Another department of the art was cultivated in a distinguished manner by Domenico Olivieri of Turin, a man born to amuse by his singular personal appearance, his lively conversation, and the humorous productions of his pencil. His cabinet pictures of spirited caricatures in the style of Laer, and other eminent Flemish artists, are well known in the collections of Piedmont. In his time the royal collection, by the death of Prince Eugene, was enriched by the addition of nearly four hundred Flemish pictures; which are still distinguishable from others by the highly finished carving and fine taste of the frames. No one profited more than Olivieri from the imitation of these works. If he had possessed the lucid clearness of their tints, he would have passed for a Flemish artist. He is happy in his subject, strong in his colours, and free in his touch. The court has two large pictures of his, crowded with figures of a span in size: one of which is a market scene, with charlatans, drawers of teeth, villagers quarrelling, and the variety of incident usually furnished by a busy assemblage of the vulgar. It might indeed, from its humour, be called a little Bernesque poem. He occasionally employed his talents in sacred subjects, as in the Miracle of the Sacrament, which he represented by a number of small figures in two pictures, which are preserved in the sacristy of the Corpus Domini. His style was inherited by one Graneri, who imitated him successfully, and died only a few years since. The court had also a painter from Prague, of the name of Francesco Antonio Meyerle, commonly called Monsieur Meyer, who did not acquire so much fame from his larger works as from his small pictures in the Flemish style: in the latter he was indeed excellent. He was also a fine painter of portraits. The Bishop of Vercelli possesses one of an old man, scrutinizing some object or other with an eye-glass, executed with great truth and humour; and in the same city, where he spent his latter days, his works are frequently met with, and the more prized the smaller they are found in size. In landscapes and other ornamental pictures, painted in a bold Venetian style, and for distant effect, a Piedmontese, of the name of Paolo Foco, distinguished himself, who lived for a long time in Casale, where the greater number of his works are to be found. He, too, attempted figures on a larger scale, but with little success. In portraits, in the time of Orlandi, a lady of the name of Anna Metrana, whose mother also was a painter, was much esteemed. In our days a similar reputation was obtained in Bologna, by Marcantonio Riverditi, of Alessandria, a very good follower of that school. He painted also in the churches in a clear chaste style, far removed from mannerism; and amongst other pictures which he painted for the church of the monks of Camoldoli, is a Conception, in which he manifested his predilection for Guido Reni. He died in the same city in the year 1774.