Note 114 — BOOK IV.

There is a different account of him in the Memorie de' Pittori Messinesi, where it is said that his true family name was Rodriguez. It is there said that he studied in Rome, and went from thence to work in Naples, in the Guida of which city he is frequently mentioned. It is added that, from his Roman style, he was called by his brother Alonso, the slave of the antique; and that he returned the compliment by calling his brother, who was instructed in Venice, the slave of nature. But Alonso, who spent his life in Sicily, surpassed his brother in reputation; and it is a rare commendation that he painted much and well. He particularly shone in the Probatica in S. Cosmo de' Medici, and the picture of two Founders of Messina in the senatorial palace, a work rewarded with a thousand scudi. His fame declined, and he began to fail in commissions on the arrival of Barbalunga. But he did not, on that account, refuse him his esteem, as he was accustomed to call him the Caracci of Sicily.