Retrofped? of French Literature.—Biography. 623 
fequence of the depredations of the pi- 
rates, and that he attempted in vain to 
recover it by means of money. 
** On his return to Venice, in 1674, he 
was immediately nominated governor of 
Zara, acity in Dalmatia, where, in tne 
month of June of the following year, he 
received a viit from two celebrated tra- 
vellers, Jacques Spon, a Frenchman, and 
George Wheeler, an Englifhman, who 
brought a letter of recommendation for 
the exprefs purpole of feeing his mufeum. 
“* Soderini,’? we are told, ** received 
them in a moft gracious as well as bofpit- 
able manner ; and aiter examining all his 
curiohties, and more efpecially his medals, 
with the moft fcrupulous attention, they 
fat down to a fplendid dinner, during 
which their amiable hoft whifpered to one 
of his fervants to remove their baggage 
from the milerable inn at which they had 
put up, into a commodious apartment 
which had been prepared in his own no- 
ble manfion for their accommodation. 
Accordingly, both Spon and Wheeler 
have each confecrated to him an article, 
in their interefting journals, expreffive of 
their gratitude. 
«* Gianantonio Soderini died in 1691, 
and it unfortunately happened, as it fre- 
quently occurs in fimilar cafes, that his 
medals, which contained many rare {peci- 
mens, were difperfed after his death.” 
The lives of the other travellers men- 
tioned by the Abbé Morelli, furnifh no 
anecdotes worthy of being tranfcribed, 
elfe they fhould find a place here; as un-- 
edited works ef this kind muft always be 
deemed peculiaily valuable, on account 
of the curious, as well as original, matter, 
generally contained in them. 
** Notice Hiftorique fur la Vie et les 
Ouvrages de Pierre Julien, par M. Joa- 
<HiM Le Breton, Secrétaire Perpétuel 
de la Ciaff: des Beaux-Arts, de |’In- 
ftitut.’—An Hiftorical Notice relative to 
the Lifeand Works of Peter Julien. 
Pe'er Julien was born in 1731, at S¢. 
Paulien, near Puy, inthe department of 
the Upper Loire.. At the age of four- 
teen he was placed under a fculptor and 
gilder in the town of Puy, to attain a 
knowledge of the art of ftatuary, in which 
the latter excelled. One of his uncles, 
who was a Jefuit, afterwards fent him 
to M. Perache, a {culptor and architect 
of Lyons, who had acquired confider- 
able celebrity in the Jatter of thefe branches 
of {cience, - 
Julien having obtained a prize from the 
academy of Lyons, his employer was per- 
fuaded that be could do ne more tor the 
completion of his education: he therefore 
carried him with him to Paris, and placed 
him under the care of Coulton, {culptor 
to the king, who happened to be his coun- 
tryman. Afrer this, we are told, he re- 
mained during the fpace of ten years in 
the molt complete obfcurity, devoted to 
the labours of his matter, and the ftudies of 
the Academy, now denominated the School 
for the Fine Arts. It was not until the 
year 1765, when he had attained the age 
of thirty-four, that this indefatigable ar- 
tit prefented himfelf as a candidate for 
the grand prize in fculpture. He obtain- 
ed this with an uncommon degree of dii- 
tinSiion by means of a bas relief, which 
reprelented Sabinus offering his car to the 
Veltals, for the purpofe of faving them- . 
felves by flight, when the Gauls had tak- 
en poffeffion of Rome. 
** From that moment. it was feen, that 
in following the lefons of tie academy 
and his matter,” fays Le Breton, “ Julien 
had improved upon them, and that he had 
even invoked other affiftance. The fim- 
plicity of the ftyle, the tafte difplayed’ in 
the adju(tment, the noblenefs of the charac- 
ters, all contrafted, and that too in afingu- 
lar degree, with the manners of his age. 
Julien, inftead of adopting errors confe-. 
crated by time, obeyed the di@ates of his 
own judgment, confidered nothing but the 
honour of his art, ftudied antiquity alone, 
and paid the utmoft deference to nature. 
He declined the manners of the fcheols, 
and facrificed to fimplicity. 
<¢ After fuch a profperous beginning, 
hé fet out for Rome in 1768. During the 
-four years he remained there, in addition 
to the labours prefcribed to the pen/ion- 
naries, he made a copy in marble of the 
Apello and the Gladiator, for the Preti- 
dent Hocquart. Thefe two handfome 
figures are now in the mufeum of Vers 
failles, where they remind every one of 
the beauty of the originals, while they at 
the fame time demonitrate to the artift 
how much talent and ability is required 
even te approach thoie models, which are 
inimitable.” 
During the laf year of his ftay in Traly, 
Julien was invited. by M. Coutton to affift 
in the execution of a grand monument of | 
fculpture, the maufolum of the dauphin 
and daupiinefs, deftined for the cathedral 
of Sens. He readily obeyed the fum- 
mons, and his matter, according to the 
cuftom of that day, wifhed to keep him 
‘in dependence on him as long as poffible : 
for the fubject of this memoir had atrain d 
the age of forty-five before he finifhed the 
figure of Immortality! At this period 
it 
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