NAPLES, FROM THE STRADA NUOVA.

There would I linger

then go forth again,

And hover round that region unexplored,
Where to Salvator (when, as some relate,
By chance or choice he led a bandit's life;
Yet oft withdrew, alone and unobserved,
To wander through those awful solitudes)
Nature revealed herself.

ROGERS.

THERE is an indescribable beauty in rich and thickly folded clouds, lit up by the strong rays of a brilliant evening sun. The same beauty is to be seen on a wide expanse of turbulent waters, tossing about as if unwilling to wear the magnificent mantle which the heavens fling over them; but, brilliant as are the effects of a bright sunset on the clouds, and on the sea, they are surpassed by the grandeur diffused, in a glowing cloudless evening, over a vast city. If any one be sceptical as to this point, let him contemplate Naples by sunset, from the Strada Nuova, and he will never doubt the assertion again. Every traveller is alike enthusiastic when speaking of this magnificent spectacle; nor can any thing be conceived more sublime, even according to the briefest of their descriptions. A whole vast city, involved in one mighty globe of the richest light, and surrounded by hills and waters, all partaking in various degrees of its brilliancy, is a figure which can give only a faint idea of the reality;

but such is Naples at sunset, when seen from the Strada Nuova. After contemplating such a scene, the tourist will turn with satisfaction to ponder on the fate which has attended some of the most gifted children of this queenly city; and where in the records of art shall we meet with a man in closer association with what is great and splendid than Salvator Rosa?

Salvator was indeed one of those men of genius whose individual history is as attractive to the affections as that of the triumphs of their art is to the mind. His ardent temperament led him to attempt a path to eminence, steep and rugged, and open only to a few such enterprising spirits; while the real strength of his intellect enabled him to derive solid advantages from pursuits which, to men of less genuine ability, would have been fruitful only in the gossamer fantasies of romance.

This remarkable man was born at Naples in the year 1615. His father, who was an architect or landsurveyor, numbered among his ancestors several painters whose celebrity, though probably of little extent, was sufficiently great to inspire Salvator in his earliest youth with a strong admiration of their art. Their success, however, it seems, had not been of a kind to convince his father that their profession was one of either profit or dignity; for, as soon as he was of sufficient age for the purpose, he was sent to learn Latin with the view of his being devoted in due time to the Priesthood. Whatever were the feelings of repugnance with which the embryo painter saw himself destined to another and far less fascinating pursuit, they were not

of a kind to prevent his distinguishing himself as a quick and talented student. Unfortunately, however, for the completion of his father's wishes, he was sent to fulfil his novitiate in a Carthusian convent, the rules of which were so severe that his lively disposition suffered continual martyrdom, while he laboured to subject himself to their sway. Nature and youth at length got the better of all prudential restraint, and Salvator took the desperate resolution of forsaking the convent and returning home, to face poverty and all its attendant evils.

The mind, however, of this extraordinary man had within it too powerful a spring of activity ever to remain idle, and, even in the cloisters of the Carthusian monastery, he had found means to furnish it with a

knowledge of the most elegant arts.

Poetry had fasci

nated him with its visions; music had inspired him with its passion, and, in the leisure he enjoyed after he returned to his father's house, he composed several songs, which he set to airs of his own, and in both evinced an exquisiteness of taste and sensibility, and a power over the elements of the arts he practised, which, under favorable circumstances, would have at once secured him the admiration of the world. ·

But it was for himself only that Salvator was a poet and a musician, or, if he employed his talents for the delight of others, it was for that of his own family, who could reward him with nothing but smiles. The fondness, however, which he had manifested in early youth for painting was revived at this period with increased force, by the circumstance of his sister's

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marrying a young artist of considerable ability, named Francanzoni, and who had sufficient taste to admire the genius which was evidently at work in the soul of Salvator. Encouraged by the praises of his new relative, the refugee of the Carthusian convent began to make experiments with the pencil, and his earliest sketches were such as confirmed Francanzoni in his original opinion of his powers.

The disposition, however, of the young artist was not changed with the change of his profession. He could no more brook the idea of tamely following the rules of a painter's school, than he could yield obedience to the formal regulations of an order of friars. Instead, therefore, of confining himself to the studio of his brother-in-law, he took a portfolio in his hand, and every day, with the first dawn of the light, set out on an expedition to the magnificent hills or wild and picturesque valleys which surrounded the city of Naples. To a mind constituted like his, every thing he beheld was redolent not merely of beauty but of thought. Nature herself would have been sufficient to him, as to every one else of such a disposition; but an interpretation, as it were, had been given to her majesty and beauty about Naples, which he at once seized upon, and mingled up with his own rich fancies. Some touch of classical antiquity, therefore, it is observed, may be traced in almost all his productions, and the learning he had acquired thus tended materially to influence his character as a painter.

In his daily rambles in the country, he sketched with a free and happy hand, and, as his sister's house

was made his home more frequently than his father's was, Francanzoni, on his return in the evening, was accustomed, it is said, to look over his portfolio, praise him for the spirited drawings he had made, and not unfrequently to select some of them as subjects for his own study.

The encouragement he thus received from his brother-in-law confirmed him in his determination to become a painter, and the pleasure he had derived from his shorter rambles made him resolve upon undertaking a tour of some extent. La Puglia, Calabria, and the mountainous solitudes of the Abruzzi, now attracted his adventurous steps; and tradition reports that, while wandering among the wild and terrific. passes of the last-named district, he was discovered and made prisoner by a horde of banditti. The delight he appears to have taken in introducing the figures of outlaws into his pictures gives a strong probability to the truth of this report; and one of his most celebrated paintings is supposed to recount in some degree the history of his adventure.

Lady Morgan has described this tour of Salvator in a strain of romantic eloquence, and it would be difficult to doubt the truth of her half-theoretical statements; least of all, however, is it to be disputed that the young painter, on returning from his wanderings, and with his mind filled with thoughts and images of things sublime, found only care and sorrow to welcome him home. His father, who had been long struggling with adverse circumstances, was sinking under the twofold burden of distress and sick