Brandi, Giacinto

, a painter, was born at Poli, not far from Rome, in 1633, and studied in tne school of Lanfranc. The greater part of the churches and palaces at Rome were embellished by his pencil. His best pictures arc his “St. Rocco,” in the church of Ripatta, and the “Forty Martyrs” in the Stigmata. An imagination full of fire, a great facility, a feeble and incorrect colouring, characterise his performances. He worked with uncommon rapidity, always preferring his pleasures and money to fame. He died at Rome in 1691, aged 58, prince of the academy of St. Luc, and chevalier of the order of Christ. His daughter was married to the celebrated Rosa da Tivoli, of whom Giacinto conceived a mean opinion, because he painted only beasts. By this contemptuous behaviour Rosa was so incensed, that he collected all the clothes belonging to his bride, on the morning after marriage, and sent them back to her father with a message, “that his daughter’s person was fortune enough to make her husband happy; and that a good painter of beasts was as likely to become rich, as a bad painter of men.” ²