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buildings, except in painting an earthquake, 

 a subject which in all respects would have 

 suited his capricious invention, and the fa- 

 cility of his execution*. 



But of all the painters who have flou- 



* There is a drawing of his, that was in Sir Joshua Rey- 

 nolds's collection, and is now in my possession, where the 

 subject has enabled him to indulge his favourite propensity 

 on a building. He has represented the dream of a Pope, 

 who is lying in a stately bed adorned with a canopy, and 

 supported by emblematical figures: his attendants are sleep- 

 ing, in the room, in various and singular attitudes. Over the 

 door, a Cathedral church seems to be tumbling towards the 

 Pope, while a Monk on his knees, with his hand stretched 

 towards the portico, appears in the act of supporting it. 

 Rays of light issue from the church, and illuminating the 

 face of the Pope, glance upon the different ornaments of 

 the bed, and on the sleeping attendants. Two other figures 

 are at the door, the one lifting up the curtain of it, and dis- 

 covering part of an inner room, in which is a strong effect 

 of sunshine ; the other advancing into the bedchamber. 

 The whole composition, in point of singularity and rich - 

 ness of invention, ©f no less singular effects of light and 

 shadow, of the style and disposition of the ornaments of 

 the bed, the tables, and of all the furniture, is in the highest 

 degree characteristic of that wild and capricious, but truly 

 original painter. 



