057 



TEMPESTA, ANTONIO. 



TEMPLE, Sill WILLIAM. 



vol. xiii., ia a paper by M. Tcmminck entitled 'Account of some New 

 Species of Birds of tho genera Psittacaa and Columba in the Museum 

 of the Linnsean Society.' He has devoted great attention to the 

 family of Pigeons, and in 1808 he published a work entitled ' Histoire 

 naturelle Generale des Pigeons.' He haa also published numerous 

 papers in the scientific journals and transactions of scientific societies. 



TEMPEST A, or TEMPESTI, ANTONIO, a celebrated Italian 

 battle and animal painter and engraver, was born at Florence in 1555. 

 He became the scholar of John Strada or Stradanug, a Fleming, who 

 was settled at Florence in the employ of the grand-duke, and who 

 assisted him in the battles which he painted in the old ducal palace. 

 Tempesta, after painting some years with Strada, whom he surpassed 

 in many respects, visited Rome, and was employed by Gregory XIII., 

 in the Vatican, where he painted, in small figures, in fr*-sco, the 

 Translation of the Body of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and some other 

 subjects, which acquired him a great reputation among the artists and 

 virtuosi of Rome, and procured him constant occupation from the 

 Roman nobility. Ha executed several good works for the Cardinal 

 Alessandro Faraese, at his villa at Caprarola, and some at Bassano for 

 the Marquess Giustiniaui. Tempesta resided chiefly at Rome, aud 

 died there in 1630, aged seventy-five. His reputation rests now 

 almost entirely upon his etchings, although in his time he had a great 

 name also as a painter. Lanzi terms him the first Italian who ever 

 attained distinction in landscape and animal painting, aud considers 

 him at this period to have been unrivalled in his own style in Italy; 

 he was however surpassed afterwards by Cerquozzi and Borgoguone. 

 Horses were his favourite subjects, and he excelled in battles, pro- 

 cessions, cavalcades, hunts, and various field-sports. His designs, 

 particularly his etchings, are remarkable for their spirit and boldness 

 of conception, but they are at the same time coarse and heavy, and 

 careless in their execution. He painted generally small figures ; in 

 large ones he was not successful, and he seldom attempted them ; he 

 however occasionally prepared large cartoons for tapestries, in the 

 style of his master Strada. Tempesta's chief works in painting, 

 besides those in the Vatican, already noticed, were a Slaughter of the 

 Innocents, in the church of San Stefano Rotoudo, at Rome ; aud two 

 great cavalcades and state-processions, executed for the Cardinal 

 Scipione Borghese, as friezes around the loggie of his palace on Monte 

 Cavallo (afterwards Palazzo Beutivoglio), which, according to his bio- 

 grapher and contemporary Baglione, were alone sufficient to have 

 ensured him a lasting reputation if he had never painted anything 

 el.-e. One represented a state procession of the Pope ; the other, one 

 of the Grand Turk. Tempesta has executed etchings of both these 

 subjects. His invention was amazingly fertile ; he has been equalled 

 by few artists in the number of his designs. According to Gandellini, 

 Tempesta etched 1519 plates, and about 500 have been engraved after 

 him by other masters. He also engraved after other masters himself; 

 he executed some battles and 40 plates of the Spanish story of ' The 

 Seven Twin Sons of Tara,' aft j r Otho Venius : Filibien, in his ' Entre- 

 tiens sur les Vies des plus ce"lebres Peiutres, 1 has related the story at 

 length, and has described the subject of each plate. 



Tempesta's style of etching is peculiar and not agreeable ; and 

 although his designs are bold, and contain many grand parts, they are 

 heavy, his style of design gross, his compositions generally confused, 

 and his light and shade disposed without taste : his most valuable 

 designs are his hunts and field-sports, and his studies of horses. Of 

 his other pieces the following are among the best and the most 

 celebrated : 



A set of 150 illustrations to the Old Testament, known as ' Tem- 

 pesta's Bible;' 15 large figures of Christ, the Virgin, and the Apostles; 

 a very large plate of the Victory of the Jews over the Amalekites, 

 marked ' Hebraeorum Victoria ab Amalechitis reportata,' the compo- 

 sition of which is spirited, but very confused ; the Life of St. Antony, 

 in 24 plates; 150 small plates from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses;' 13 of 

 the Labours of Hercules ; and 7 of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient 

 World. He etched many cavalcades and processions, and engraved 

 also large plates from the following statues they are however executed 

 too much in his own style to be faithful representations of the 

 originals : Castor and Pollux, and the horses on Monte Cavallo, and 

 the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitol, at Rome; 

 the equestrian statue of Cosmo I., by John of Bologna, at Florence ; 

 that of Henri IV. of France, at Paris, which was destroyed in 1792; 

 and one of Henri II. of France. The last statue however never- 

 existed, for a figure of Louis XIII. was placed upon the horse which 

 was originally designed for a statue of Henri II., who was killed at a 

 tournament. Tempesta's print bears the following incription : 

 ' Effigies equi senei operis Dan. Ricci, Volterrani, fieri jussit Reg. 

 Maria ob memor. Reg. Henrici II. F. M. sui viri, qui obiit in tornia- 

 mentis.' 



A spirited design of the Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapithse, 

 by Tempesta, was cut in a large size in wood, by Jeronime Parabole. 

 As a mau Tempesta appears, according to his contemporary Baglione, 

 to have been highly accomplished in every respect, and to have been 

 universally esteemed by his companions. There is a long list of the 

 works of Tempesta in Hineken's ' Dictionnaire des Artistes/ &c., 

 and in the ' Peiutre Graveur ' of Bartsch. 



TEMPE'STA, CAVALIERE, called also in Italy, PJETRO MULIEB 

 or DE MULIERIBUS. This artist, who is sometimes confounded with 



Antonio Tempesta, was a native of Holland, although better known ia 

 Italy, and his real name was Peter Molyn. Fiorillo Bays he was the 

 son of a landscape-painter of the same name, and was born at Haarlem 

 in 1637. He was called Tempesta through his skill in painting sea- 

 storms and similar subjects, in which he was excellent, aud in some 

 respects rivalled Backhuyzeu : he was also nearly equally excellent as 

 an animal-painter, especially of wild animals; and some have said 

 that had he remained in his own country and pursued entirely such 

 subjects he would have rivalled Rubens and Snydera in that depart- 

 ment. There is yet another comparison to make respecting him : he 

 at least rivalled the infamous Castagno in moral depravity. Pascoli, 

 who has written an account of Teinpeata in his ' Lives of the Painters,' 

 &c., says that his father was a merchant, and that he intended to bring 

 up his son to his own business. Young Peter was however naturally 

 so fond of drawing, that when a boy, instead of going to school, he 

 used, unknown to his parents, to spend his time in sketching upon the 

 sea-side, sometimes drawing the sea and shipping off the coast, and at 

 others cattle grazing near tho shore. He was eventually allowed to 

 take his own course, but nature appears to have been bis only or at 

 least chief master. After painting with great success in various cities 

 of the Netherlands, he became acquainted at Antwerp, in about his 

 thirtieth year, with a monk of the barefooted Carmelites, who con- 

 verted him from Calvinism, in which he had been brought up, to 

 Popery, and Tempesta was thence strongly induced to make a journey 

 to Rome. At Rome he fouud a valuable patron in tho Duke Bracciano, 

 and his success was beyond his expectations. He received so many 

 orders for pictures that he was obliged to employ assistants, and the 

 sister of one of these, his favourite, known as Tempestino, became bis 

 wife. He however .lever appears to have lived in great amity with 

 her, but the fault is said to have been Tempeata's. The story of the 

 deep tragedy which followed is told differently by Pascoli and the 

 writer in the ' Mu-eo Fiorentino,' in which there is a'Life of Tempesta, 

 but there is no discrepancy in their statements of the main fact. 

 Tempesta made up his mind to leave Rome, it is said, in order to get 

 rid of his wife, and he requested permission of the Duke Bracciano to 

 depart : the duke consented, but unwillingly, yet he presented Tem- 

 pesta with a cross and a chain of gold, and knighted him before hia 

 departure. Tempesta left Rome, and promised to send for his wife as 

 soon as he was settled ; he went round by Venice and Milan, where 

 he made a short stay, to Genoa. In Genoa he was as successful as he 

 had been at Rome ; but soon after his arrival he became enamoured of 

 a beautiful Genoese lady, and being unable to obtain possession of her 

 except by marriage, he resolved upon marrying her, and he got over 

 the obstacle of already having one wife in the following infamous 

 manner : He despatched a hired assassin to Rome, with a letter to his 

 wife, ordering her to accompany the bearer immediately to Genoa. 

 His wife, who knew her husband's character, and disliked the messen- 

 ger, delayed going ; but on a second summons from her husband she 

 complied, and commenced the fatal journey. The unfortunate woman 

 was murdered by the ruffian, her companion, at Sarzana. The affair 

 was not long a secret, and Tempesta, who must have already married 

 the Genoese lady, according to Pascoli, was arrested upon suspicion, 

 was tried, convicted, and condemned to death. The sentence was 

 however not carried into execution : Tempesta obtained a respite, or, 

 according to the other account, had sufficient interest to obtain a 

 commutation of sentence from that of death to one of perpetual 

 imprisonment. 



Pascoli says he was set at liberty again, after remaining five years in 

 prison, through the intercession of the Count di Melgar, governor of 

 Milan ; according to the other story, he obtained his liberty during 

 the bombardment of Genoa by Louis XIV., when the prisons were 

 thrown open, having suffered an imprisonment of sixteen years. He 

 was however busily employed with his pencil during the whole time, 

 and he found it difficult to satisfy the demand for his pictures. On 

 recovering his liberty he went to Milan, and there established himself, 

 where, through his unenviable notoriety, his success was even greater 

 than it had been previously either at Rome or at Genoa. He was in 

 the receipt of a great income, lived in splendid style, and even kept a 

 private menagerie, containing many varieties of wild animals, solely 

 for the purpose of painting from them. His conduct at this period of 

 his life was still consistent with his previous immorality ; for, though 

 enjoying the greatest affluence, he not only deserted his second wife, 

 but left her destitute, according to Paacoli ; yet how such conduct 

 could be suffered by the laws is difficult to understand, and we aro 

 tempted to believe that here, as elsewhere, the narrative has been 

 strongly coloured. He had several mistresses, and he acquired the 

 cognomen of Mulier or de Mulieribus by his profligate habits : Peter 

 Mulier is the name by which he is best known in Italy. As he grew 

 old his powers of painting forsook him, and his means accordingly 

 gradually diminished ; and as he was too improvident to make any 

 provision for his old age, his affairs became embarrassed at the end of 

 his life. He died of a fever in 1701, aged sixty-four, in a state of 

 poverty when compared with his former affluence. His pictures are 

 numerous in the collections of the north of Italy : those which he 

 painted during his imprisonment are generally accounted his best. 



TEMPLE, SIR WILLIAM, an eminent statesman, diplomatist, and 

 writer, was born at Blackfriars, in London, in the year 1628, and was 

 the eldest son of Sir John Temple, who was Master of the Rolls 



