If it be characteristic of Germany that one of her illustrious shoemakers should be a _poet_ and another a _philosopher_, it is no less characteristic of Italy and Holland that several followers of the gentle craft in these countries should have distinguished themselves as _painters_. We take three examples from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Gabriel Cappellini of Ferrara in Italy was more generally known by the appellation _Il Caligarino_, or the _little shoemaker_, a name derived from his original occupation. He is said to have been led to throw down the awl and take to the brush in consequence of a compliment paid to him one day by one of the great family of painters called Dossi, who told the shoemaker that a pair of shoes he had just made were so elegant that they looked as if they had been painted. He became a scholar of Dossi, and made a fair name as an artist in the sixteenth century. He is praised by Barotti for "the boldness of his design and the sobriety of his color." Several of his paintings may now be seen in the city of Ferrara, the best of which is in the Church of St. Giovannino. This is an altar-piece representing the Virgin and Child with infant saints attending upon them. In the Church of St. Francesco is a painting of SS. John and James. There is also an altar-piece ascribed to him in the Church of St. Alesandro at Bergamo, representing the Last Supper. A small painting of the same subject is in the possession of Count Carrara.[95] [95] Lanzi's "History of Painting." London: Bohn, vol. iii. p. 200; and Bryan's "Dictionary of Painters." London: Bohn, p. 138. FRANCESCO BRIZZIO, THE ARTIST.