GIOVANNI COSTA 
among the friends of liberty, he became a follower of 
Mazzini. He fought with Garibaldi in the gallant 
attack on Vascello, and was one of the defenders of 
Porta San Pancrazio. When the Papal forces tri¬ 
umphed, and Rome was no longer a safe place for the 
young patriot, he took refuge in the forests of Ariccia, 
and there devoted himself to the study of art. During 
the next seven years Costa lived on the Roman Cam- 
pagna, between the Alban hills, the Sabine range and 
the sea, without once missing a sunrise or a sunset. 
On these plains, u spiritualised ” in Sterling’s words, 
by endless recollections,” the young painter lived 
in daily communion with Nature. He saw the wide 
reaches of the Campagna break into vivid green under 
the touch of spring, and turn crimson with decaying 
vegetation in the late summer and autumn; he 
watched the red glow of the sunset touch the long 
lines of arches which cross the violet plains, and linger 
behind the tombs of the Appian Way, and the beauty 
of those scenes sank deep into his soul. The pictures 
which he painted at this period show how close was 
his acquaintance with the country and its inhabitants. 
\\ e see the peasants threshing and winnowing the 
grain, the charcoal-burners at work in the forest, the 
women waiting with their jars at the fountain in the 
groves of Ariccia, or collecting dead wood under the 
wind-blown pines on the desolate sands of Ardea. 
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