The first who attached themselves to Perino for instruction, were Lazzaro and Pantaleo Calvi, the sons and scholars of an Agostino Calvi, a good painter in the old style, and one of the first in Genoa who forsook the gold ground for one of colour. Lazzaro was at that time twenty-five years of age, his brother somewhat more; nor did the latter rise in reputation, except in lending to the works of Lazzaro his aid and his name. These works abounded in Genoa and her territories, at Monaco and at Naples, in every variety of composition, arabesques, and stuccos with which are decorated palaces and churches. Some of these are excellent, as the façades of the palace Doria, (now Spinola,) with prisoners in various attitudes, considered as a school of design; and several historical compositions in colours and chiaroscuro, in the best taste.[66] In the palace Pallavicini, at Zerbino, is a composition of theirs commonly called the Continence of Scipio; a remark which I owe to Sig. Ratti, who not having included it in his edition of 1768, obligingly communicated it to me for this work. To this they also added naked figures, with so happy an imitation of Perino that, in the opinion of Mengs, they might be adjudged to that master. Moreover, we know that Perino was liberal to them in designs and cartoons; whence, in these better works, we may always presume on the aid of the master's hand. However it might be, Lazzaro indulged in a self-conceit of his own powers, and left behind some specimens of an extravagance which no painter has since followed, except Corenzio. He was particularly jealous of any young artist, who he thought might interfere with his fame or interests, and to gratify his envy had recourse to the blackest arts. One of these rivals, Giacomo Bargone, he took off by poison; and to depress the others he drew around himself a crowd of adherents and hirelings, who influenced the opinion of the vulgar, by praising the works of Lazzaro to the skies, and depreciating those of his competitors. These cabals were more strongly instanced in the chapel Centurioni, where he painted the Birth of St. John, in competition with Andrea Semini and Luca Cambiaso, who there also painted other pictures from the history of that saint. This work was one of his happiest efforts, and the most approaching to the style of his master; but he could not crush the genius of Cambiaso, which after this occasion appeared more brilliant than his own; whence the Prince Doria selected that artist to execute a very considerable work in fresco for the church of S. Matteo. This so enraged Calvi, that he gave himself up to a sea life, and abandoned the pencil for twenty years. He ultimately resumed it, and continued, though with a hardness of style, to paint till his eighty-fifth year. One of his last works is to be seen on the walls and in the cupola of S. Catherine; but it is cold, meagre, and bears all the marks of senility.