On this propitious commencement was founded the school which we call Roman, rather from the city of Rome itself, than from the people, as I have before observed. For as the inhabitants of Rome are a mixture of many tongues, and many different nations, of whom the descendants of Romulus form the least proportion; so the school of painting has been increased in its numbers by foreigners whom she has received and united to her own, and who are considered in her academy of S. Luke, as if they had been born in Rome, and enjoyed the ancient rights of Romans. Hence is derived the great variety of names that we find in the course of it. Some, as Caravaggio, derived no assistance from the study of the ancient marbles, and other aids peculiar to the capital; and these may be said to have been in the Roman School, but not to have formed a part of it. Others adopted the principles of the disciples of Raffaello, and their usual method was to study diligently both Raffaello and the ancient marbles; and from the imitation of him, and more particularly of the antique, resulted, if I err not, the general character, if I may so express it, of the Roman School: the young artists who were expert in copying statues and bassirelievi, and who had those objects always before their eyes, could easily transfer their forms to the panel or the canvas. Hence their style is formed on the antique, and their beauty is more ideal than that of other schools. This circumstance, which was an advantage to those who knew how to use it, became a disadvantage to others, leading them to give their figures the air of statues, beautiful, but isolated, and not sufficiently animated. Others have done themselves greater injury from copying the modern statues of saints; a practice which facilitated the representation of devout attitudes, the disposition of the folds in the garments of the monks and priests, and other peculiarities which are not found in ancient sculpture. But as sculpture has gradually deteriorated, it could not have any beneficial influence on the sister art; and it has hence led many into mannerism in the folds of their drapery, after Bernino and Algardi; excellent artists, but who ought not to have influenced the art of painting, as they did, in a city like Rome. The style of invention in this school is, in general, judicious, the composition chaste, the costume carefully observed, with a moderate study of ornament. I speak of pictures in oil, for the frescos of this later period ought to be separately considered. The colouring, on the whole, is not the most brilliant, nor is it yet the most feeble; there being always a supply of artists from the Lombards, or Flemings, who prevented it being entirely neglected.