ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



his choice. His first teacher was Baron Camuccini, 

 a fashionable painter in the pseudo-classical style. 

 The ardent soul of the young Roman, however, 

 chafed at the restrictions of conventional art, and his 

 master had the good sense to recognise this. Just 

 as Paul Delaroche said to Millet, " Tu es trop nouveau 

 pour moi," so Camuccini said to young Costa, " Go 

 your own way, leave the studio and learn of Nature 

 for yourself." The boy obeyed gladly and went back 

 to his sketches and open-air life. But the times were 

 not favourable to the study of art. Italy was slowly 

 waking from her long sleep. The spirit of revolution 

 was abroad, and young Costa flung himself with his 

 whole might into the struggle for freedom. Before 

 he was two-and-twenty he had already drawn the 

 sword in the good cause. " During my whole poli- 

 tical life," he writes in a fragment of autobiography 

 which he once placed in my hands, " without party 

 spirit, I have supported whichever side seemed to be 

 working most honourably and effectively for the 

 freedom and welfare of my country. I have placed 

 myself and my fortune at the service of one political 

 party after another, seeking neither honours nor 

 rewards, and receiving none." In 1848 the young 

 artist joined the Roman legion which fought under 

 the Papal flag against the Austrians, and when Pio 



Nono disappointed the hopes which he had raised 



280 



