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possessed of authentic materials, to enter into a more 

 cK-t ulcd account of the prorecdmgs of Miranda and 

 In, party, or to follow them in the various steps of 

 their progress. We may only observe, that the re- 

 volutionary party is daily gaining strength, and that 

 their armies arc almost constantly victorious. Atro- 

 cities are committed on both sides, from which the 

 mind revolts with horror ; yet we anticipate, with 

 no small degree of satisfaction, the emancipation of 

 a people possessed of one of the finest countries in 

 the world, from a system of tyranny and oppression, 

 which pnralyr.rd all their energies, and deliberately 

 repressed the exertions of their industry, lest it should 

 interfere with the interests of the mother country 

 See Demon's Travels in Soiil/i .liner ica ; Hmnboldt's 

 New Spain ; and Semple's Sketch of the present State 

 ofCaraccas. (/.) 



CARACCI, AGOSTINO, an eminent Italian painter, 

 was born at Bologna in 1558, and died in 1602. He 

 studied first in the school of Prospero Fontana, and 

 became afterwards the disciple of Passeroti. He was 

 chiefly indebted, however, to his cousin Ludovico, 

 for that genuine taste and knowledge of the true 

 principles of painting by which his pieces were dis- 

 tinguished. The merit of the few paintings which 

 he executed, has made subsequent artists regret, that 

 an uncommon diffidence in his own powers induced 

 him to devote more of his attention to engraving, 

 after the vvi.rks of others, than to the extension 

 of his fame by original productions. His most ce- 

 lebrated work in oil, is the Communion of St Jerome, 

 which was formerly at the Certosa in Bologna, but 

 is now with the rival picture of Domenichino, among 

 the spoils of the Louvre. In the comparison of these 

 two pictures, the preference has generally been given 

 to that of Doinenichino ; fi but surely," says Mr 

 Fuseli, " if Agostino yields to his scholar in repose, 

 and the placid economy of the whole, he far excels 

 him in the principal figure, the expression, and cha- 

 racter of the saint." Agostino is said to have as- 

 sisted his brother Annibale, as well in the disposition, 

 as in the execution of the Farnesian Gallery ; and it 

 is even thought that ' an bale has received the credit 

 of several of the pkces which were finished by Agos- 

 tino. A cultivated last .-, a correctness and some- 

 times elegance of form, and corregiesque colour, 

 especially in fresco, are the distinguishing qualities 

 in the style of this muster. () 



CARACCI, ANNIBALE, brother to Agostmo, 

 was born at Bologna in 1.360, and died in 16'09. 

 From his cousin Ludovico, who first put the pencil 

 into his hands, he not only learned the best principles 

 of the art of painting, but caught an ardent ambi- 

 tion to excel in its various br.mches. For this pur- 

 pose he studied, witli keen emulation, the works of 

 Titian, Tintoretto* and Paolo Veronese, at Venice, 

 and those of Corregio at Parma. The genius dis- 

 playcd in his early productions excited great expec- 

 tations of his future eminence. His fame soon ex- 

 tended itself to Rome ; and he was invited by the 

 Cardinal Farnese, to paint that gallery, which be- 

 came afterwards so well known through all Europe. 

 In tliis magnificent undertaking, he spent ten years 

 of assiduous labour. The Fa'-n<-sian Galkry, while 

 its colours withstaud the influence of tune, will re- 



main an honourable monument of the talent* of the Carter!. 



painter, while it throws a shade of p.-rpi-tuat infamy ^"V^* 

 over the memory of his employer, who could requite 

 such talent, laboriously and successfully exerted for 

 ten years, with the paltry s-jrn of five hundred crown*. 



Uniform vigour of the distinguishing 



ex'.-ellence of this celebrated work ; an excellence, 

 however, which is tnoit unhappily contrasted by itt 

 imbecility and incongruity of conception. If im- 

 propriety of ornament," says Mr Fuseli, a little too 

 strongly, " were to be fixed by definition, the sub- 

 jects of the Farnese Gallery might be quoted as the 

 most decided instances. The artist may admire the 

 splendour, the exuberance, the concentration of 

 powers, displayed by Annibale Caracci, but the man 

 of sense must lament their misapplication in the Far- 

 nese Gallery." Annibale availed himself of his re- 

 sidence in Rome, by studying the antique statues, 

 the basso-relievos, and the compositions of Raphael. 

 These models induced him to change his Bolognese 

 manner, which had much of Corregio in it, for one 

 which was indeed more learned, but, both in design 

 and in colouring, more dry and less natural. In com- 

 paring Annibale with the other Caraccis, it may be 

 observed, that while he was perhaps inferior to Lu- 

 dovico and Agostino in refined taste, sensibility, and 

 judgment, he surpassed them both in the freedom, 

 the warmth, the energy and originality of concep- 

 tion, by which true genius is characterised. In his 

 paintings there is little of that delicacy which dif- 

 fuses through the soul a silent pensive delight ; but 

 the grandeur of his designs, the liveliness of bis ex- 

 pression, the vigour and firmness of his execution, 

 burst in one powerful effect upon the mind, and hur- 

 ry it away in a kind of impetuous admiration. He 

 painted portraits and history; but it was in landscape 

 that he chiefly excelled. The form of his trees is 

 peculiarly grand ; and though he does not appear to 

 have understood completely the principles and doc- 

 trines of the chiaro obscuro, and his local colours are 

 not always commendable, yet " no painter seems to 

 have been more universal, more easy, more certain in 

 every thing he did, nor more generally approved, 

 than Annibale Caracci." (,) 



CARACCI, LUDOVICO, the cousin-german of 

 Annibale and Agostino, was born at Bologna in 1555, 

 and died in 1619. He studied under Prospero Fon- 

 tana ; but it was by contemplating the works of Ti- 

 tian, Tintoretto, and Paolo Veronese at Venice, and 

 of Parmigiano and Corregio at Parma, that he refined 

 his taste, and formed those elevated conceptions which 

 characterise his paintings, and which have raised mm 

 to the distinguished eminence which he .-till hlds 

 among artists. He laid the foundation of that school 

 which was distinguished by the title of the Academy 

 of the Caraccis, and which became so highly celebra- 

 ted. To this academy every student resorted who 

 gave hopes of future eminence ; and some of the no- 

 blest masters in the art had been the disciples of Lu- 

 dovico. The advantages which they enjoyed in his 

 academy were singularly attractive. Thr discrimina- 

 tion of Ludovico was not inferior to his ether talents, 

 and he directed the studies of his pr.^ils to those de- 

 partments of the art for which natuie seemed pecu- 

 liarly to have designed them. He had established at 



