ness, and, a few days after his son's return, expired in his arms.

Salvator was now free to pursue his inclinations without fear of opposition, but the necessities of his friends rendered it necessary for him to convert the productions of his pencil into a means of support; and this, unknown as he was, required a kind of exertion which must have been in the highest degree offensive to a young man of his disposition. Having ventured to employ a style of his own, instead of cultivating, like the other Neapolitan artists, the prevailing taste of the day, he had no chance of obtaining notice from the persons who were regarded by the multitude as the legitimate arbiters of public opinion. Obliged, therefore, to dispose of his pictures as he best might, he took them to the brokers in different parts of the city, and generally sold them for a sum only barely sufficient to provide him with the necessaries of the day.

It was for a considerable time that he continued thus to labour in penury and obscurity, till at length, happily for him, a painting he had executed of Hagar and Ishmael attracted the attention of the disinguished artist Lanfranc, who was then employed at Naples in decorating the cupola of the Church of Jesus. The merit of Salvator's work was instantly recognized by the experienced eye of this painter, who bought it, and soon after several others, to the great joy and advantage of the young artist. Till now his countrymen had left him unnoticed, but the praises bestowed by Lanfranc were more easily comprehended by such judges

than the merit which excited them; numerous purchasers accordingly appeared for his productions; he raised his prices; became noticed by the great; and was at length engaged by the bishop of Viterbo to accompany him to that city, and decorate the altar of his cathedral.

On concluding his labours at Viterbo, Salvator returned to Naples, where his reputation became every day greater, and a more fruitful source of emolument. Rome, however, was the field in which he was ambitious to exercise his strength, and the admiration excited by his picture of Titius torn by a vulture made him resolve to establish himself in that city. Thither he accordingly proceeded, and the striking originality of his genius, his engaging personal address and numerous accomplishments, speedily gained him the patronage and friendship of all the most distinguished personages in the place. But, as fond of satire as he was of poetry, he so freely descanted, in some plays he composed for the carnival, on the characters of certain persons of rank and influence, that he soon found himself involved in a very disagreeable controversy, and saw the expediency of yielding to the suggestions of his friends and retiring to Florence.

The Tuscan capital was still celebrated as the resort of taste, elegance, and genius; and Salvator, immediately on his arrival there, became the intimate associate of the celebrated Berni, Pietro Salvetti, Lorenzo Lippi, the author of the mock-heroic poem Il Malmantile Racquistato, and other persons similarly distinguished for their talents. In the meetings of the

academy into which, according to the fashion of the age, they formed themselves, they were accustomed to display their talents in theatrical compositions and performances, and in these amusements the vivacity and genius of our painter shone conspicuously among the most successful. A somewhat laughable anecdote is told of the manner in which he and his friend Lippi employed themselves, when, relaxing from professional cares, they retired to the country-house of the latter, which was pleasantly situated on the side of the river, a few miles from Florence. It so happened that the high road wound along a walled and lofty bank, which overhung the stream, and that, when passengers arrived at the point which lay contiguous to Lippi's plantation, their reverted shadows could be seen in the river, though they themselves were not observable by persons in the grounds. Salvator and his friend, regarding this as a grand discovery, whispered it about, with an air of great solemnity and mystery, that in one part of the river it was possible to look through it and see the antipodes. Whenever they met with any one who suited their purpose, he was, as a great favor, invited to witness the wonderful spectacle, and great was their delight when they beheld their visitor bending his head over the water, and watching with intense curiosity the people of the nether world, walking with their feet upwards.

Salvator continued at Florence for nine years, and during that time enjoyed a degree of patronage which enabled him not only to defray the expenses of a very handsome establishment, and to enter into all the

pleasures of the city, but to lay by the sum of three thousand crowns. It was at the instance of Ugo and Giulio Maffei that he was induced to leave this agreeable and profitable place of residence, and proceed to Volterra.

At Volterra, he was employed not only by his immediate patrons, but by a variety of wealthy persons in the neighbourhood, and his time passed in agreeable alternations of labour and pleasure. Hawking, and the other sports of the field, together with all the gratifications of a hospitable hall, well filled with guests famed for wit and politeness, formed the recreations of his leisure, and three years passed rapidly away. During that period, however, he executed several of his most admired works, and composed, it is said, the greater number of his satires.

But Rome appears to have still retained the first place in his affections, as, on leaving Volterra, he immediately hastened to that capital, and once more took up his residence among the princes of the church. His industry seems to have been redoubled at this period, the pictures he painted about this time being too numerous, it is reported, to admit of a chronological arrangement. His principal patron, for some time after his return to the capital, was Carlo Rossi, who engaged him to execute a sufficient number of works to fill a whole gallery, and to whom he dedicated, as a mark of his esteem and gratitude, his etchings of banditti.

The life of Salvator had been darkly shaded with trouble at its commencement, but, since the happy

discovery of his genius by Lanfranc, it had run smoothly on, scarcely interrupted for the briefest period by any circumstance calculated materially to affect the serenity of his mind. But in the year 1672 he began to be made sensible that the most prosperous career, and the happiest conjunction of good spirits and good fortune, are far less durable than pleasant. His health was now on the decline, and a cloud thus suddenly spread itself over the gay prospects which his fancy, still in its vigour, every where presented. No exertion was spared by his friends and physicians to restore his strength; but it daily gave way to the redoubled attacks of his disease, which at length settled into a confirmed and incurable dropsy. This, after a brief period of painful resistance, proved fatal, and on the fifteenth of March, 1673, Salvator Rosa ceased to be an inhabitant of earth.

The career and character of this celebrated artist received a strong colouring of romance, both from the circumstances attending the early part of his life and from the warmth of his temperament, which kept him constantly awake to every suggestion of fancy, and tempted him to make continual efforts to realize the dreams with which she filled his mind. The popularity he almost universally enjoyed, the splendid remuneration he received for the exercise of his. genius, the gay courtly mode in which he passed his time, and the many amusing adventures in which he was engaged, all contributed for a while to keep up the illusion with which he entered the world, and which would have been still greater but for the keen,