PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS.
BASHKIRTSEFF, Maria Constantinova, was
bom at Gavrontsi in Russia in 1860. She was
brought up by her mother, who waa living apart
from her liusband, Marshal Baahkirtseff, in Italy,
and in Germany, and received an education far in
advance of that usually given to girls. She was
a clever musician from a child, able to speak four
European languages with facility,and to read Greek
and Latin with accuracy. In 1877 she settled in
Paris and took lessons from T. Robert-Fleury. Her
first exhibited picture was a portrait, followed in
1881 by 'Atelier Julian,' 1882 'Jean et Jacques,'
1884 ' The Meeting.' She died of rapid consumption
in 1884. She will be better known by her remark-
able autobiographical diary and by her correspond-
enceunderanomde plume with Guyde Maupassant,
and by her acquaintance with Bastien-Lepage,
rather than by her own exhibited works, clever as
they undoubted I3' are. See the writings of M.
Blind on Marie Baslikirtseif 1890, 1891, and 1892.
B.SILETTI, LuiGI, who was born at Brescia in 1780, and died in 1860, is the author of a ' Cascade at Tivoli,' in the Brera at Milan.
BASILI. PlEiBO Angiolo, was born at Gubbio about 1550. He was first a scholar of Felice Daraiani, but afterwards studied under Cristofano Roncalli, whose manner he followed, though in a more delicate style. His fresco paintings in the cloister of Sant' Ubaldo in Gubbio are much esteemed ; and in the church of San Marziale is a picture in oil of 'Our Saviour preaching,' with a great number of figures. Basili died in 1604.
BASILICATA, PiETRO della. See Afesa.
BASIRE, James, a son of Isaac Basirf, an engraver of maps, was bom in London in 1730. Earl)' in life he went with a patron to Rome and copied the works of Raphael. In 1760 he became engraver to the Society of Antiquaries, and ten years afterwards to the Royal Society. He assisted in the production of Stuart's 'Athens,' and engraved several good portraits of eminent men. He died in London in 1802. Among his other works were: Captain Cook ; after Eodges. Lady Stanhope, as the Fair Penitent ; after B. JViliuii. Lord Camden ; after Reynolds. Orestes and Pylades before Iphigenia ; after West. The Field of the Cloth of Gold : the Interview between Henry 'VIII. and Francis I. ; after the picture at Hampton Court.
BASIRE, James, a son of the elder painter of the same name, was born in 1769, and followed his father's profession. He engraved many of the architectural plates in John Carter's works on 'The English Cathedrals.' He was engraver to the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. He died at Chigwell Wells in 1822. His son, James Basire, born in 1796, was likewise engraver to the Society of Antiquaries, and assisted in many of Richard Gough's architectural works. He died in London in 1869.
BASSANO. See Ponte.
BASSANO, Cesare, a painter and engraver, was bom at Milan about the year 1584. We have no account of his works as a painter, but he engraved the following plates :
Pcrtniit of Caspar Assellius. A Funeral Frontispiece of Francesco Piccolomini. The Nativity.
BASSE, Martin. See Bas.
BASSELLI, Daniello, is mentioned by Stmtt as the engraver of a print representing ' Daniel in the Lions' Den,' after P. Caton. It is etched and retouched with the graver in a very slight style.
BASSEN, Bartelmees van, painter and architect, flourished from 1613 to 1650. He painted at Delft, at the Hague, and in England. Neither the date of his birth nor that of his death is recorded. He was a Flemish painter of tlie interiors of churches and other public buildings, which he executed in a very skilful manner, both with re- gard to perspective and lively colouring. The figures in his pictures were frequently executed by eminent painters of bis day, to whom he returned the compliment by supplying their architectural wants. Among his works are :
Berlin. Museuin. Interior of a Church ; sitjned B.
VAN Bassen, 1624, anil undirnenih F. Franck figcravit.
„ „ Interior of a room — icith ftiures. Copenhagen. Gallery. View of a Clmrch, B. van i?ASSBS, 1623. „ „ An Interior. Darmstadt. Gallery. Interior of a Room n-ith figures, B. T, Bassem. Hague. Museum. Interior of a Church ; signed B. VAN Bassen, 1626.
BASSEPORTE, Mapei.ein-e Fran^oise, tlie daughter of a wine-merchant, was born in Paris in 1701. She was a pupil of Paul Ponce Antoine Robert, and afterwards of Cliarles Aubriet, whom she succeeded in 1741 as miniature painter to the king. She taught the daughters of Louis X'V., and executed a large number of water-colour drawings of animals, plants, and flowers, many of which are in the library of the Jardin des Plantes. She engraved some plates for the Crozat Collection and others. We have by her : The Martyrdom of St. Fidelio de Sigmaringa; after P. P. Robert de Seri. Diana and Endymion; after a design of Sebasliano Conca. There are also three books of flowers, drawn from nature, by her, and engraved by Avril. fillle. Basseporte died at the Jardin du Roi in Paris in 1780.
BASSETTI, Marco Anto.vio, was bom at Verona in 1588, and was a scholar of Felice Ricci. He afterwards visited Venice, and studied the works of the excellent colourists of that school, particularly Tintoretto, whose style he preferred. On leaving Venice he went to Rome, where he remained for a considerable time. On his return to Verona be was employed in painting some pic- tures for the public edifices in that city. For the church of San Tommaso he painted a picture of ' St. Peter and other Saints,' and for Sant' Anastasia, the ' Coronation of the Virgin.' By these and other works, particularly specified by Midolfi, he acquired reputation as an eminent historical painter, but he was cut off in the prime of life by the plague which visited Verona in 1630. His works were highly prized, but he left very few, as his maxim was, that painting ought not to be pursued by journeymen as a mechanic art, but with the leisure that is bestowed on literature for the sake of the pleasure it affords. In the Munich Gallery there is a ' Martyrdom of St. Vitus,' by him.
BASSI, Antonio. Several of the works of this painter are mentioned in descriptions of the pictures and sculpture of Ferrara, of which city he was a native. In the church of San Giovanid Battista were two pictures by him, one representing the 'Holy Family reposing in Egypt,' the
