Page:Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers, volume 1.djvu/495

 BTAJJTlso), was a native of Italy, -who flourished about the year 1619. We have an etching by him, representing a Bacchanalian subject, surrounded with a grape vine, in the form of a border. It is executed in a slight, free style, soraewljat resembling that of Guido, though less masterly, and appears to have been the work of a painter.

CONTARINI, Cavaliere Giovanni, was born at Venice in 1549. He was a contemporary of Palma, and studied the works of Tintoretto and Titian. His portraits and altar-pieces are distinguished by their beautiful colouring: in the former he fol- lowed the chaste and simple style of Titian. Contarini was a perfect master of the sotto in su, as is seen in his picture of the ' Resurrection ' in San Francesco di Paola at Venice. He appears to have been much engaged in painting easel pictures of mythological subjects, which he had learning enough to treat with propriety, but he excelled especially in painting ceilings. He went to Ger- many and passed some years at the court of the Emperor Rudolph II., by whom he was knighted. He died in 1605.

Amongst his works, which are principally to be met with in the churches and palaces of Venice, may be mentioned :

Berlin. Museum. St. Sebastian. Florence. Gallery. His own Portrait. Milan. Brera. St. Jerome. Paris. Louvri. The Virgin and the Infant Jesus enthroneJ, with St. Mark, St. Sebastian, and the Doge Marino Grimani kneeling ; formerly in the Ducal palace at Venice. His best work. Venice. W«a^ delta | ^^^ Crucifixion. Vienna. Gallery. The Baptism of Christ.

CONTE, Jacopo del. See Del Cunte.

C0NT6, Nicolas Jacques, a French mechanician and portrait painter, was bom at St. Cinery in Normandy in 1755. He was the inventor of a machine for engraving and of the crayons which bear his name. He died in 1805.

CONTI, Bernardino de'. See De' Conti.

CONTI, Cesabe and Vincenzio, two brothers, were natives of Ancona, but went to Rome during the Pontificate of Gregory XIII., by whom they were employed, as well as by his successors, Sixtus v., Clement VIII., and Paul V. Cesare was es- teemed for his grotesque ornaments, and Vincenzio painted the figures. The former died at Macerata about 1615 ; the latter went to the court of Savoy, and died there in 1610. Some of their works are in Santa Maria in Trastevere. In San Spirito in Saesia is the history of San Giacomo del Zucchi ; in Santa Cecilia, ' St. Agnes,' and the ' Martyrdom of St. Urban.'

CONTI, Francesco, an Italian historical painter, was bom at Florence in 1681. He was a pupil of C. Maratti, whose style he imitated. He died in 1760. His own portrait by himself is in the Uffizi.

CONTRERAS, Antonio de, a Spanish painter, was bom at Cordova in 1587. He was a pupil of Pablo de Cespedes, after whose death he went to Granada, and subsequently to Bujalance, where he resided until his death, which took place in 1654. He painted many pictures for the Franciscan con- vent and other churches of Bujalance, and also distinguished himself by his portraits.

COOK, Richard, was born in London in 1784, and entered the schools of the Royal Academy in 1800. He was a constant contributor to the exhibitions from 1808 to 1822, during which time he painted several landscapes not destitute of poetic beauty, scenes from ' The Lady of the Lake,' dis- playing taste and talent, and in 1817 (having been elected an Associate in the preceding year) a more ambitious work, entitled ' Ceres, disconsolate for the loss of Proserpine, rejects the solicitations of Iris, sent to her by Jupiter.' In 1822 he attained the rank of Royal Academician, and almost from that time forward, and certainly for many years preceding his death, he seems to have relinquished his profession, and ceased to contribute to the annual exhibitions of the Academy, his private fortune enabling him to live independently of his art. He died in London in 1857. He illus- trated editions of 'The Lady of the Lake' am' 'Gertrude of Wyoming.'

COOK, Robert, an artist who lived at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, is said to have painted the portraits of Henry VIL, Henry VIII., Queen Katharine, the Duke of Suffolk, and the family of Sir Robert Winglield.

COOK, Samuel, a water-colour painter, was born in 1806 at Camelford in Cornwall. At the early age of nine he was apprenticed to a firm of woollen manufacturers in that place, but during the inter- vals of his duties he would amuse himself with making drawings in chalk on the floor of the fac- tory, to the annoyance of his employers, one of whom declared that " he would never be fit for anything but a limner;" and a limner he ulti- mately became. On the expiration of his appren- ticeship he went to Plymouth, where he set up as a painter and glazier. Every hour he could snatch from business, however, was devoted to sketching from nature, and though these early products of his pencil displayed timidity in respect of colour, they nevertheless exhibited great truth ; and with increasing knowledge and experience came in- creased confidence and power. In 1830 he sent some drawings to the New Society (now the Institute) of Painters in Water-Colours, which obtained him admission into that body; to whose annual exhibition he became a regular contributor, chiefly of coast scenes, though sometimes of inland views, till the day of his death, which occurred in 1859. A view of 'Stonehouse, Plymouth,' by him is in the South Kensington Museum.

COOK, Thomas, who was born about the year 1744, was a pupil of Ravenet. He engraved many portraits, as well as some of the plates for Bell's ' Shakespeare ' and ' British Poets.' He was also employed by Alderman Boydell, and engraved some of the works of Hogarth. He died in 1818, aged 74.

COOKE, Edward William, the son of George Cooke, the engraver, was born in London in 1811, and was brought up with a view of following his father's profession. He earl_v published a set of sixty-five etched plates of ' Shipping and Craft, views on the Thames. But in 1832 he determined to adopt oil-painting in place of engraving ; and, three years later, his first works, ' Honfleur Fishing Boats ' and a ' Hay-Barge, off Greenwich,' appeared at the Royal Academy. Since then, with three exceptions, 1839, 1846, and 1874, there was not a single exhibition up to that of 1879, which did not contain one or more of his works. To forty-one exhibitions he contributed one hundred and thirty works, all well thought out and carefully executed. In 1851 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1864 he was made an Academician. He also contributed many works