Gio. Batista Castello, the companion of Cambiaso, is commonly called in Genoa Il Bergamasco, to distinguish him from Gio. Batista Castello, a Genoese, a scholar of Cambiaso, and the most celebrated miniature painter of his age. Our present subject, born in Bergamo, and brought, when a youth, to Genoa, by Aurelio Buso, (_v._ vol. iii. page 184) was, on his sudden departure, left by him in that city. In this state of desertion he found a patron in one of the Pallavicini family, who gave him a friendly reception, and assisted him with the means of prosecuting his studies; sending him to Rome, from whence he returned to Genoa an accomplished architect, sculptor, and painter, not inferior to Cambiaso. His taste, formed by studying at Rome, was similar to that of Luca, as I have already observed; and in the church of S. Matteo are works painted by them in concert. We may observe in these the style of Raffaello already verging on mannerism, but not so much so as that which prevailed in Rome in the time of Gregory and Sixtus. Connoisseurs discover in Cambiaso a greater genius and more elegance of design; in the Bergamese more care, a deeper knowledge, and colour occasionally partaking more of the school of Venice than of Rome. It is however very probable that when so friendly an intercourse subsisted they may have aided each other, even in those places where they worked in competition, where each claimed his own work, and distinguished it by his name. Thus at the Nunziata di Portoria Luca represented on the walls the final state of the blest and the rejected in the last judgment; while Gio. Batista, in the vault, painted the Supreme Judge in the midst of the angelic choir, calling the elect to bliss. He appears in the attitude of uttering the words _Venite benedicti_, appended in capital letters. It is a highly finished performance, and of so exalted a character that we should think that Luca, when he painted the laterals to it, was asleep, so inferior are they in composition and expression. On many other occasions he painted alone, as the S. Jerome surrounded by monks terrified at a lion, in S. Francesco in Castelletto; and the S. Sebastian in the church of that saint, receiving the crown of martyrdom; a picture rich in composition, studied in execution, and far beyond any commendation of mine. He painted in Genoa other pictures, and always discovered an air of life in the countenances, a magnificence in the architecture, a strength of colour and chiaroscuro, which makes one regret that he was so little known in Italy; and possibly he was prevented from being known as an oil painter by the numerous works in fresco which he executed in Genoa; the largest of which is in the Palazzo Grillo. We there see a portico painted in arabesque, and a saloon, in the ceiling of which is represented the banquet given by Dido to Æneas; a beautiful work, particularly the arabesques, but not sufficiently studied. This artist, in his latter years,