26o Painters in the Reign of^een Elizabeth, 



bein. Don Julio Clovio, the celebrated 

 limner, whofe neatnefs and tafte in gro- 

 tefque were exquifite, cannot be compared 

 with Ifaac Oliver, becaufe Clovio never 

 painted portraits, and the latter little elfe. 

 Petitot, whofe enamels have exceeding merit, 

 perhaps owed a little of the beauty of his 

 works to the happy nature of the compofi- 

 tion : We ourfelvcs have nobody to put in 

 competition with Oliver, except it be our 

 own Cooper, who, though living in an age 

 of freer pencil and under the aufpices of 

 Vandyke, fcarce compenfated by the bold- 

 nefs of his exprefTion, for the truth of nature 

 and delicate fidelity of the older mafter, 

 Oliver's fon, Peter, alone approached to the 

 perfedion of his father. 



Palmer's Hiftory of Printing, p. 274, are accounts of 

 Peter Olivier printer at Caen in Normandy 15 15, and of 

 Jean Olivier printer in the fame city 1521. But Hon- 

 *dius, Sandrart, and all the writers who mention him, 

 call him an Englilhman, and it is an additional confir- 

 mation of his Englifh birth, that he wrote in that lan- 

 .guage a treatife on limning, partly printed in Sander- 

 fon's Graphice ; in his pocket-book was a mixture of 

 French and Englifh. We have feen in the preceding 

 life of Hilliard that Peachara calls Oliver his country- 

 man. 



Of 



