Her name has come down through more than two centuries as one
whose "devoted filial affection, feminine grace, and artless benignity of
manner added a lustre to her great talents, and completed a personality
which her friends regarded as an ideal of perfection."

She died very suddenly, and the cause of her death has never been known;
but the theory that she was poisoned has been generally accepted. Several
reasons for the crime have been given; one is that she was the victim of
jealous artists, as Domenichino had been; another, that a princely lover
whom she had scorned thus revenged himself. A servant-girl in her family
was suspected of the crime, tried, and banished; but after a time she was
recalled to Bologna at the request of the father of Elisabetta, for he saw
no proof of the girl's guilt. Thus the mystery was never solved, but the
whole city of Bologna was saddened by her death. The day of her burial was
one of public mourning; her funeral was attended with great pomp, and she
was buried beside Guido Reni in the splendid church of the Dominicans.
Poems and orations in her praise were numerous, and a book was published,
called "Il Penello Lagrimate," which contained these, with odes, anagrams,
and epitaphs, in both Latin and Italian, all setting forth her charms and
virtues. Her portrait in the Ercolani Gallery at Bologna represents her
when occupied in painting her father's portrait; according to this picture
she had a tall, elegant figure, and a very pretty face. She had two
sisters, Barbara and Anna Maria, who also were artists, but her fame was
so much greater than theirs that she quite overshadowed them.

The earliest master of the Naturalists was MICHAEL ANGELO AMERIGI, called
CARAVAGGIO, from the name of his birth-place (1569-1609). His life and
character was not such as to make him an attractive study. His subjects
and his manner of representing them combined in producing what has been
called "the poetry of the repulsive." He was wild in his nature and lived
a wild life. His religious subjects, even, were coarse, though his color
was vivid and his figures arranged with good effect. His "False Players"
is one of his best works; it represents two men playing cards, while a
third looks over the shoulder of one as if advising him what to play.

Naturally, his manner of painting was best suited to scenes from common
life, though he made those coarse and sometimes painful; but when he
attempted subjects of a