At the time of Salvator Rosa's return to Rome says Pascoli, he figured
away as the _great painter_, opening his house to all his friends, who
came from all parts to visit him, and among others, Antonio Abbati, who
had resided for many years in Germany. This old acquaintance of the poor
Salvatoriello of the Chiesa della Morte at Viterbo, was not a little
amazed to find his patient and humble auditor of former times one of the
most distinguished geniuses and hospitable Amphitryons of the day.
Pascoli gives a curious picture of the prevailing pedantry of the times,
by describing a discourse of Antonio Abbati's at Salvator's
dinner-table, on the superior merits of the ancient painters over the
moderns, in which he "bestowed all the tediousness" of his erudition on
the company. Salvator answered him in his own style, and having
overturned all his arguments in favor of antiquity with more learning
than they had been supported, ended with an impromptu epigram, in his
usual way, which brought the laugher's on his side.