PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS.
Aux buueurs tres illnstres et haut-crieurs du Roi boit ;
twenty-four small subjects engraved on one plat« and
intended to be cut up and drawn for on the Fete
des Rois. R. E. 0.
BOSSI, BuNiGNO, an Italian desigrier and engraver, was born at Porto d'Areisato, in the Milanese, in 1727. He was intended to have studied paint- ing under Pompeo Batoni, but the death of that artist prevented it, and he was advised by Mengs and Dietrich to apply himself to engraving. He stayed a long time at Nuremberg and at Dresden, but during the seven years' war lie was under the necessity of leaving S;ixony, and went in 1760 to Parma, where he was favoured with the patronage of the duUe. He died there about 1800. We have the following prints by him :
His own Portrait. The Presentation in the Temple. 1755. Forty small etchings of Heads, and other subjects ; very spirited. A set of Vases, and a Masquerade ; after Felitot. Four of Trophies. 1771. Four of the Attributes of the Seasons ; circular. 1770. Two of Cliildren. A set of twenty-nine small plates; after the draioings of Parmigiano. Allegorical figures representing the Towns in Piedmont. St. Catharine ; after the celebrated picture belonging to the family of Sanvitali. The most esteemed plate of the artist.
BOSSI, GlDSEpPE, of Milan, who was born at Busto Arsizio near Milan in 1777, studied paintings from works in the Brera and at Rome. On his re- turn to Milan ho became secretary of the Academy, for which he acquired casts and pictures in Paris. He was instrumental in the establishment of Schools of Anatomy and of Mosaic Painting. Be- sides executing numerous historical works, he made a copy of Leonardo's ' Last Supper,' and also wrote a Life of that artist: and furthermore published poems in the Milanese dialect. He died at Milan in 1815 ; he is represented in the Uffizi by his own portrait, and in the Pinaooteca at Milan by his own portrait and by a Dance of Amorini.
BOSSIUS, Jacob, an old Flemish engraver, was born about the year 1520. He resided chiefly at Rome, and he is supposed to have learned the art of engraving from some of the pupils of Marc- Antonio. He worked with the graver in a neat but rather stifE style, and his drawing is not very correct. His prints, however, possess considerable merit. He sometimes marked his plates with his name at length, and sometimes BB. We have the following by him :
Portrait of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Bust of Cardinal Otto Truchsess, of Alhani ; with a border, and an emblem of Charity; Jac. Bosaius Belgia incidebat. Bust of St. Thomas Aquinas; Jacob Bossuis Belgia iitcidit. The Crucifixion ; Jacobus Bossiiis incid. Four, of the Four Evangelists ; marked B. B. F. — Cock^ exc. Jacob's Ladder ; after Raphael ; marked Jac. b b. St. Peter and St. John curing the lame Man ; Jac. Bos. f. The Statue of Pyrrhus, King of Molossia ; after the an- tique ; signed Jacobus Bossius Belgia incid. 1562. BOSSU. See Le Bossu.
BOTELLI, Felice, who was born at Piacenza in 1652, studied under Nuvolone, and painted animals, birds, and fish with great spirit and beauty. He died in 1732.
BOTET, F., a native of France, flourished about the year 1750. Among other prints he engraved some plates representing gallant subjects and bambochades, after Charles Antoine Coypel. BOTH, Andries, was born at Utrecht about 1609. He followed almost the same career as his brother, Jan Both, — studied under his father, then under Bloemaert,and subsequently accompanied his brother to France and Italy. He chiefly employed his time in painting figures in his brother's land- scapes ; and works entirely by him are very rare. He was drovned in a canal at Venice in or before 1644, and his loss is said to have caused his brother great affliction. Independent of the reputation Andries Both acquired by the charming figures which he introduced into the landscapes of hia brother, he painted several pictures of his own composition, in the manner of Bamboccio, but more agreeably coloured ; they generally repre- sent merry-makings, fairs, and quack-doctors, sur- rounded by figures, designed with great humour, and f idl of character : they are higltly esteemed. He also practised the art of engraving with some success. We may mention by him:
St. Anthony praying, with a skull ; marked ^yTioth, reversed. St. Francis, with a crucifix before him ; the same. Bust of a Man, in Profile, with a Cap and Feather ; marked TT) Two Beggars. -OJ. Two of Dutch Merry-makings; A. Both inv. etfec. Six Landscapes, numbered ; of which the first is marked A. Both. The Five Seuses. represented by grotesque figures ; de- signed by Andries aud engraved by Jan Both.
BOTH, Jan, was born at Utrecht about 1610. He and his elder brother Andries studied under their father, who was a painter on glass, and from liim they learned the first rudiments of design ; but they were afterwards placed under Abraham Bloe- inaert, with whom they studied until they found them- selves sufficiently advanced in art to travel. They journeyed through France and Italy, and made a stay in Rome, where Jan Both, inspired by the beauty of the scenes around him, and emulated by the applause bestowed on the works of Claude Lorrain, was not long before he produced some landscapes that received the unqualified admiration of the artists themselves ; and Andries, who had studied the works of Bamboccio, decorated them with figures, painted in such perfect unison with the landscapes that it could hardly be believed that they were not by the same hand. The figures in no way intruded on the enchanting effect of the landscape, and the landscape occasionally withheld its attraction to give value to the charm of the figures. The sympathy of their affections had blended itself with the exertion of their talents; and in their works everything was warm, tender, and harmonious. The landscapes of Both exhibit the most beautiful scenery ; his colour is glowing, yet delicate, and there is a sparkling effect of sunshine in his pictures that has scarcely been equalled. Sometimes we admire the freshness^ of nature, enlivened by the first beams of the rising sun ; at others the brilliant glow of its meridian splendour ; and we sometimes contemplate the rich tintings of evening in an Italian sky. The figures and cattle by Andries, with which they are enriched, are grouped and designed with great taste and elegance. The works of these excellent artists had reached a distinction, even in Italy, that secured to them both fortune and fame, when a melancholy accident cut asunder the tender tie by
which they were united, and deprived the world of
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