Approaching the Veronese artists and their neighbours, some of them will be found to have flourished in the beginning of the century, whose merits deserve to be here recorded. One of these is Alessandro Marchesini, pupil to Cignani, of whom there remains little exhibited in public at Venice, and not much at Verona. He chiefly employed himself for private persons, with fables and histories, consisting of small figures, in which he succeeded, though having addicted himself to these compositions as a trade, he despatched them with more facility than care. In similar little pieces Francesco Barbieri also displayed the most merit, an artist called il Legnago, from his native place. An imitator of Ricchi, and in some measure of Carpioni, he displayed great pictorial enthusiasm in every kind of history, in capricci, and in rural views; but he was inferior in point of design, having applied himself to it too late in life. Antonio Balestra of Verona was at first devoted to a mercantile life, until at the age of twenty-one, after studying in Venice under Bellucci, and thence passing to Bologna, and afterwards to Rome, under Maratta, he selected the best from every school, uniting a variety of beauties in a style of his own, which partakes least of all of the Venetian. He is an artist of judgment and high finish, well versed in design, of a rapid hand, lively and animated, but always with a solidity of talent that makes us respect him. He taught in Venice and in the college of La Carità, where he painted the Nativity of our Lord, and the Taking down from the Cross, while he competes equally well with the first artists of his time in other places. Commissions from foreign courts and the cities of the state, never allowed him to be idle. He was particularly employed at Padua in an altarpiece for the church del Santo, representing Santa Chiara. He painted also a good deal for his native place; his picture of San Vincenzo at the Domenicans,[89] being one of the finest altarpieces he ever produced, and one of the best preserved, for his method of colouring with boiled oils has been found injurious to many of his pieces. Such as he painted, however, in oil less boiled, have better resisted the effects of time. Many of these figures are in possession of the Conti Gazzola, ornamenting one of their halls, and in particular a very beautiful one of Mercury. He promoted the reputation of the Venetian School, both by his lectures and example, besides affording an excellent imitator in Gio. Batista Mariotti, and in his pupil Giuseppe Nogari, a painter of portraits, as well as of half-length figures, held in much esteem, insomuch as to recommend him, for a great length of time, to the service of the court of Turin. In pieces of composition, such as his San Piero, placed in the cathedral of Bassano, he appears a respectable artist, and somewhat ambitious of reconciling his master's style with that of Piazzetta. Another Venetian of the name of Pietro