Boulanger, John

, an engraver, who flourished about the year 1657, was a native of France. His first manner of engraving was partly copied from that of Francis de Poilly; but he afterwards adopted a manner of his own, which, though not original, he greatly improved; and, accordingly, he finished the faces, hands, and all the naked parts of his figures very neatly with dots, instead of strokes, or strokes and dots. This style of engraving has been of late carried to a high degree of perfection, particularly in England. Notwithstanding several defects in the naked parts of his figures, and in his draperies, his best prints are deservedly much esteemed. Such are “A Holy Family,” from Fran. Corlebet; “Virgin and Child,” from Simon Vouet; “The Pompous Cavalcade,” upon Louis the XlVth coming of age, from Chauveau; “The Virgin with the infant Christ,” holding some pinks, and therefore called “The Virgin of the Pinks,” from Raphael; “The Virgin de Passau,” from Salario;“” Christ carrying his Cross,“from Nicolas Mignard;” A dead Christ, supported by Joseph of Arimathea." He also engraved many portraits, and, among others, that of Charles II. of England. He likewise engraved from Leonardo de Vinci, Guido, Champagne, Stella, Coypel, and other great masters, as well as from his own designs.

There was another John Boulanger, a painter, who was born in 1606, and died in 1660. Mr. Fuseli informs us that he was a pupil of Guido, became painter to the court of Modena, and master of a school of art in that city. What remains of his delicate pencil in the ducal palace, proves the felicity of his invention, the vivid harmony of his colour, and in the attitudes a spirit bordering on enthusiasm. Such is the Sacrifice (if it be his, as fame asserts) of Iphigenia; though the person of Agamemnon is veiled in a manner too whimsical to be admitted in a heroic subject. Of his scholars, Tomaso Costa of Sassuolo, and Sigismondo Caula a Modenese, excelled the rest. Costa, a vigorous colourist, laid his hand indiscriminately ori every subject of art, greatly employed at Reggio, his usual residence, and much at Modena, where he painted the | cupola of S. Vicenzo. Caula left his home only to improve himself at Venice, and returned with a copious and welltoned style bat sunk to a more languid one as he advanced in life.¹