Page:Anecdotes of painters, engravers, sculptors and architects, and curiosities of art (IA anecdotesofpaint01spoo).pdf/287

 *ist gently hinted to the connoisseur that he had been duped. "Zounds, sir, this cannot be; the picture was valued at $5,000 in Naples, and I was offered very large prices for it by some of the best judges in Paris." The artist, with a little spirits, quickly brought the lines of a print into full view, so that not even a glass was required to see them! It is needless to say that the proprietor was greatly chagrined, and vented his rage in curses loud and deep against foreign impostors. Yet he ordered the coats of varnish to be replaced, and afterwards sold the picture as an original Correggio.

DISCOVERY OF A CORREGGIO.

Among the numerous restorers of old pictures who resided at Rome about 1780, were two friends, an Italian named Lovera, and a German named Hunterspergh. They were both pupils of the Cavaliere Mengs. They frequented the sales of old pictures at the Piazza Nuova, as well to purchase the works of the old masters at a low price, as to supply themselves with old canvass, which they might repaint. On one occasion, having bought a lot of old canvass and divided it between them, Lovera received as a part of his share a very indifferent flower-piece. On taking it home, he found that the ground scaled off, and to his surprise discovered traces of a figure painted in an admirable style. He employed himself with the utmost care in removing the ground which covered the original picture, and