Notwithstanding the considerable space which Mengs has occupied in our time, he has nevertheless left room for the celebrity of Pompeo Batoni, of Luca. The Cav. Boni, who has honoured this artist with an elegant eulogium, thus expresses himself in comparing him with Mengs. "The latter," he says, "was the painter of philosophy, the former of nature. Batoni had a natural taste which led him to the beautiful without effort; Mengs attained the same object by reflection and study. Grace was the gift of nature in Batoni, as it had formerly been in Apelles; while the higher attributes of the art were allotted to Mengs, as they were in former days to Protogenes. Perhaps the first was more painter than philosopher, the second more philosopher than painter. The latter, perhaps, was more sublime, but more studied; Batoni less profound, but more natural. Not that I would insinuate that nature was sparing to Mengs, or that Batoni was devoid of the necessary science of the art, &c." If it were ever said with truth of any artist, that he was born a painter, this distinction must be allowed to Batoni. He learned only the principles of the art in his native country, and of the two correspondents from whom I have received my information, the one considers him to have been the scholar of Brugieri, the other of Lombardi, as already mentioned, vol. i. p. 360, and probably he was instructed by both. He came young to Rome, and did not frequent any particular school, but studied and copied Raffaello and the old masters with unceasing assiduity, and thus learnt the great secret of copying nature with truth and judgment.