In Bologna, an Italian city, there lived an old musician who had a
beautiful little boy. He taught him to sing, and play on the harp, but
Guido loved drawing better than music, and instead of practicing, made
pictures and little figures in clay.
His father thought this a waste of time, and gave him many whippings,
but nothing could prevent the little fellow from drawing. When his paper
was taken away, he marked on the walls, and after he had filled them, he
drew pictures in the dust.
But Guido’s good luck came at last. His father gave a concert at the
palace of a great lord, and Guido went with him. He met there a famous
painter, who was so pleased when he saw the boy’s pictures, that he
advised his father to let him be an artist.
To his great joy Guido was put in a studio, and studied so well, that
when he was thirteen, his master made him teach the other scholars. As
the years went by, he became a wonderful painter, and even kings paid
the highest prices for his pictures.
The crowning glory of his whole life was his famous painting of Aurora,
on the ceiling of a summer-house of a palace in Rome.
[Illustration: GUIDO RENI.]