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A1.TDORFER, ALBRKCHT. 



A I/THEN, EHAN. 



' 



By theee multi- 



I oeoupatieo* be contributed acre to th. bieBt of hi* country 

 Utaa to UM aufBMBteUoa of hi* own fortune. What he lost in wemlth 

 bowwer u made op m honour. In ITU h wa* made * member of 

 llM Council of Coasmeroa, with an understanding that be WM to giro 

 W aauo of hU Uaw to it as be could spar* from the factory at Aling- 

 eote; but be took soch u interest in the occupation that lie often 

 M* all hi* tarn* to UM Council. la 1748. when the royal order of 

 & North Star wo. institute bawaaoue of the earliest knight* ; and 



in 17il. at UM coronation of King Adolphui Frederick, be was 

 e*noUl. and also hoaound, u u customary on such occasion*, with 

 an additional syllable to bia name, which WM changed from Alstr..m 

 to Aletroaaer. From that tim* b had a great influence on all the 

 rasolutiona of UM atetoi with regard to commerce and manufacture*, 

 aud they t**tifi*d Uwir r**>rd to him on various occasions. So early 

 a* 1T, whan a grrat part of UM buildings at Alingscaa waa destroyed 

 by fire, they voted a public contribution fur their reiteration. la 

 1760 they paeud a reeolntion that a butt of Alstromer ihoul.l bo 

 Bali at UM public expense, and placed in the Exchange at Stockholm. 

 About the amme time the Academy of Science* ordered a medal to be 

 atruck in bu honour. lie did not long survive the distinction* 

 awarded him by the State* and Academy. He died on June 2, 1761. 

 Be wu twice married, and had aix ton* and two daughter*, but only 

 fear of the eooe survived him, three of whom, Patrick, August, and 

 Claa, bat more especially (.!*, rose to eminence. It ii stated by 

 Binding, that at the time of their father's death, 18,000 persona 

 were employed in the silk and woollen manufacture in Sweden. 



Alatromer was UM author of a few short works on the practical 

 question* which occupied his life. 



(Kryger, AmiiuuUc-Tui a/wr J. AUlr6mer; Roeenhsne, Anttfkninyar 

 JUrosb ttU V**ukmft-Akadcmiet Hutoria, pp. 173, 444 ; Aurivillius, 

 ChtaJeyw BMutlutn Vftatiattu, I 28 ; Hinching, IliXoriick- Liter* 

 rwefcs // u dAa, i. M.) 



ALTDORFKK, ALBRECHT, painter and engraver, and one of the 

 moat celebrated of the old Qerman masters, was bom at Altdorf in 

 Bavaria in 1468. This has been shown by Heinekcn, who acquired 

 hia information from a senator of Hegensburg (Ratisbon), who found 

 document* concerning the family of Aitdorfer in that city. Those who 

 apeak of him as a Swiss have been misled by Saiidrart, who waa the 

 originator of the error. 



Aitdorfer waa himself a member of the interior senate of Regens- 

 burg, of which city he was enrolled a burgess in 1511 ; he was also 

 architect to the city of Regensburg. He was probably the son of 

 Ulrich Aitdorfer, an arttit of Regetubnrg, wlio gave up his right of 

 burghenhip in 14V). 



Aitdorfer did not paint much, but his pictures show a surprising 

 patience and indiutry. There is in the Pinakothek at Munich a picture 

 by him, re presenting Alexander's battle of Arbela, of which the labour 

 is prodigious. It bears the date 1529 ; it is not of large dimensions, 

 bat oontatn* almost an innumerable mans of small figures, all in tlie 

 German military costume of the day, every article of dress or military 

 implement being made out with the greatest exactness ; and all the 

 various sad probable incidents of a battle profusely introduced. 

 That* is perhaps not another picture in existence which contains so 

 many figures ; the design is however strictly gothic, and Aitdorfer has 

 wholly neglected the powerful aid of serial perspective. This picture 

 waa formerly at Schleiasheim, whence it was taken by the French tu 

 Paris, and Napoleon waa so much delighted with it, that he ordered 

 it to be hung up in hia bath-room at St Cloud, when it remained 

 until 1815. Though one of the most interesting and remarkable pro- 

 ductions of German painting, it has never been engraved; the very 

 sight of it however would probably appal many engravers. His other 

 petal are in a similar style ; he eearoely ever painted large figures : 

 UM Saviour with Mary and John, St Peter, St Catherine, and another 

 saint, at UM convent of Molk, which are the sue of life, are the only 

 kaowa exceptions, and Uisae have bean attributed to Albert Durer, 

 who is supposed by some to have been the master of Aitdorfer, but 

 H ia a mere conjecture. 



are several of Altdorfer's pictures at Schleissheim, near 

 Nurnberg and Regentburg ; a Birth of Christ at 

 f Suaaanah and the Elder* in the Pinakothek at Munich. 



Aa a wood-rograver Aitdorfer is more generally known, and he is 



"' ul * A b * t Dtnt , of the old German or little masters; 

 he it called by UM French La Petit Albert : his cuts, amounting to 

 about eighty, are alight, and occasionally ill drawn, but they are 

 we"ted whfc great freedom. Holbein is said to have studied AH- 

 dorfer's cuta, which, from a certain similarity of stylo, notwithstanding 

 UM superiority of Holbein, is not Improbable. 



11 > ""tal plate* on copper and pewter are more numerous than his 

 odewta, amd amount to about 1 IS, but thev are inferior to hi, ctita 



about 1 It, but they are inferior to bis cuts, 

 id very inferior alao to UM engraving, of Durer and Aldegraver ; they 

 tj hard, occasionally very badly drawn, and generally bad 



We works he appear* to have been In earlier life 

 boot ^ 1** 1686 * " f 1 " P engraving 

 , "** * dmtod fr 1X> to Ii25, ami on two of 

 * principal picture* we have UM data* 18 and 152* : 1588, the 

 reported year of I, b death, i. found upon one picture. He lived 



chiefly at Regenaburg, and died without issue. Regensburg at one 

 time possessed many of Aitdorfer' s worlds but they have been removed 

 to Munich ; among them u nearly a complete collection of bin prints, 

 which were presented to the town library by the Stadtgerichta-Aiseaaor 

 Penchel. The subject* of Aitdorfer'* print* are historical, sacred and 

 profane, and mythological ; with a few landscapes, and some detigna 

 for goldsmiths. Heiuekeu, Huber, and Bartach have given list*, more 

 or leas complete, of Aitdorfer' s prints. 



(Sandrart, Teuttchc Academie, Ac.; Heinekrn, Dictimnairt da 

 Artuttt, Ac.; Fioriilo, (iaduchte d r /.cicluunde* KUtute, Ac. ; Huber, 

 JJaixul dtt Amatevrt, ic.; Bartaoh, Peinlre-Qrateur.) 



ALTHEN, EHAN, or JEAN, who introduced madder into France, 

 was born in Persia in 1711; died 1774. HU infancy and the first 

 years of bis life were passed amidst luxury and opulence. The son 

 of the governor of a province, he might anticipate thu most brilliant 

 future, and confidently hope to succeed to the honours of his father, 

 who had been ambassador at the court of Joseph I. of Germany. The 

 usurpation of Thamaa-Kouli-Khon overthrew the Persian empire, and 

 with it the fortunes of the Altheu family. They were all massacred, 

 with the exception of Ebon, or Jean, who escaped by flight, but only 

 to fall into the bands of a horde of Arabs, who, without pity fur hia 

 Under age, sold him into slavery. He was carried into Auaiolm, where, 

 for fourteen years, he laboured in the cultivation of madder ami K 

 cotton ; but even the hard condition of a slave could not break his 

 spirit, nor drive from his heart the remembrance of the past, and the 

 hope of a happier future. Endowed with that persevering character, 

 that true energy which obstacles only tend to stimulate, he succeeded 

 in escaping from his master's house, and took refuge in Smyrna with 

 the French consul. He was afterwards brought under the notice of 

 the French ambassador at the Porte ; the ambassador wrote to the 

 consul at Vereailleg, and Jean Althen embarked in a vessel bound for 

 Marseille. He carried with him the means of amply repaying the 

 hospitality of France : among bis modest luggage he hud secreted 

 some of the madder-seeds, taken from the soil of Smyrna. In thus 

 acting he endangered his life ; for the exportation of these pi 

 seeds was punishable with death. It so happened however that he 

 eluded all the researches of a suspicious and despotic power ; but on 

 arriving at Marseille he met with no support in that city ; and want 

 of money prevented his proceeding to Versailles, where the recom- 

 mendations of the ambassador were already forgotten. 



The Persian was not discouraged. He knew the power of an ener- 

 getic will, and trusted to time and hia own exertions. He wearied 

 the authorities with constant solicitations. But au unlooked-for event 

 promoted his views more than all his own endeavours. He was young 

 and handsome ; a young girl of Marseille fell in love with the foreigner : 

 she became his wile, and brought him a portion of a hundred thousand 

 crowns. Marriages of a nature similar to this were of frvquent occur- 

 rence, and no one in Marseille was astonished at it, Allheu embraced 

 the Catholic religion. 



He then went to Versailles ; the letters of the ambassador and the 

 consul, to which lie referred, gave him access to the ministerial saloons : 

 he even obtained an audience of Louis XV. Thin audience lasted two 

 hours, and the Persian's judicious language made a lively impression 

 on the king, who was not wanting in sense and penetration. Althen 

 gained the permission he desired. He wUhed to introduce a new 

 system for the cultivation and manufacture of silk. He began bi* 

 enterprise near Montpellier, but the prejudices of au ignorant popu- 

 lation impeded bis progress. Louis XV. forgot him ; the government, 

 absorbed in important matters, gave him no pecuniary aid. Alihi-n 

 consumed his wife's patrimony in fruitless endeavours. He wi 

 implored, he made several journeys to Versailles; he was invariably 

 repulsed. 



He returned to Marseille, In his various journeys he had several 

 times passed through the Comtat Yeiiaissin; he was struck by the 

 similarity of the nature of this soil and that of Smyrna ; the tem- 

 perature and the climate were similar, lie thought thut madder might 

 be cultivated successfully in the Comtat. With the promptitude with 

 which he carried out all his decisions, he immediately converted into 

 money the remainder of bin property and went to Avignon, which was 

 then included in the States of the Church. He there met with power- 

 ful patronage from Madame de Clausenette, who allowed him to moke 

 his first experiment on one of her estates. The cultivation of madder 

 was successful 



In 1768 another attempt at the cultivation of madder was made on 

 the left bank of the Rhone, upon an estate belonging to M. de Cau- 

 mont ; the trial was successful, but there wo* as yet no market for 

 this produce. It was the union of Avignon and the Comtat Veuaissin 

 with France, the immense rise in the cotton trade produced by the 

 continental blockade, and the development of every kind of manu- 

 facture, which caused the cultivation of madder to yield, in the 

 department of Vaucluse, on an average twenty million franca a year 

 in agricultural produce. One fact will suffice to prove the immense 

 service which Althen rendered to the Comtat The whole territory 

 of Monteux, in the arrondiasement of Carpentron, bos since increased 

 one hundred-fold in value. Althen could foresee these renult*, which 

 were fast realising, whilst his own life was closing in circumstances 

 bordering on indigence. He expired at C'uumont, leaving an only 

 daughter, who died as poor as her father. 



