HAMILTON, Gavin, a distinguished Scottish painter, was born at Lanark in the course of the first half of the eighteenth century. At an early age he was sent to Rome, where he studied art under Massucci. The highest qualities of a great painter—invention, purity, and correctness of style, and the secret of colour, he undoubtedly lacked. No small part of his merit lies in his choice of subject, to which he was helped by his fine taste and his deep knowledge of classical literature. His best pieces are designs from the Iliad, such as "Achilles beside the dead body of Patroclus;" "Andromache bewailing the death of Hector;" "Helen and Paris." Hamilton, however, has rendered greater services to art by his discoveries of precious fragments of ancient monuments than by his direct contributions to it. The latter part of his life was devoted to researches of this kind, which he prosecuted in various parts of the Roman States, but especially at Civita Vecchia, Velletri, Ostia, and above all at Hadrian's Villa, at Tivoli. The statues, busts, and bas-reliefs found by him form the most interesting portion of the Museo Clementino after the treasures of the Belvedere. Many collections in England, Germany, and Russia, owe their chief ornaments to his labours. To one of the best of these—the Townley Gallery—Hamilton contributed a large number of valuable marbles, a list of which is given in the Townley Gallery, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Fuseli, giving expression to the feelings of all who knew Hamilton, declares that however great his talents may have been, they were far surpassed by the generosity, benevolence, and humanity of his character. The only work known to have proceeded from his pen is his Schola Italica Pictura, Rome, 1773, in which he traces the progress of the different styles of the Italian school from Da Vinci down to the Caracci.