(Charles Alphonse), an excellent poet and painter, was born at Paris in 1611. He was instructed there by Perrier and Simon Vouet, but did not long adhere to Vouet's manner of colouring; for as soon as he fixed himself at Rome, he made the works of Titian the models for his imitation. He was, however, more celebrated as a poet than as a painter; and bestowed more attention to the theory than to the practice of the pencil. Accordingly, he is better known by his incomparable poem De arte graphica, than by his performances on the canvas; and on this poem he bestowed so much pains, that he died in 1665, before it was published. It was printed afterward, with a French prose translation and notes, by M. de Piles; and was translated into English by Mr Dryden, who prefixed to it an original preface containing a parallel between painting and poetry.