A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF
Woringen,' painted by him in 1582. which bear
strong resemblance to the works of his contemporary Johann von Aachen.
COLYNS, David, was born at AmsterJam about the year 1650. He painted historical pictures of a small size, into which he introduced an infinite number of figures, which he grouped with great ingenuity. His pictures are touched with spirit and fineness. Houbraken extols, in high terms, two pictures by this master at Amsterdam, one representing 'Moses striking the Rock,' the other the ' Israelites fed by the Miracle of the Manna.'
COMBES, Peter, was an English engraver in mezzotint, who flourislied about the year 1700. He was chiefly employed in engraving portraits, among which is a small whole-length of Master Charles More, son of the Bishop of Ely, after Kersebooni.
COMERFORD, John, who was born at Kilkenny in 1773, practised as a miniature painter in Dublin for many years. He died at Dublin about 1835. A portrait in miniature of an ' English Military Officer,' by him, is in the South Kensington Museum.
COJIIN, JovAN, or Jan, who flourished about the year 1630, engraved some of the plates of an- tique statues for the Giustiniani Gallery. They are executed with the graver in a stiff, tasteless style. COMO, Era Ejimanuello da, born in 1586, was a Franciscan monk, and studied art under the direction of Silla at Messina. He distinguished himself by his pure and simple style, which is the more creditable as he flourished at a time when taste for art was in a most deplorable state. Several frescoes by hira are in the library of the Irish convent of St. Isidore at Rome. He died in 1662.
COMODI, Andrea, a Florentine painter, was born in 1500. He was the scholar and friend of Lodovico Cardi, called Cigoli. He is rather to be considered as a Roman than a Florentine, as he went to Rome when he was young, in the pon- tificate of Urban VIII., and resided there the greater part of his life. His principal works are : 'Christ bearing his Cross,' in the Tribune of San Vitale ; in San Carlo ai Catinari, the principal altar- piece, the Titular Saint kneeling ; in San Giovanni in Fonte, the ' Baptism of Christ by St. John.' He painted a number of Madonnas, which Lanzi says are distinguished by the smallness of the neck, and a certain air of virgin modesty, which is pecu- liar to him. One of the most admired of these ia in the Corsini Palace. Comodi went afterwards to Cortona, where he became the instructor of Pietro Berrettini, who assisted him afterwards in several of his paintings. On his return to Florence he painted some works from his own designs, but more especially he copied and re-copied, in a skilful manner, the works of the great masters, among which were many pictures of the Virgin, to whom he was most devoted. These were mistaken at the time, even by the learned in art, for the originals. Such being the case two centuries ago, how diflBdent should we be in pronouncing judgment on the originality of his works in the present day. He died in Florence in 1638.
C'OMONTES, Francisco de, a son of Inigo de Comontcs. executed in 1533 the principal retablo of the cliapel of Los Reyes Nuevos in Toledo cathe- dral, from the design of Felipe de Vigarny. In 1545-7, he painted for the winter chapter room portraits of Cardinal Archbishop Tavera and Arch- bishop Siliceo ; in the latter year he was appointed painter to the cathedral, which office he retained until his death in 1565. Pictures on panel of the ' Virgin and St. Bartholomew,' placed in 1559 in a retablo gilt by his own hands, in the chapel of the Tower, are considered his best works.
COMONTES, Inigo de, was a scholar of Antonio del Rincon. In 1495 he painted a ' History of Pilate ' in the Cathedral of Toledo, and a picture for one of the porches. No traces of his works remain. His brother, Antonio de Comontes, was also a painter.
COMPAGNO, ScinoNE, an Italian painter, was born at Naples about 1624, and was still living in 1680. He was a pupil of A. Falcone and of Salvator Rosa, and his drawings are held in esteem. The Belvedere, Vienna, contains two works by him, the ' Eruption of Vesuvius ' and the ' Beheading of St. Januarius.'
COMPE, Jan ten. See Ten Compe.
COMPTE-CALIX, FRANgois Claddius, a French painter of genre subjects and portraits, was born at Lyons in 1813. He studied in the tine art school of his native city, and in the studio of J. C. Bonnefond, and first exliibited at the Paris Salon in 1840. His ' Vieil Ami,' painted in 1863, was in the International Exhibition at Paris in 1867. He died at Chazay d'Azergues near Lyons in 1880.
COMTE, Le. See Lecomte.
CONCA, Sebastiano, was bom at Gaeta in 1679, and was educated in the school of Francesco Solimena. Under that master he acquired a competent ability in design, and a great facility. In the early part of his life he was much occupied in portrait painting. Desirous of seeing Rome, and ambitious of distinguishing himself in a more elevated branch of the art, he visited the metropohs of Italy, with his brother Giovanni, in 1706, and for five years changed the pencil for the portecrayon, and was occupied in drawing from the antique, and the works of the great masters. The progress he had made under Solimena, im- proved by his studies at Rome, enabled him to produce some pictures which attracted the notice of Clement XL, who employed him in decorating his church of San Clemente with several works in fresco, which gave so much satisfaction to his patron, that he conferred On him the order of knighthood, and procured hira every great public undertaking of that time at Rome. In addition to this, he painted also for the kings of Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, and Poland, and for the Elector of Cologne ; also at Siena, Pisa, Loretto, Palermo, Gaeta, and Naples. For this flattering success, he was, however, more indebted to the state of deca- dence into which the art had then sunk at Rome, than to any particular or original merit of his own. He possessed a fertile invention, great rapidity of pencil, and a colour that enchants more by its brilliancy than its truth. In his attempts to be pleasing lie sank into the pretty, and although he evidently aimed at grandeur, he never could divest himself of the littleness to which nature had con- fined him. Perhaps he has been too harshly treated by the surly criticism of Mengs, who observes, " that by introducing at Rome the man- nered style of Solimena, and a system less excel- lent than expeditious, he put the finishing touch to the ruin of painting." He died at Naples in 1764. The principal works of Conca are :
Ancona. St. Francis Xavier Berlin. Musexim. Abraham.
Darmstadt. Museum. Joseph in Prison.
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