Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/168

 c 131 A L B A N I. divine (lories, but his compofiftons on love fubjeSs were moft Pels Pit-eagerly fought after. ' He did not" fays Malvafia, " feign tnce, vol. u.< 4 (jypjj heavy and fleeping, as Guido did, but reprefented <f him feated majeftically on a throne; now directing the " fportive exercife.s of the little Loves, fhooting at a heart " fixed on a trunk of a tree; now prefiding over their crowned with a chaplef of blooming flowers ; and now furveying the conqueft of the little winged boys over the " rural fatyrs and fauns. If he reprefented a dead Adonis, " he always introduced a band of lovers, fome of which, " viewing the wound, drew back in the utmoft horror; " while others, exafperated, broke to pieces their bows and " arrows, as being no longer of ufe to them, fince Adonis " was no more; and others again, who, running behind the " fierce wild boar, brandifhed their darts with an air of ven- " geance." Albani was of a happy temper and difpofition, his paintings, fays the fame author, breathing nothing but content and joy : happy in a force of mind that conquered every uneafmefs, his poetical pencil carried him through the moft agreeable gardens to Paphos and Citherea : thofe de- lightful fcenes brought him over the lofty Parnaflus to the delicious abodes of Apollo and the Mufes; whence what Du Frefnoy fays of the famous Giulio Romano may be julHy applied to Albani: Taught from a child in the bright Mufes' gro:s, He openM ail the treafures of Parnaffus, And in the lovely poetry of painting, The rnyiteries of Apoilo hasreveal'd. He died the 4th' of October, 1660, to the great grief of all his friends and the wh^le city of Bologna. Malvafia has pre- ierved fome ven'es of Fiancifco de Lemene, intended for his monument, the fenfe whereof is, " That the mortal remains ' of the illuHrioiis Albani, he who gave life to {hade, lie in- " terired i:< this tomb : the earth never produced fo wonderful '" an artifr, or a hand equal to his immortal one, which gave "' colours to the foul, and a foul to colours. Prometheus " animated dead clay, and gave life by means of the fun ; " but Albani animated merely by the affifiance of made." He was very famous in his life-time, and had been vifited by the greateft painters: feveral princes honoured him with letters, 3ra, and amongft the reft king Charles 1. who invited him to Eng- land, by a letter figned with his own hand. ALBERTUS
 * fprightly dances, round the mr.rble monument of Flora