The other great colourist and scholar of Sorri was Bernardo Strozzi, better known under the name of the Capuchin of Genoa, from his professing that order. He is also called _il Prete Genovese_, because he left the cloister, when a priest, to contribute to the support of an aged mother and a sister; but the one dying and the other marrying, he refused to return to his order; and being afterwards forcibly recalled to it and sentenced to three years of imprisonment, he contrived to make his escape, fled to Venice, and there passed the remainder of his days as a secular priest. The larger compositions of this artist are only to be seen in Genoa, in the houses of the nobility, and in San Domenico, where he executed the great picture of the Paradiso, which is one of the best conceived that I have seen. There too, in Novi and in Voltri, are various altar-pieces; and above all, an admirable Madonna in Genoa, in a room of the Palazzo Reale. Some of his works are also to be seen in Venice, where Strozzi was preferred to every other artist, to replace a _Tondo_, executed in the best age of Venetian art, in the library of St. Mark, and there painted a figure of Sculpture. He, however, left few public works. Whoever wishes to see admirable productions, must observe his pictures in eminent collections; as the St. Thomas Incredulous, in the Palazzo Brignole. When placed in a room of excellent colourists he eclipses them all by the majesty, copiousness, vigour, nature, and harmony of his style. His design is not very correct, nor sufficiently select; we there see a naturalist who follows neither Sorri nor any other master; but one who, after the example of that ancient master, derives instruction from the multitude. There is a deep expression of force and energy in the heads of his men, and of piety in those of his saints. In the countenances of his women and his youths he has less merit; and I have seen some of his Madonnas and angels vulgar and often repeated. He was accustomed to paint portraits, and in his compositions derived all his knowledge from the study of nature; and often painted half figures in the style of Caravaggio. The royal gallery at Florence has a Christ by him, called _della Moneta_; the figures half-size, and exhibiting great vivacity. He is esteemed the most spirited artist of his own school; and in strong impasto, in richness and vigour of colour, has few rivals in any other; or rather, in this style of colouring he is original and without example. His remains were deposited at S. Fosca in Venice, with this inscription: _Bernardus Strozzius Pictorum splendor, Liguriæ decus_; and it is his great praise to have merited this encomium in the seat and near the ashes of the greatest colourists.