(Peter), called Tempesta and Pietro Mulier, an eminent painter, was born at Haerlem in 1637. According to some authors, he was the disciple of Snyder, whose manner of painting he at first imitated. But his genius led him to the study of dismal subjects; and he so far excelled in painting tempests, storms at sea, and shipwrecks, that he was called by way of distinction Tempesta. His pictures are very rare, and held in the greatest estimation. The name of Pietro Mulier, or de Mulieribus, was given him on account of having caused his wife to be assassinated, in order to marry a young lady of Genoa with whom he was in love. But this villainous transaction being discovered, he was seized, imprisoned, and capitally condemned. However, the greatness of his merit as an artist occasioned a mitigation of the sentence; but he was still detained in prison, where he diligently followed his profession, and would have continued there in all probability for life, had he not met with an opportunity of escaping to Placentia, at the time Louis XIV. bombarded the city of Genoa, after he had been in confinement 16 years. To this artist are attributed several very neat prints, executed with the graver only, in a style greatly resembling that of John Vander Velde. They consist chiefly of candle-light pieces and dark subjects. M. Heineken mentions Peter Molyn the elder, who was a native of Holland, and a painter; but not so eminent as Tempesta. Some suppose the prints above mentioned ought to be ascribed to the latter; as, though very neatly executed, they are laboured heavy performances, and not equal in any degree to what one might expect from the hand of an artist of so much repute as Tempesta.