CHARLES ALPHONSE DU FRESNOY was born at Paris
in the year 1611. His father, who was an eminent
apothecary in that city, intending him for the profession
of physic, gave him as good an education as possible.
During the first year, which he spent at the college, he
made a very
considerable progress in his studies: but as
soon as he was raised to the higher classes, and began to
contract a taste of poetry, his genius for it opened itself,
and he carried all the prizes in it, which were proposed
to excite the emulation of his fellow-students. His in-
clination for it was heightened by exercise; and his
earliest performances showed, that he was capable of
becoming one of the greatest poets of his age, if his love
of painting, which equally possessed him, had not divided
his time and application. At last, he laid aside all
thoughts of the study of physic, and declared absolutely
for that of painting, notwithstanding the opposition of

his parents, who, by all kinds of severity, endeavoured to divert him from pursuing his passion for that art, the profession of which they unjustly considered in a very contemptible light. But the strength of his inclination defeating all the measures taken to suppress it, he took the first opportunity of cultivating his favourite study.

He was nineteen or twenty years of age when he began to learn to design under Francis Perier; and having spent two years in the school of that painter, and of Simon Voüet, he thought proper to take a journey into Italy, where he arrived in the end of 1633, or the beginning of 1634.

As he had, during his studies, applied himself very much to that of geometry, he began, upon his coming to Rome, to paint landscapes, buildings, and ancient ruins. But, for the first two years of his residence in that city, he had the utmost difficulty to support himself, being abandoned by his parents, who resented his having rejected their advice in the choice of his profession; and the little stock of money which he had provided before he left France, proving scarce sufficient for the expenses of his journey to Italy. Being destitute, therefore, of friends and acquaintance at Rome, he was reduced to such distress, that his chief subsistence for the greatest part of that time was bread and a small quantity of cheese. But he diverted the sense of uneasy

circumstances by an intense and indefatigable application to painting, till the arrival of the celebrated Peter Mignard, who had been the companion of his studies under Voüet, set him more at ease. They immediately engaged in the strictest friendship, living together in the same house, and being commonly known at Rome by the name of the INSEPARABLES, they were employed by the Cardinal of Lyons in copying all the best pieces in the Farnese palace. But their principal study was the works of Raffaelle and other great masters, and the antiques; and they were constant in their attendance every evening at the academy, in designing after models. Mignard had superior talents in practice; but Du Fresnoy was a greater master of the rules, history, and theory of his profession. They communicated to each other their remarks and sentiments; Du Fresnoy furnishing his friend with noble and excellent ideas, and the latter instructing the former to paint with greater expedition and ease.

Poetry shared with painting the time and thoughts of Du Fresnoy, who, as he penetrated into the secrets of the latter art, wrote down his observations; and having at last acquired a full knowledge of the subject, formed a design of writing a poem upon it, which he did not finish till many years afterwards, when he had consulted the best writers, and examined with the utmost care the most admired pictures in Italy.

While he resided there he painted several pictures, particularly the ruins of the Campo Vaccino, with the city of Rome in the figure of a woman; a young woman of Athens going to see the monument of a lover;. Eneas carrying his father to his tomb; Mars finding Lavinia sleeping on the banks of the Tyber descending from his chariot, and lifting up the veil which covered her, which is one of his best pieces: the birth of Venus, and that of Cupid. He had a peculiar esteem for the works of Titian, several of which he copied, imitating that excellent painter in his colouring, as he did Caracci in his design.

About the year 1653, he went with Mignard to Venice, and travelled throughout Lombardy; and during his stay in that city painted a Venus for Signor Mark Paruta, a noble Venetian, and a Madonna, a halflength. These pictures showed that he had not studied those of Titian without success. Here the two friends separated, Mignard returning to Rome, and Du Fresnoy to France. He had read his poem to the best painters in all places through which he passed, and particularly

*This is the account of Mons. Felibien, Entretiens sur les Vies et sur les Ouvrages des plus excellens Peintres, tom. II. edit. Lond. 1705, p. 333. But the late author of Abregé de la Vie des plus fameux Peintres, part. 11. p. 284, edit. Par. 1745, in 4to. says, that Fresnoy went to Venice, without Mignard; and that the latter, being importuned by the letters of the former, made a visit to him in that city.

to Albano and Guercino, then at Bologna; and he consulted several men famous for their skill in polite literature.

He arrived at Paris in 1656, where he lodged with Mons. Potel, Greffier of the Council, in the street Beautreillis, where he painted a small room; afterwards a picture for the altar of the church of St. Margaret in the suburb St. Antoine. Mons. Bordier, Intendant of the Finances, who was then finishing his house of Rinci, now Livry, having seen this picture, was so highly pleased with it, that he took Du Fresnoy to that house, which is but two leagues from Paris, to paint the Salon. In the ceiling was represented the burning of Troy; Venus is standing by Paris, who makes her remark how the fire consumes that great city; in the front is the god of the river, which runs by it, and other deities; this is one of his best performances, both for disposition and colouring. He afterwards painted a considerable number of pictures for the cabinets of the curious, particularly an altar-piece for the church of Lagni, representing the Assumption of the Virgin and the Twelve Apostles, all as large as life. At the Hotel d'Erval (now d'Armenonville) he painted several pictures, and among them a ceiling of a room with four beautiful landscapes, the figures of which were by Mignard. As he understood' architecture very well, he drew for Mons. de Vilargelé all the designs of a house which that gentleman built four leagues from Avignon ; C

VOL. III.