ROSA (Salvator), an admirable painter, born at Naples in 1614. He was first instructed by Francesco Francazano, a kinsman; but the death of his father reduced him to sell drawings sketched upon paper for any thing he could get; one of which happening to fall into the hands of Lanfranc, he took him under his protection, and enabled him to enter the school of Spagnoletto, and to be taught moreover by Daniel Falcone, a distinguished painter of battles at Naples. Salvator had a fertile imagination. He studied nature with attention and judgment; and always represented her to the greatest advantage: for every tree, rock, cloud, or situation, that enters into his composition, shows an elevation of thought that extorts admiration. He was equally eminent for painting battles, animals, sea or land storms; and he executed these different subjects in such taste, as renders his works readily distinguishable from all others. His pieces are exceedingly scarce and valuable; one of the most capital is that representing Saul and the witch of Endor, which is at Versailles. He died in 1673; and as his paintings are in few hands, he is more generally known by his prints; of which he etched a great number. He painted landscapes more than history; but his prints are chiefly historical. The capital landscape of this master at Chiswick is a noble picture. However, he is said to have been ignorant of the management of light, and to have sometimes shaded faces in a disagreeable manner. He was a man of genius; of which he has given frequent specimens in his works. A roving disposition, to which he is said to have given full scope, seems to have added a wildness to all his thoughts. We are told that he spent the early part of his life in a troop of banditti; and that the rocky desolate scenes in which he was accustomed to take refuge, furnished him with those romantic ideas in landscape, of which he is so exceedingly fond; and in the description of which he so greatly excels. His robbers, as his detached figures are commonly called, are supposed also to have been taken from the life.