Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/619

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
PAL. PAM. PAN. PAO.
597

feeling. She was, at the time of her decease, engaged in a work entitled "The Government of the Thoughts," which was praised, in high terms, by Dr. Fell; but this work she did not finish. Lady Pakington had received a learned education, which was not at that time uncommon to give to women of high rank; that she used her talents and learning wisely and well, we have this testimony in the writings of Dr. Fell. He says of her, "Lady Pakington was wise, humble, temperate, chaste, patient, charitable, and devout; she lived a whole age of great austerities, and maintained in the midst of them an undisturbed serenity." She died May 10th., 1679.

PALADINI, ARCHANGELA,

An Italian historical painter, was born at Pisa, in 1599, and died in 1622, aged twenty-three. She was the daughter of Filippo Paladini, an eminent artist of that city, who instructed her in the art. She attained great excellence in portrait-painting, and also excelled in embroidery and music, and sang exquisitely. These uncommon talents, united with an agreeable person, procured her the friendship of Maria Magdalena, archduchess of Austria, who lived at Florence, and in whose court this artist spent the last years of her life.

PAMPHILA,

A Grecian authoress, who flourished in Nero's reign, and wrote a general history in thirty-three books, much commended by the ancients, but not extant. She died in the first century after Christ.

PANTHEA,

Wife of Abradatas, King of the Lusians, was taken prisoner by Cyrus the Great. Though the most beautiful woman of her time, Cyrus treated her with a delicacy and forbearance very unusual in those times, and permitted her to send for her husband. Out of gratitude to Cyrus, Abradatas became his ally, and was slain while fighting for him against the Egyptians. Panthea killed herself on the dead body of her husband, and was buried in the same grave.

PANZACCHIA, MARIA ELENA,

Was born at Bologna, in 1668, of a noble family. She learned design under Emilio Taruffl, and in a few years acquired great readiness in composition, correctness of outline, and,a lovely tint of colouring. Besides history, she also excelled in painting landscapes; and by the beauty of her situations and distances, allured and entertained the eye of every beholder. The figures which she inserted had abundance of grace; she designed them with becoming attitudes, and gave them a lively and natural expression. Her merit was incontestably acknowledged, and her works were so much prized as to be exceedingly scarce, few being found out of Bologna. She died in 1709.

PAOLINI, MASSIMI PETRONELLA,

Of Tagliacozzo, a province of Aquila, was born in 1663. She passed her life principally at Rome, and dedicated it to the cultivation of letters. She wrote in prose and in verse with facility and elegance. She has been eulogized by Crescembini, by Muratori, and by Salvinl, and was a member of the Arcadia, under the name