[Footnote 95: See the _Elogio di Pompeo Batoni_, page 66, where the illustrious author, who, to his other accomplishments, adds that of painting, expatiates at length, and in the style of a professor, on this wonderful talent of Batoni.] [Footnote 96: The decoration of the Villa Pinciana, in which the prince Borghesi has given encouragement to so many eminent artists, is an undertaking that deserves to be immortalized in the history of art.] [Footnote 97: I refer to what I have written on the art of enamel, in the school of Ferrara, in which city the art may be said to have been revived by the Sig. Ab. Requeno. It was also greatly improved in the school of Rome, where in 1788 an entire cabinet was painted in enamel for the empress of Russia, as was publicly noticed in the _Giornale di Roma_, of the month of June. Il Sig. Consigl. Gio. Renfestein, had the commission of the work, which was executed from the designs of Hunterberger, by the Sigg. Gio. and Vincenzio Angeloni. They were both assisted in their task by the Sig. Ab. Garcia della Huerta, who greatly facilitated the inventions of Requeno, as well by his experience as by his work, intitled _Commentarj della pittura encaustica del pennello_, published in Madrid, a very learned work, and which obtained for the author from Charles IV. an annuity for life.] BOOK IV. NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL. FIRST EPOCH. We are now arrived at a school of painting which possesses indisputable proofs of having, in ancient times, ranked among the first in Italy; as in no part of that country do the remains of antiquity evince a more refined taste, no where do we find mosaics executed with more elegance,[98] nor any thing more beautiful than the subterranean chambers which are ornamented with historical designs and grotesques. The circumstance of its deriving its origin from ancient Greece, and the ancient history of design, in which we read of many of its early artists, have ennobled it above all others in Italy; and on this account we feel a greater regret at the barbarism which overwhelmed it in common with other schools. We may express a similar sentiment with regard to Sicily, which from its affinity in situation and government, I shall include in this Fourth Book; but generally in the notes.[99] That island, too, possessed many Greek colonies, who have left vases and medals of such extraordinary workmanship, that many have thought that Sicily preceded Athens in carrying this art to perfection. But to proceed to the art of painting in Naples, which is our present object, we may observe that Dominici and the other national writers, the notice of whom I shall reserve for their proper places, affirm, that that city was never wholly destitute of artists, not only in the ancient times, which Filostrato extols so highly in the proemium of his _Immagini_, but even in the dark ages. In confirmation of this, they adduce devotional pictures by anonymous artists, anterior to the year 1200; particularly