d shadow,
both exceedingly bold, yet mingled with great sweetness and harmony, and
a powerful effect in relief, a branch of art so much admired by
professors. "Hence," says Lanzi, "some foreigners bestowed upon him the
title of the Magician of Italian painting, for in him were renewed those
celebrated illusions of antiquity. He painted a basket of grapes so
naturally that a ragged urchin stretched out his hand to steal some of
the fruit. Often, in comparing the figures of Guido with those of
Guercino, one would say that the former had been fed with roses, and the
latter with flesh, as observed by one of the ancients."

BERNAZZANO.

Lanzi says, "In painting landscape, fruit, and flowers, Bernazzano
succeeded so admirably as to produce the same wonderful effects that are
told of Zeuxis and Apelles in Greece. These indeed Italian artists have
frequently renewed, though with a less degree of applause. Having
painted a strawberry-bed in a court yard, the pea-fowls were so
deceived by the resemblance, that they pecked at the wall till they had
destroyed the painting. He painted the landscape part of a picture of
the Baptism of Christ, and on the ground drew some birds in the act of
feeding. On its being placed in the open air, the birds were seen to fly
towards the picture, to join their companions. This beautiful picture is
one of the chief ornaments in the gallery of the distinguished family of
the Trotti at Milan."

INVENTION OF OIL PAINTING.

There has been a world of discussion on this subject, but there can be
no doubt that John van Eyck, called John of Bruges, and by the Italians,
Giovanni da Bruggia, and Gio. Abeyk or Eyck, is entitled to the honor of
the invention of Oil Painting as applied to pictures, though Mr. Raspe,
the celebrated antiquary, in his treatise on the invention of Oil
Painting, has satisfactorily proved that Oil Painting was practised in
Italy as early as the 11th century, but only as a means of protecting
metalic substances from rust.

According to van Mander, the method of painting in Flanders previous to
the time of the van Eycks, was with gums, or a preparation called
egg-water, to which a kind of varnish was afterwards applied in
finishing, which required a certain degree of heat to dry. John van Eyck
having worked a long time on a picture and finished it with great care,
placed it in the sun-shine to dry, when the board on which it was
painted split and spoiled the work. His disappoi