1'IOMBO, SK11ASTIANO DEL. 



PIUANESI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. 



citie* of Itily. IIU manner was singular; he not only finished his 

 paintings vet y highly, Imt endeavoured to pive them gnnih r splendour 

 by inti. .lu.ing noli gilding blended with architectural ornament*, 

 painted to a* to referable high relief, a style incompatible with true 

 taste and the simplicity and dignity of history. Ilia most celebrated 

 performance is the history of Pius II., painted in ten compartments, 

 in tl> library of Siena, in which Kaffaelle, then a very young man, 

 and bis fellow-student under Pi'-tro Perugino, gave him tome awist- 

 ance. The last work that be executed was a Nativity for the monas- 

 tery of St. Francis at Siena, respecting which a story is told by Vasari, 

 which seems eminently absurd and improbable. The monks, he says, 

 assigned Pinturiccbio a chamber where ho might work undisturbed, 

 from which, at his request, they removed the furniture, except a large 

 old chest quite decayed by time. This too he insisted should be 

 removed, in doing which it fell to pieces, and was found to contain 

 500 piece* of gold. This was a source of great joy to the monks, but 

 the artist, say these writers, was so grieved that he had lost the 

 treasure by his obstinately insisting on the removal of the chest, that 

 be died of vexation a few months afterwards. He died in 1518, aged 

 fifty-nine. 



HUM HO, SEBASTIANO DEL, an eminent painter, both of por- 

 trait and history, was born in 1485 at Venice, whence ho was called 

 also 'Veneziano.' His surname, according to Lanzi, wai Luciano, 

 though it does not appear that he was known by it in his own time, 

 or that ho ever marked his pictures with it On his principal perform- 

 ance in oil, the ' liaising of Lazarus,' the words ' Sebastianus Venetus 

 faciebat ' appear in characters no doubt traced by himself. He was a 

 skilful musician, particularly on the lute, but abandoned that science 

 for painting, the rudiments of which he acquired under Bellini, but 

 afterwards became the disciple of Qiorgione, whose style of colouring 

 be carefully studied and successfully imitated. He first distinguished 

 himself as a portrait-painter, to which his powers were peculiarly 

 adapted. His portraits are boldly designed and full of character ; the 

 beads and hands are admirably drawn, with an exquisite tone of colour 

 and extraordinary relief. The most famous of his works in this class 

 were portraits of Giulia Gonzaga, the favourite of Cardinal Hippolito 

 de' Medici, which by writers of that age was called a divine perform- 

 ance, and of I'ietro Aretino. 



The first historical picture which established his reputation was the 

 altar piece in the church of San Gio. Crisostomo, at Venice, which 

 from it* richness and harmony of colouring has frequently been mis- 

 taken for a work by Qiorgione. Sebastiano was invited to Koine by 

 Agstino Cliigi, a rich merchant who traded at Venice, by whom he 

 was employed in ornamenting his palace of the Farnesina, in conjunc- 

 tion with ISaldassare Peruzzi, where Kaffaellc bad painted his celebrated 

 Galatea. Thus painting in competition, he found his own deficiency 

 of invention, to remedy which he studied the antique, and obtained 

 the instruction and assistance of Michel Angelo. Indeed it is said 

 that that illustrious painter, growing jealous of the fame of KaCfaelle, 

 availed himself of the powers of Sebastiano as a colourist, in the hope 

 that, assisted by bis composition, Piombo might successfully rival the 

 effort* of 1'rbino. Michel Angelo accordingly furnished the designs 

 for the ' Pieta,' in the church of the Conventual! at Viterbo ; and the 

 ' Transfiguration ' and the ' Flagellation ' in San I'ietro, in Muutorio, 

 at Home, the execution of which however iu consequence of Piombo's 

 tedious mode of proceeding, occupied six years. The extraordinary 

 beauty of the colouring, and the grandeur of Michel Angelo' s compo- 

 sition and design in these celebrated productions, were the objects of 

 universal surprise and applause. 



At this time Cardinal Uiiilio de' Medici commissioned Raflaelle to 

 paint his picture of the Transfiguration, and being desirous of pre- 

 senting an altar-piece to the cathedral of Narbonne, of which he was 

 archbishop, he engaged Sebastiano to paint a picture of the Raining 

 of Lazarus, of the same dimensions. Vasari states that in the compo- 

 sition of this work he was assisted by Michel Angelo ; and, in the 

 magnificent collection of drawings belonging to Sir Thomas Lawrence, 

 there were two oarefnl sketches of the Lazarut, made by Michel 

 Angelo and several slighter onrs of other parti of the design. On its 

 completion the picture was publicly exhibited at Home, in competition 

 with the Transfiguration, and it excited general admiration, although 

 thus brought into direct competition with the crowning glory of Raf- 

 faelle's pencil. It was sent to the Cathedral of Narbonno for which it 

 was painted, and remained till the middle of the 18th century, when 

 it wat removed, by the regent of France, into the Orleans collection. 

 Having been brought to England with the rest of that collection in 1 702, 

 it was purchased by the late J. J. Angrratein, Esq., for two thousand 

 guineas ; and to now deposited in the National Gallery. It was painted 

 on wood, but has been transferred to canvas ; its size is twelve feet 

 six inches high, and nine feet six inches wide. 



Sebastiano was greatly patronised by Pope Clement VII., who con- 

 ferred upon him the office of keeper of the papal signet, which was 

 the cause of his name, Del Piombo, in allusion to the lead of the leal. 

 Tliis poet rendering it neomary that he, should usumo a religious 

 habit, he abandoned the profession of a painter, and was thenceforth 

 called Fra Sebastiano del Piombo. His last work was the chapel of the 

 Chigi family, in Santa Maria del Popolo, which ho left imperfect, and 

 it was afterwards finished by Francisco Salviati. Ho died of a fever, 

 at Rom*, in 1647, at the ago of sixty-two years. Ha is mid to have 



been the inventor of painting upon walls with oil-colour, and of pre- 

 venting the colours from blooming dark by applying, in the first 

 instance, a mixture of mastic and Grecian pitch, or, according to 

 some authorities, a plaster composed of quick-lime, pitch, and mastic. 

 Besides his masterpiece, 'The Raising of Lazarus,' the National 

 Gallery possesses his celebrated portrait of Giulia Gonzaga, "a divine 

 picture" Vasari call* it, which was formerly in the Borgheu* Gallery, 

 and was presented to the nation with other pictures in 1881 by the 

 Rev. W. H. Carr. The national collection also contains a picture 

 entitled 'Portraits of Sebastiano del Piombo and the Cardinal Ip|X>lito 

 de' Medici,' which is attributed to the pencil of Sebastiano, though, 

 as it was entitled, when it hung in the Borghese Gallery, ' Borgia and 

 Macchiavelli,' and attributed to Rafiselle, both the painter and tha 

 portraits must be considered somewhat doubtful : like the former 

 picture it was bequeated to the nation by the Rev. W. H. Carr. 



PIOZZI, MRS., was originally Miss Esther Lynch Solusbury, being 

 the daughter of John Salusbury, Esq., of Bodvel in Carnarvonshire, 

 where she was born in 1739. Her good looks and vivacity early 

 acquired her some distinction in the London world of fashion, which 

 ended in her marriage, in 1783, to Mr. Henry Thrale, on opulent 

 brewer in Southwark, and then one of the members for that borough. 

 It was soon after she became Mrs. Thrale that her acquaintance with 

 Dr. Johnson commenced, which is the circumstance to which her 

 name principally owes any place it may hold in the annals of our 

 literature. But Thrale having died in 1781, his widow retired, with her 

 four daughters, to Bath, and there, having met with an Italian music- 

 master, of the name of Gabriel Piozzi, fell in lore with and married 

 him in 1784 ; and that proceeding, from which her old friend earnestly 

 endeavoured to dissuade her, produced a complete rupture between 

 them a short time before Johnson's death. This nevertheless did not 

 prevent Mrs. Piozzi from publishing, in 1786, an octavo volume of 

 gossip, entitled ' Anecdotes of Dr. Samuel Johnson, during the last 

 Twenty years of his Life.' Many things in this publication gave great 

 offence to Boswell and Johnson's other friends, who professed to 

 regard it as having been prompted mainly by feminine spite and 

 revenge ; but although there was ample matter iu its inaccuracies and 

 misrepresentations for this conclusion, there was also ground for some 

 retaliation from the other side ; and the view which a large portion 

 of the public took of the feud between the parties mny be seen in Dr. 

 Woloott's (Peter Pindar's) satirical poem entitled ' Bozzy and Piozzi.' 

 Meanwhile Mrs. Piozzi followed up her first book by another, 1788, 

 entitled ' Letters to and from Dr. Samuel Johnson,' in 2 .volt. STO. 

 But before this she had gone with her husband to Florence, and there, 

 in conjunction with three gentlemen, named Merry, Greathead, and 

 Parsons (the once famous but now almost forgotten founders of the Delia 

 Crusca school of poetry), she printed but did not publish, in 1786, a col- 

 lection of pieces in proee and verse, under the title of ' The Florentine 

 Miscellany.' Mrs. Piozzi's other works are, ' Observations and 1 : 

 tions made in the course of a journey through Fr.mce, Italy, and 

 Germany,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1789; 'British Synonymy, or au Attempt at 

 regulating the Choice of Words in Familiar Conversation,' 2 vols. 8vo, 

 1794; and 'Retrospection, or a Review of the most striking and 

 important Events, Characters, Situations, and their Consequences, 

 which the last Eighteen Hundred Tears have presented to the view of 

 Mankind,' 2 vols. 4 to, 1S01. She is said to have also contributed 

 many anonymous pieces, both in prose and verse, to the periodical 

 publications of her day ; but it has generally been admitted that 

 nothing she wrote at a later date is so good as some poems she con- 

 tributed so eatly as in 1765 to the volume of ' Miscellanies ' published 

 by Anna Maria Williams, particularly one called ' The Three Warn- 

 ings,' the superior merit of which, rather than any proper authority 

 for the fact, has led to the opinion that she was materially assisted in 

 its composition by her friend Johnson. It certainly however is not 

 much in Johnson's style. Mrs. Piozzi survived her second husband, 

 and died at Clifton near Bristol, on the 2nd of May, 1821. 



I'll'PI, UIULIO. [Giouo ROMANO.] 



PIRANE'SI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, one of the most distin- 

 guished artists of the last century, and in his own peculiar walk 

 unrivalled, was born at Venice, in 1720. At the age of eight. 

 was sent by his father (who was a mason) to study architecture at 

 Rome. To this study he devoted himself with enthusiasm, and on 

 being summoned to return home, he refused, observing that Rome 

 with its monuments was the birth-place of his talent. On this, his 

 father withdrew his allowance, but instead of being tamed into 

 submission, or at all discouraged, the young artist soon after (in 

 1741) brought out his first work on triumphal arches, bridges, and 

 other architectural remains of antiquity. This production instantly 

 established his reputation, the engravings being treated with such 

 mastery, and being altogether so decidedly superior to any former 

 representations of similar subjects, as to make an epoch in chalco- 

 graphy and architectural delineation ; which latter bad till then been 

 almost uniformly very coarse, tasteless, and insipid, and nowhere more 

 so than in Italy itself. With occasional exaggeration of chiaroscuro 

 iiml . llWt, there is great vigour of execution in Piranesi's productions, 

 which may partly be ascribed to his singular manner of working, it 

 being bis usual practice to draw his subject at once upon the pHif 

 itself and complete it almost entirely by etching in aquafortis, with 

 very little assistance from the graver. Hence his works are marked 



