procured, had he been resolved to publish them; but his works are all posthumous, and were given to the world by his excellency the Sig. Cav. Azara. Hence it frequently happens in his works, that one treatise destroys another, as Tiraboschi has observed in regard to his notice of Coreggio, in his _Notizie degli Artefici Modenesi_; and hence concludes that the _Riflessioni di Mengs su i tre gran Pittori_, where he finds much to censure in Coreggio, were written by him before he saw the works of that master; and that his _Memorie_ on the life of the same master, where he extols Coreggio to the skies, and calls him the Apelles of modern painting, were written after having seen and studied him.[92] In spite however of all objections, he will retain a distinguished place, as well among the theorists or writers, as among professors themselves, as long as the art endures. We perhaps should not say that Mengs was a whetstone which gave a new quality to the steel, which it could not otherwise have acquired; but that he was the steel itself, which becomes brighter and finer the more it is used. He became painter to the court of Dresden; every fresh work gave proof of his progress in the art. He went afterwards to Madrid, where in the chambers of the royal palace he painted the assembly of the Gods, the Seasons, and the various parts of the day, in an enchanting manner. After repairing a second time to Rome to renew his studies, he again returned to Madrid, where he painted in one of the saloons the Apotheosis of Trajan, and in a theatre, Time subduing Pleasure; pictures much superior to his former pieces. In Rome there are three large works by him; the painting in the vault of S. Eusebio; the Parnassus in the saloon of the Villa Albani, far superior to the preceding one;[93] and lastly, the cabinet of manuscripts in the Vatican was painted by him, where the celestial forms of the angels, the majesty of Moses, and the dignified character of S. Peter, the enchanting colour, the relief, and the harmony, contribute to render this chamber one of the most remarkable in Rome for its beautiful decorations. This constant endeavour to surpass himself, would be evident also from his easel pictures, if they were not so rare in Italy; as he painted many of this description for London and the other capitals of Europe. In Rome itself, where he studied young, where he long resided, to which he always returned, and where at last he died, there are few of his works to be found. We may enumerate the portrait of Clement XIII. and his nephew Carlo, in the collection of the prince Rezzonico; that of Cardinal Zelada, secretary of state; and a few other pieces, in the possession of private gentlemen, more particularly the Sig. Cav. Azara. Florence has some large compositions by him in the Palazzo Pitti, and his own portrait in the cabinet of painters, besides the great Deposition from the Cross in chiaroscuro, for the Marchese Rinuccini, which he was