Page:Nollekens and His Times, Volume 2.djvu/133

 Rh the latter, who certainly had produced some models of Ixion, &c. which were highly spoken of. Locatelli declared in his pamphlet, by way of setting himself off, that he had been much noticed by the English when at Verona and Venice, and that, during his residence at Milan, he was employed by Count Firmin, Mr. Tilot, and Cardinal Crescenzi, and that he had executed upwards of seventy statues and groups for the brothers Battoni, &c.

So much may be gathered from this pamphlet; but as there are always two stories, at least, to be told in every dispute, the reader is requested to put that of Lord Orford into the other scale of evidence.

His Lordship, who had been extremely kind to Locatelli when abroad, by purchasing several of his models from the antique, the size of life, at one hundred guineas each, a much better price than he had before been accustomed to receive,—particularly noticed the Artist when he arrived in England. Finding that he was unemployed, he ordered him to model the above subject, as suggested by Locatelli, never asking the price; but concluding in his own mind that the sum would be proportionally more from being modelled in England, being a much dearer country to live in than Italy. Locatelli had,