It is uncertain whether Pietro Testa, called at Rome Il Lucchesino, was his disciple; but it appears highly probable, when his age is compared with that of Paolini, that he learnt from the latter the principles of the art, which he had undoubtedly acquired in Lucca before he came to Rome. He there had several masters, and was chiefly under Pietro da Cortona, from whose school he was expelled, because he treated the maxims of the master with contempt. He then put himself under Domenichino, on whose principles, says Passeri, he gloried to rely; but his style, in his own despite, at times approaches nearly to that of Cortona. He has also some resemblance to his friend Poussin, both in his figures (which at one time he made too slender), in his landscapes, and in his study of the antique, of which he was deeply enamoured; having applied himself to designing the finest specimens in architecture and in sculpture that Rome afforded. In this branch he is excellent. The death of B. Angelo, placed in S. Martino a' Monti, a picture of great force, is the only piece before the public. Testa is more frequently recognized in galleries: there is a Joseph sold to the Ishmaelites by him in the capitol; a Murder of the Innocents, in the Spada palace; but there are not many of his pictures elsewhere; for he engraved more than he painted.[221] He left some oil paintings at Lucca, one in a feeble style at S. Romano, several at S. Paolino, in the Buonvisi gallery, and in other places, in his best manner. Two of his works in fresco remain there; viz. the allegorical picture of Liberty in the senate house, and the small very elegant cupola of the oratory in the Lippi palace. He settled at Rome, where he lived unhappily, and either from despair, or some affront, drowned himself in the Tiber. His fate may teach young artists of genius not to overrate their own talents, nor to despise those of others. By these failings, Testa alienated the minds of his contemporaries, so that neither in reputation nor in employment was he so successful as many others; and his perpetual complaints occasioned doubts even of his sanity. Omitting some scholars of Paolini less addicted to his manner, we shall notice the three brothers, Cassiano, Francesco, and Simone del Tintore. I find nothing recorded of the first that exalts him above mediocrity; and when one meets with an indifferent picture of the school of Paolini, it is ascribed to Cassiano, or some such pupil; or sometimes to the dotage of Paolini, when he produced sketches rather than paintings. Francesco is recognized as an able artist in the Visitation, in the apartments of his excellency the Gonfaloniere; and in some pieces in the Motroni collection. Simone was expert in depicting birds, fruit, and other objects in the inferior walks of the art, to which, as I usually do at the end of each epoch, I shall here devote a few pages.