
16. Part 16His passion for art, and his eccentric notions respecting the Jews, were strongly manifested in his last sickness. He lived in the parish of the city which contained the prison...
7. Part 7The Duke, overhearing his recitations, entered the apartment, and was surprised to find the young painter’s mind richly stored with classical literature. Rubens remained in the...
3. Part 3Vasari says that the art of Mosaic work had been brought to such perfection at Venice in the time of the Bianchini, famous mosaic painters of the 16th century, that “it would no...
6. Part 6It is indeed a subject of regret that so highly-gifted an artist should not have been commissioned to ornament some public building, or private mansion of opulence, with a serie...
11. Part 11Pausias fell in love with a beautiful damsel, a native of his own city, called Glycera, who gained a livelihood by making garlands of flowers, and wreaths of roses. Her skill in...
5. Part 5While pursuing his studies under Ghirlandaio, he was accustomed to visit the gardens of the Grand Duke, (Lorenzo the Magnificent) to study the antique. One day, when he was abou...
15. Part 15The author cannot close this too lengthy article without citing the Life of the Virgin written by Maria de Agreda, whose absurd and blasphemous vagaries were “swallowed whole” b...
12. Part 12Apollodorus fell a victim to the envy of Adrian, the successor of Trajan, who himself dabbled in architecture, as well as the other arts. According to Pliny, he ridiculed the pr...
4. Part 4In the ninth year of his age, he accompanied his relative Pennington to Philadelphia, and executed a view of the banks of the river, which so much pleased a painter named Willia...
8. Part 8The servants of his neighbor, Dr. Radcliffe, abused the liberty of a private entrance to the painter’s garden, and plucked his flowers. Kneller sent him word that he must shut t...
2. Part 2It is deemed appropriate to devote this page to the infelicities which often fall to the lot of men of genius, in hopes to strike a sympathetic chord; since to them the world ow...
20. Part 20In 1760, Nollekens proceeded to Italy, by the way of Paris. On arriving in the French capital, he presented himself at the house of an uncle there, told his name, and claimed ki...
1. Part 1This work is not a mere compilation, or republication of anecdote. It will be found to contain much original matter, and much of the most interesting and instructive portions of...