Linglebach, John

, a Dutch painter, or at least one who painted much in the Dutch manner, was born at | Frankfort on the Maine, in 1625, and learned his art in Holland, but afterwards went to Koine, where he studiously observed every thing that was curious in art or nature, and continued at Rome till he was twenty-five years of age. His usual subjects are fairs, mountebanks, seaprospects, naval engagements, and landscapes. His landscapes are enriched with antiquities, ruins, animals, and elegant figures; his sea-fights are full of expression, exciting pity and terror; and all his objects are well-designed. His skies are generally light, and thinly clouded, and his management of the aerial perspective is extremely judicious; his keeping is usually good; his distances of a clear bluish tint; and the whole together is masterly, producing an agreeable effect. In painting figures or animals, he had uncommon readiness, and on that account he was employed by several eminent artists to adorn their landscapes with those objects; and whatever he inserted in the works of other masters, was always well adapted to the scene and the subject. His pencil is free, his touch clean and light, and his compositions are in general esteem. It may be observed, that he was particularly fond of introducing into most of his compositions, pieces of architecture, the remains of elegant buildings, or the gates of the sea-port towns of Italy; embellished with statues, placed sometimes on the pediments and cornices, and sometimes in niches. He also excelled in representing Italian fairs and markets, inserting in those subjects abundance of figures, well grouped and designed, in attitudes suitable to their different characters and occupations; and although )ie often repeated the same subjects, yet the liveliness of liis imagination, and the readiness of his invention, always enabled him to give them a remarkable variety. He died in 1687. 1

1

Argenville, vol. III.—Pilkington.