against the ceiling, by which he refpired the acrid poifons of the cement and the minerals which they ufe in that kind of painting. His lymph or fluids thickened in fuch a manner, as no longer to nourish his blood. His mufcles and veins loft their elafticity; he almost entirely loft his voice; a dry cough tormented him, and his appearance was quite that of a lifeless corpfe. The phyficians, not knowing what other term to give his complaint, pronounced him phthifical." "His impatience, joined to a most ardent imagination, made him take faith in a mountebank, a compatriot of his, who promised to cure him in a few days. Thus fecretly, without confulting any of the faculty, or of his family, he gave him a medicine fo violent that it exhaufted entirely the little ftrength which remained in him, and occa. fioned him various fits, in which he was left for dead. Recovering, however, from this attack, though badly, he was poffeffed with a restlefs defire of changing to another house, molefting all his people to make all enquiries, and to fee all the houses that were to be let in Rome. It is to be remarked, that at that time he had three houfes, one which he built, and two which he rented. Nevertheless, one morning he removed fuddenly to a lodg. ing fituated in the Strada Condutti, carrying with him the burthenfome weight of all his evils, corporeal and mental; and a few days after he was again removed to the Strada Gregoriana, ftill continuing his clandeftine correfpondence with the empiric, who had induced him to take certain balfams which a nun of Narni had distributed with much fame and miracle. In compliment to that work he mixed with it (as was afterwards difcovered) a good dofe of diaphoretic antimony, which in a little time deftroyed that machine, already half ruined. In that manner a charlatan, and an unfortunate fuperftition, combined to deprive the world of a man worthy of much longer life; for at this time he had attained only fiftyone years and three months. "His corpfe was interred at the foot of the janiculum, in the parish of Saint Michael, and at the obfequies attended the profeffors of the academy of faint Lucas. His ftatue of bronze, which had been modelled under his direction, was afterwards collocated in the pantheon, by the fide of that of Raphael, under which was written the following infcription: ANT. RAPHAELI MENGS. PICTORI. PHILOSOPHO. IOS. NIC. DE. AZARA. AMICO Suo. P. 1779. VIXIT ANN. 51. MENSES 3. DIES 17. "The paintings and writings of Mengs infure him a feat in the temple of Immortality, and his goodnefs and bounty will engrave on the bofoms of his friends an everlasting testimony to his memory. "The life and ftudies of this great man ought to ferve as a ftimulus to every one who would with to apply to, and perfect themfeives in, the noble arts. His father directed him fufficiently well in his infancy, by accuftoming his eye to exactnefs; but I have heard him many times lament having occupied fo much time in drawing from prints, which, however good they may be of their kind, always lofe by the incifion part of the excellence of their originals; their contours are always overcharged, and are wide from that fimplicity which cha'racterizes true beauty. "The method to give a fcrupulous reafon for every thing is neceffary; but it ought, notwithfranding, to be ufed with difcretion, otherwise it accuftoms youth to obferve too much the minutenefs of every little part, and not to attend fufficiently to the grandeur of the whole. He likewife lamented much, that his father had accuftomed him to paint in enamel, and in miniature; as it afterwards coft him great trouble to correct the dry and minute tafte of that fpecies of painting. The truth is, that Mengs knew latterly how to liberate himfelf intirely from that defect which he has plainly fhewn in thofe miniatures which he painted by way of complaifance. I do not know, however, that he finifhed more than four, three of the which are in my poffeffion. "His veneration for antiquity was great, without being fanatical. Where he found defects, he always acknowledged them. To point out the errors, or beauty of a work, is this difference; for the one, it is neceffary that the eye fhould be endowed with the illuftration of reafon, and accompanied by that fine fenfibility which is not common to all men. Envy and Malignity, in order to abase the works of others, and to elevate themselves by their ruin, look with piercing eyes after their defects; but he who manifefts only the errors, and is filent on the beauties of a work, is either igno. rant or invidious, or perhaps both the one and the other. "None like Mengs ever understood and manifefted the perfections of the ancient statues. How many times has he contemplated with me the beauties of the fublime Laocoon, till he was fired with enthusiasm at its excellence, and on one occafion obferved to me that the right tibia of one of his children was much fhorter than the other. "On account of having given to the king, for his academy, all the chalk figures of his collection of ftatues, (a collection which had coft him a fum fuperior to his finances,) he thought of writing a treatife on the manner of viewing antiquities, and of difcovering their beauties; but he feared, that there might be found in Europe, perfons, who from fome defect, would take umbrage, and declaim against the real merit of thefe works. Death has therefore deprived the world of this publication, which I am fure would have been a model of faga city and wifdom. It was him alone who was capable of difcovering and demonftrating, as he did in a letter to monfignor Fabroni, that the group of Niobe was only an inferior copy of the famous original mentioned by Pliny. His intelligence in antiquities is clear from the following circumftance: I one day found in a cave in the villa of Pifoni at Tivoli, a head inuch battered and ill treated, fo as one would fuppofe to be unintelligible, yet, as foon as he faw it, he laid it was a fculpture of the time of Alexander the Great: a few days after was found the remainder of the infcription, which proved it to be the head of the fame Alexander. "Laftly, it is worthy to know, that all the technical parts in the hiftory of the arts, by Winkelman, are of his friend Mengs; which is fufficient to give an idea, how much he had ftudied the works of the ancients." "The franknefs of his manner was certainly fingular; and it is well known that his enthusiasm for the arts extinguished in him every other other paffion. His veracity, and the horror he bore towards every fpecies of fafehood, was ever vifible in all his actions; for proof of which I fhall give only one example of the many which I could adduce. "On entering France by Pont Vauvoifin, the last time he went to him, which is too characteristic to be omitted. The king of Poland requested of him an allegorical painting, and when the commiffion was given him by his minifter, then refident in Rome, Mengs replied, that with the greatest pleasure he would grant the request which his majefty had honoured him with, miffions from other fovereigns, reafon dictated that he should accomplish thofe firit, according to the orders which he had re'ceived; and befides, that he had 'given his word to fome friends, to finish them fome paintings, and thofe ought to be the first, because he preferred friendship to all the honours and dignities of this world.' Spain, the officers of the custom-but having already various comhoufe faw that he had fome gold boxes ornamented with brilliants, which were given him by different princes. They afked him if he carried them for fale, or for his own ufe. He replied, that he was not a merchant, and that he did not take snuff; with which they were not contented, and infifted that he would reply to the fecond part of their demand, if they were for his own ufe, in order that he might be at liberty to take them: but they were not able to draw from him a word of untruth, that is to fay, that he had ever taken fnuff; for which reason they were obliged, against their will, to feize the boxes as vendible goods, which he fuffered, nor ever would have taken the trouble to recover them, if the marquis de Llano and myself had not reprefented the affair at Paris. "He was a moft faithful husband, and tender father to his children, to whom he gave a rigid and excellent education. Nevertheless, he has much injured his family by his want of economy, and carelessness of money. One might reckon, that in his laft eighteen years he received more than one hundred and eighty thousand fcudi, and scarce left enough at his death to pay the expences of his funeral." PORTRAIT of the MARQUIS AZO the SECOND, from whom the KINGS of GREAT BRITAIN are lineally defcended. [From the second Volume of the MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF EDWARD GIBBON, Efq.]· ་ HE name and character of "TH the marquis, Albert-Azo the Second, fhine confpicuous through the gloom of the eleventh century. The most remarkable features in the portrait are, 1. His Ligurian marquifate. 2. His riches. 3. His long life. 4. His marriages. 5. His rank of nobility in the public opinion. The glory of his defcendants is reflected on the founder; and Azo II. claims our attention as the stem of the two great branches of the pedigree; as the common common father of the Italian and German princes of the kindred lines of Este and Brunswick. "1. The fair conjecture that the two Otberts, the father and fon, commanded at Milan and Genoa with the title and office of marquis, acquires a new degree of probability for Azo I. and afcends to the level of hiftoric truth in the perfon of Azo II. Before the middle of the eleventh century the ruins of Genoa had been restored; its active inhabitants excelled in the arts of navigation and trade: their arms had been felt on the African coaft, and their credit was established in the ports of Egypt and Greece. Their riches increafed with their industry, and their liberty with their riches. Yet they continued to obey, or at least to revere, the majefty of the emperors. In an act, as it fhould feem of the year one thousand and forty-eight, the marquis Albert-Azo prefides at Genoa in a court of juftice, and his affeffors, the magiftrates of the city, are proud to ftyle themselves, the confuls and judges of the facred palace. The royal dignity of Pavia was gradually eclipfed by the wealth and populoufuefs of Milan, the first of the Italian cities that dared to erect the standard of independance. The government of Milan was divided between the two reprefentatives of St. Ambrofe and of Cæfar. The veneration of the flock for the fhepherd was fortified by the temporal state and privileges of the archbishop, and his annual revenue of fourfcore thousand pieces of gold, fupplied an ample fund for benevolence or luxury. The civil and military powers were exercifed by the duke or marquis of Milan (for these titles were promifcuously ufed), and the voice of tradition is clear and pofitive that 1796.. this hereditary office was vefted in the ancestors of the houfe of Efte. Some of the prerogatives which they affumed are expreffive of the rigour of the feudal fyftem: they were the heirs of all who died childlefs and inteftate, and a fine was paid on the birth of each infant who defeated their claim: their officers levied a tax on the markets, and their minute inquifition exacted the first loaf of bread from each oven, and the first log of wood from every cart load that entered the gates. Yet an old hiftorian, more forcibly affected with the calamities of his own days, deplores the Long loft felicity of their golden age, which had been equally praised by the bleffings of the feeble, and the curfes of the ftrong. They drew their fwords for the fervice of the prince and people, but their reign. was diftinguished by long intervals of profperity and peace. The dif tant poffeflions and various avo→ cations of the duke or marquis often diverted him from the exercife of this municipal truft: his powers were devolved on the vifcounts and captains of Milan; thefe fubordinate tyrants formed an alliance, or rather confpiracy, with the valvalors, or nobles of the first clafs; and the people were afflicted by the difcord or the union of a lawlefs oligarchy. A private infult exafperated the patience of the plebeians: they rofe in arms, and their numbers and fury prevailed in the bloody conteft. The cap. tains and nobles retired; but they retired with a fpirit of revenge; collected their vaffals and peafants of the adjacent country; encom paffed the city with a circumvallation of fix fortreffes, and in a fiege or blockade of three years reduced the inhabitants to the last extremes of famine and diftrefs. By the interpofition G terpofition of the emperor and the archbishop the peace of Milan was reftored the factions were reconciled: they wifely refused a garrifon of four thoufand Germans; but they acquiefced in the civil government of the empire. The marquis again afcended his tribunal, and that marquis is AlbertAzo the second. A judicial act of the year one thousand and fortyfive attefts his title and jurifdiction; and as the reprefentative of the emperor, he impofes a fine of a thoufand pieces of gold. The progrefs of Italian liberty reduced his office to the empty name of marquis of Liguria, and fuch he is ftyled by the hiftorians of the age. In the next century, his grandfon, Obizo I. is invested by the emperor Frederic I. with the honours of marquis of Milan and Genoa, as his grandfather Azo held them of the empire; but this fplendid grant commemorates the dignity, without reviving the power, of the houfe of Efte. "2. Like one of his Tufcan ancestors, Azo the fecond was diftinguished among the princes of Italy by the epithet of the Rich. The particulars of his rent-roll cannot now be ascertained: an occafional, though authentic deed of inveftiture, enumerates eighty-three fiefs or manors which he held of the empire in Lombardy and Tufcany, from the marquifate of Efte to the county of Luni: but to these poffeffions must be added the lands which he enjoyed as the vaffal of the church, the ancient patrimony of Otbert (the Terra Obertenga) in the counties of Arezzo, Pifa, and Lucca, and the marriage portion of his first wife, which, according to the various readings of the manufcripts, may be computed either at twenty, or at two hundred thousand English acres. If fuch a mass of landed property were now accumulated on the head of an Italian nobleman, the annual revenue might fatisfy the largest demands of private luxury or avarice, and the fortunate owner would be rich in the improvement of agriculture, the manufactures of industry, the refinement of tafte, and the extent of commerce. But the barbarism of the eleventh century diminished the income, and aggravated the expence, of the marquis of Efte. In a long feries of war and anarchy, man and the works of man had been fwept away; and the introduction of each ferocious and idle ftranger had been over-balanced by the lofs of five or fix perhaps of the peaceful induftrious natives. The mischievous growth of vegetation, the frequent inundations of the rivers, were no longer checked by the vigilance of labour; the face of the country was again covered with forefts and moraffes; of the vast domains which acknowledged Azo for their lord, the far greater part was abandoned to the wild beafts of the field, and a much smaller portion was reduced to the state of conftant and productive husbandry. An adequate rent may be obtained from the fkill and fubftance of a free tenant, who fertilizes a grateful foil, and enjoys the fecurity and benefit of a long leafe. But faint is the hope, and fcanty is the produce of those harvests, which are raifed by the reluctant toil of peafants and flaves, condemned to a bare fubfiftence, and careless of the interefts of a rapacious mafter. If his granaries are full, his purfe is empty; and the want of cities or commerce, the difficulty of finding or reaching a market, obliges him to confume on the spot a part of his useless stock, which cannot be exchanged |