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Barry
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Barry

material objections to him, besides his disability of body, and his being at best but a cold friend to the declaration.' In this session of parliament he was nominated, together with the primate and the archbishop of Dublin, on a committee of the House of Peers 'to attend the lord justices to desire their lordships to supplicate his majesty that the late usurper's coin may continue current for some certain time, not exceeding a year, and also that there may be a mint erected in Ireland.' Lord Santry married Catherine, daughter of Sir William Parsons, by whom he had four sons and four daughters. He died 9 Feb. 1672. The barony of Santry became extinct (1739) by forfeiture upon his grandson Henry (1710-1751), the fourth lord, being convicted of the murder of a footman.

[Biogr. Britannica; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, i. 307; Strafford's Letters, i. 299; Wright's Hist. of Ireland.]

P. B.-A.

BARRY, JAMES (1741–1806), painter, was the eldest son of John and Juliana Barry, and was born on 11 Oct. 1741. His mother's maiden name was Rœrden, and both his parents are said to have been well descended, but his father was brought up as a builder, afterwards commanded a vessel which traded between Ireland and England, and kept a public-house on the quays at Cork.

James went to sea with his father for a few voyages, but soon showed a preference for an artist's career. He painted his father's sign with Neptune on one side, and a ship of that name on the other; obtained some help from two heraldic painters, and copied prints, including those from the cartoons of Raphael, upon the walls of his father's house. His education does not seem to have been neglected; and at school he was regarded as a prodigy of knowledge by his fellows. To Dr. Sleigh, of Cork, he used to say, he was indebted for whatever education he had. The date when he left Cork is not known, but he studied under West, of Dublin, an able teacher of the figure.

Cunningham mentions some ambitious oil paintings as executed before he left Cork, but the first picture by which he attracted attention was 'The Conversion by St. Patrick of the King of Cashel,' which was sent to an exhibition held at Dublin by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., in 1763. This procured him the immediate friendship and protection of Burke, who brought him to London in the following year, and introduced him to Athenian Stuart, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and others of his friends. In February 1766 he started for Italy on the advice of Reynolds, and with an allowance from Burke and his brother. He remained in Paris till September, and then proceeded to Rome, where he stayed about four years, returning to England in 1770. In the third year of his residence at Rome he made an excursion to Naples, and through the whole period of his absence maintained an interesting correspondence with Burke, full of acute and original criticism. The contentiousness of his disposition, however, his contempt for the dilettanti, and his indignation at the tricks of dealers in pictures and antiquities, engaged him. in perpetual strife with nearly every one he met, including his brother artists. This conduct drew from Burke much kind and noble remonstrance, which had unfortunately no lasting effect. In these quarrels Barry spent much of his time, and his studies were discursive and ill-regulated. He adopted a mechanical means (a delineator) for copying from the antique, made few studies from the old masters, and painted but two original works: One of these, 'Adam and Eve,' he brought home unfinished; the other was 'Philoctetes in the Isle of Lemnos.' He grew fastidious in his taste, confining his admiration almost exclusively to the antique and a few of the greatest painters of Italy . On his way home he wrote: 'Rubens, Rembrandt, Vandyke, Teniers, and Schalken are without the pale of my church; and though I will not condemn them, yet I must hold no intercourse with them.'

He arrived in London with a temper little calculated to assist his progress in the world, and a skill quite inadequate to sustain his high pretensions in art. But he succeeded in attracting a good deal of notice, and much was expected of him. His 'Philoctetes' had gained him election as a member of the Clementine Academy at Bologna. Sir Joshua Reynolds thought highly of his talents, and Burke received him warmly. He exhibited 'Adam and Eve' in 1771, and in 1772 'Venus rising from the Sea,' 'Medea making her Incantations,' and 'Education of Achilles.' The last was bought by Mr. Palmer. He was elected an associate in this year, and a full member of the Royal Academy the year after, when he exhibited 'Jupiter and Juno' and two portraits. In 1774 his pictures were 'Lear and Cordelia' for Boydell's Shakespeare, 'Antiochus and Stratonice' (bought by the Duke of Richmond), 'Mercury inventing the Lyre,' and a portrait of Burke; in 1775 'Death of Adonis' and a drawing for a picture of 'Pandora;' and in 1776 (the last year in which his name appears in the catalogues) 'Death of General Wolfe' and 'Portraits, as Ulysses and his Companions escaping from Polypheme.' The reason given