Add to these the name of the only woman who was ever known to have been a practical architect. This was Plautilla Brizio, who has left monuments of her excellence in that species of art in a small palace before Porta San Pancrazio, and in the chapel of St. Benedict, in San Luigi dei Francesi. In the latter is a picture painted by her hand. The villa Giraldi, near Rome, is the joint work of this lady and her brother. The female sculptor Maria Domenici, who pursued her profession in Rome, was a native of Naples. Passing over many of the Italian cities, and attempting no sketch of the peculiarities of the school of Venice, we find there several not insignificant women artists. Paolina Grandi, Elisabetta Lazzarini, and Damina Damini were known as painters, and Domenia Luisa Rialto as an engraver on copper. The sisters Carlotta and Gabriella Patin enjoyed celebrity for both learning and artistic skill. They lived at Pavia, and were members of the Academy dei Ricovrati. The four daughters of the Venetian painter Niccolo Renieri, who practiced the same art, should be mentioned. Anna, the eldest, became the wife of Antoine Vandyck. Chiara Varotari was so highly esteemed by those who knew her, that a niche was assigned her by contemporaries equal to that of Maria Robusti in the sixteenth century. She was daughter and pupil of Dario Varotari, and the sister of that Alessandro Varotari who became so noted as a painter, under the name Padovanino. Chiara frequently shared in the execution of his works. She was not less praised for her beauty, and her skill as a tender nurse of the sick. Her triumphs over the discomfort of disease were signal, in that field where female prowess so often achieves its deeds of heroism. Such conquests are seldom recorded by the historian’s pen; but it is pleasant for once to rescue them from oblivion. Honors were conferred on her by the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, who placed her portrait in his collection. This artist numbered among her pupils Lucia Scaligeri and Caterina Taraboti. Boschini thinks she gave public instruction, like Sirani. She died, full of years, in 1660, ten years after the brother whose labors she had aided. Anna Maria Vajani, who engraved in Rome in the middle of this century, executed a part of the plates for the Justinian Gallery. Laura Bernasconi imitated the famous flower-painter Mario Mizzi, called “Mario dai fiori.” With his coloring she had also his defects. Maria Vittoria Cassana was the sister of two painters, and painted chiefly devotional pieces, in little. She died 1711. Lucia Casalina, a disciple of Giuseppe dal Sole, turned her attention to portraits. Angelica Veronica Airola, a Genoese, studied painting under Domenico Fiasella. She painted religious pictures for the convents and churches of Genoa, and became a nun of the order of St. Bartholomew della Fiavella. Soprani and others mention her.