ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
his choice. His first teacher was Baron Camuccini, 
a fashionable painter in the pseudo-classical style. 
I he 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 
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