In the time of Giordano and Solimene, Niccola Massaro was considered a good landscape painter. He was a scholar of Salvator Rosa, but rather imitated him in design than in colour. In the latter he was insipid, nor even added the accompaniment of figures to his landscapes, but was assisted in that respect by Antonio di Simone, not a finished artist, but of some merit in battle pieces.[125] Massaro instructed Gaetano Martoriello, who was a landscape painter of a free style, but often sketching, and his colouring not true to nature. In the opinion of connoisseurs a better style was displayed by Bernardo Dominici, the historiographer, and the scholar of Beych in landscape, a careful and minute painter of Flemish subjects and _bambocciate_. There were two Neapolitans, Ferraiuoli and Sammartino, who settled in Romagna, and were good landscape painters. In perspective views Moscatiello was distinguished, as we observed, when we spoke of Giordano. In the life of Solimene, Arcangelo Guglielmelli is mentioned as skilled in the same art. Domenico Brandi of Naples, and Giuseppe Tassoni of Rome, were rivals in animal painting. In this branch, and also in flowers and fruits, one Paoluccio Cattamara, who flourished in the time of Orlandi, was celebrated. Lionardo Coccorante, and Gabriele Ricciardelli, the scholar of Orizzonte, were distinguished in seaviews and landscapes, and were employed at the court of King Charles of Bourbon.[126] By the accession of this prince, a munificent patron of the fine arts, wherever he reigned, the Neapolitan School was regenerated and invigorated; employment and rewards awaited the artists; the specimens of other schools were multiplied, and Mengs, who was invited to paint the Royal Family, and a large cabinet picture, laid the foundations of a more solid style, at the same time improving his own fortune, and giving a considerable impulse to art. But the greatest benefit this monarch has conferred on the arts is to be found at Ercolano, where under his orders so many specimens of sculpture and ancient paintings, buried for a long lapse of ages, have been brought to light, and by his direction accurately drawn and engraved, and illustrated with learned notes, and communicated to all countries. Lastly, in order that the benefits which he had conferred on his own age, might be continued to the future masters of his country, he turned his attention to the education of youthful artists. Of this fact I was ignorant at the time of my first edition, but now write on the information afforded me at the request of the Marchese D. Francesco Taccone, treasurer of the kingdom, by the very learned Sig. Daniele, Regio Antiquario, both of whom, with truly patriotic feelings, have devoted themselves to the preservation of the antiquities of their country, and are equally polite in communicating to others that information for which they are themselves so distinguished. There formerly existed at Naples the academy of S. Luke, founded at the