Note 23 — BOOK III. (continued 2)

It must be observed that the two younger Caracci visited Rome, where they continued to instruct their pupils on the same plan. Passeri, in his life of Guido, says, that they were joined by literary men, who proposed history-pieces to them, with premiums for such as should be best executed; and that on one occasion Domenichino, one of the youngest, being preferred above all, Guido was seized with the most lively emulation to eclipse him. The historian adds, that the same method was soon adopted in the Roman academy, and that Car. Barberini, nephew to Urban VIII., presided at the election of the first, and rewarded him with money, and those that next followed, to the fourth member. Moreover he gave the first a commission for a picture from the same subject as the design. What a secret is here shewn for promoting the fine arts.