An only child, Angelica’s early years were tended by the care of loving parents; and the grandeur and beauty of nature around her home, the vine-clad hills and wild forests of her native land, the blue waters and bright scenery she was accustomed to contemplate in Italy, impressed her susceptible imagination, and awakened in her youthful breast a quick and joyous sympathy with nature. Though not specially intended by her father for the artist’s calling, the early impulse of genius led her to painting, and she was permitted to follow the bent of her inclination with such direction only as made the work appointed her seem like a pleasant recreation. She preferred her lessons, in fact, to any amusement. Very different was the early training of this gentle spirit to that of Raphael Mengs, compelled to labor under strict rules; and though Angelica afterward adopted the style of this celebrated German master, hers differed in the possession of a light and charming grace, which could only have been derived from her native endowments and the free indulgence of her tastes. At the age of nine this child of genius was much noticed on account of her wonderful pastel pictures. When her father left Morbegno, in 1752, to reside in Como, she found greater scope for her ingenious talent, and better instruction in that city; and, in addition to her practice with the brush and pencil, she devoted herself to studies in general literature and in music. Her proficiency in the latter was so rapid, and the talent evinced so decided, besides the possession of a voice unusually fine, that her friends, a few years afterward, urged that her life should be devoted to music. She was herself undecided for some time to which vocation she should consecrate her powers. In one of her pictures she represents herself standing, in an attitude of hesitation, between the allegorical figures of Music and Painting. Her love for the latter gained the ascendency; and so great was her success, while yet of tender age, that her portrait of a steward of the Bishop of Como gained her a number of profitable orders. The exquisite natural scenery by which Angelica was at this time surrounded, in a home on the borders of the loveliest lake in the world, had a genial influence on her feelings, and the time passed there was the happiest of her life. She is said to have painted the portrait of the Archbishop of Como, at a very early age. At a later period she recurs with pleasure to the years passed in this charming abode.