AUGUSTIN METELLI was equally versed in the theory and practice of architecture, so that the most skilful members of the profession were frequently indebted to him for assistance and advice. He was also a clever histrionic performer-his diversified talent qualifying him to write the drama, supply the scenes, and sustain a leading character in the piece. Particular mention is made of his performance of the part of the Counsellor in the play of "Soliman,” which he rendered so admirably, as to place him on a level with the best comedians of the day.

When

BERTHOLET FLEMAEL excelled in music, and it shared with art the painter's affections. Nature had gifted him with an exquisite voice, and he played upon various instruments with so much skill, that his society was courted by all those who professed to guide the taste and fashion of the day. Music mitigated the pressure of poverty, and enabled GERARD LAIRESSE to smile at the frowns of fortune. his purse was light and his heart was heavy, he found consolation in the strains of his violin or flute, and forgot the stern realities of life in the "concord of sweet sounds." PIERRE KOECK was the author of several volumes which treated of geometry, architecture, and perspective, and his translation of the works of an Italian writer is mentioned as having been, not merely faithful to, but much more intelligible than the original!

JOSEPH PARROCEL, besides his general acquain

FRANQUAERT, DE LAAR, KOEBERGER, ETC. 57

tance with literature, was accustomed to recreate himself at the easel by carolling songs of his own composition. JACQUES FRANQUAERT devoted himself with equal success to the study of painting and architecture, and was not an unrewarded wooer of the Muse. PIERRE DE LAAR was highly distinguished for his musical attainments, and touched most stringed instruments with a master's hand. VENCESLAUS KOEBERGER united the not very coherent accomplishments of poetry and archæology, and it was to his attainments in both these departments of knowledge, as much as to his reputation as an artist, that he owed his appointment of painter to the Archduke Albert of Austria, who was warmly attached to him.

CHARLES VAN MANDER, the poetical biographer of the Flemish and Italian artists, was the author of various dramatic productions, serious and comic, and did not disdain to employ his pencil in the decorations of the stage. He was a man of solid learning and a discriminating critic, and, what is more, Descamps significantly adds, he was an honest man. JEAN SCHOORÉEL was also a dramatic author, and, moreover, a poet, orator, and musician, competent to converse in the Latin, French, German, and Italian. tongues. Another Flemish artist (GEORGE HOEPNAEGHEL) alternated the diligent pursuit of his profession by day with the study and composition of Latin poetry by night.

BARTHOLOMEW VANDERHELST possessed a happy talent for extemporising little dramas, organising his friends and neighbours into a company for their performance, at the same time explaining to them an outline of the plot, assigning to each his appropriate role, and instructing his company in the dialogue most suitable to the the character which they might be called upon to sustain. One day, when the light-hearted painter's spirits were more buoyant than usual, observing the court-yard of a cabaret full of rustics and their wives, it occurred to him, to test his own volubility and the credulity of the peasants, by playing the mountebank. Elevating himself on a tub, with a handkerchief bound round about his head, and his hands full of small packets, containing minute quantities of tobacco, he commenced an adroit address to the crowd which soon came flocking round him. He vaunted the wonders of the panacea contained in the packets, narrated the miraculous cures it had performed, and bewildered his hearers by the flow of his oratory and the audacity of his assertions, while he accompanied his fluent address by gestures and grimaces which kept his auditors in a broad grin. The whole of his packets found eager purchasers, and he made merry with the proceeds for several days afterwards; for, as might be expected from a man of his temperament, what he earned lightly he spent freely.

The annals of painting do not supply us with many

JUAN CARAMUEL LOBKOWITZ.

59

instances of artists who have worn the mitre; but Mr. Stirling has introduced us to one whom we might almost denominate the Spanish Crichton. This was Don JUAN CARAMUEL LOBKOWITZ, who "was no less remarkable for the variety of his preferments than for the versatility of his genius. Educated at Salamanca and Alcalà, he became professor of theology at the latter university, and afterwards removing to Flanders and assuming the Cistercian robe, he was promoted first to the titular abbacy of Melrose in Scotland, and then to that of Dissemburg in the Palatinate. Being a skilful engineer he was employed to defend Louvaine against the Hollanders and French, and Frankendhal against the Swedes. By the favour of the Emperor Ferdinand III., and Pope Alexander VII., he successively wore several German and Italian mitres; and he died in 1682, at his Milanese bishopric of Vigerano, to which he had been presented by the King of Spain. An eloquent poet, as well as an amateur of the pencil, he was pronounced by the critics to be gifted with genius to the eighth degree, eloquence to the fifth, but with judgment only to the second.. He was, besides, one of the most prolific writers of the age, leaving no less than seventy-seven tomes in Latin and Castilian, on grammar, poetry, history, music, the art of war, astronomy, logic, architecture, canon law, metaphysics, and controversial divinity,-to be forgotten by posterity." To such a man, in his

early and unmitred days, Canterbury's description

of Henry the Fifth, appears to be singularly applicable :

Hear him but reason in divinity,

And, all admiring, with an inward wish,

You would desire the man were made a prelate :
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You would say,—it hath been all-in-all his study;
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear

A fearful battle render'd you in music:
Turn him to any cause of policy,

The Gordian knot of it he will unloose
Familiar as his garter; *

So that the art and practic part of life
Must be the mistress to this theoric.

If WYNANTS had not been an artist, his geniusif we may judge from the following incidentwould probably have made him a military engineer. Enjoying himself at table one day, surrounded by a number of his friends, and finding either that the wine had lost its relish, or that the mirth began to slacken, he proposed to shift the scene and vary the diversion; so the party all repaired to a garden, in which there was a pond. In the midst of it, on a little island they constructed with turves a small fort with four bastions. Twelve assailants, armed with syringes, were the besieging party, and the rest of the company, armed with similar artillery, conducted the operations of the attack. The mimic warfare was carried on with great spirit, sometimes the garrison made a sortie, sometimes the beleaguering army made a dash at the fortress, until after two