1/7 



ALVAREZ, DON JOSE. 



AMADEUS. 



173 



he has inserted some digressions which throw important light on the 

 history of the early discoveries under the auspices of the kings of 

 Portugal. The names of places in Abyssinia are written in the Portu- 

 guese version in a manner that corresponds pretty closely with that 

 adopted by the most recent and accurate Oriental scholars : in 

 Kamusio'g version they are much disfigured. 



The extracts from the 'Itinerary' have been made in a manner 

 which fully justifies the harsh terms In which Kamusio speaks of 

 them. They contain a good deal of the transactions of 1521, very 

 little of those of 1524, and a good deal of those of 1526. They con- 

 vey some valuable information relative to the history and constitution 

 of the Abyssinian government, and some pregnant hints respecting 

 the geography of the country. The style of the Portuguese version 

 evinces a manly and judicious spirit, that leads us to regret the loss 

 of the entire work. A search in the archives of Portugal, or the 

 library of the Vatican, might le.\d to its recovery. 



(Leon Pinello, Epitome de la, Siblioteca Oriental y Occidental,, fol. 

 Madrid, 1737 ; Damiam de Goes, Fides, Seligio, Moresque sEihiopum, 

 Ac., Paris, 1541 ; Ramusio, Viayyi e Navigatione, fol. Venice, 1613 ; 

 So Prete Joam dot Indiai, Verdadera Informacam das Terras do 

 Prate Joam segundo via e escreveo ho Padre Francisco Alvarez, Capel- 

 lam del Rey nosso Senhor. Imprests em Casa da Luis Rodriguez 

 Hvreiro de sua Alteza, fol. 1540.) 



ALVAREZ, DON JOSE, a very distinguished Spanish sculptor, 

 and one of the most eminent artists of the 1 9th century, was born at 

 Priego, in the province of Cordova, in 1768. His father was a stone- 

 mason, and Alvarez's youth was spent as a labourer, in that business, 

 aa his father was too poor to support him otherwise. He however 

 evinced au ability for sculpture at an early period, and employed what 

 time he could spare from his daily labour with a view to educate him- 

 self as a sculptor. In his twentieth year he made such progress as to 

 obtain admission into the academy of Granada, in which he soon 

 distinguished himself for his ability in modelling. A lion destroying 

 a serpent, which ho made for a fountain at Priego, obtained for him 

 the patronage of Don Antonio da Gongora, the bishop of Cordova, 

 the founder of the academy of that place, who took Alvarez into his 

 house, and caused him to be elected a member of the academy. Not- 

 withstanding his proficiency however, in 1794 he left Cordova and 

 entered as a student into the academy of San Fernando at Madrid, of 

 which as ' the Andalusian ' he soon became the most distinguished 

 student. He obtained the first prize of the academy, for a basso- 

 rilievo of the procession of Ferdinand I. and his sons carrying bare- 

 footed the miraculously discovered body of St. Isidore to the church 

 of San Juan de Leon. 



In 1799 ho was granted a pension of 12,000 reals by Charles IV. to 

 enable him to prosecute his studies in Paris and in Rome. In Paris 

 he paid great attention to anatomy, and studied in the public dissect- 

 ing-rooms ; and he gained there additional academical honours. He 

 obtained the second great prize in sculpture awarded by the Institute. 

 Alvarez was a devoted admirer of the sculptures of the Parthenon 

 which Choiseul Cloudier had brought to Paris from Constantinople ; 

 he made many drawings of them, and his improved taste was manifest 

 in a statue of Ganymede, which he made in 1804, and by which he 

 acquired the reputation of one of the first of modern sculptors. 

 Napoleon I., then emperor, paid two visits to the studio of Alvarez, 

 and presented him with a gold medal of the value of 500 francs. 

 Notwithstanding this personal honour, Napoleon's after-conduct 

 regarding Spain excited in Alvarez an invincible aversion to him ; he 

 would never model his bust, and when Joseph Bonaparte was pro- 

 claimed King of Spain, Alvarez, then at Rome, was imprisoned in the 

 castle of St. Angela for refusing, as a pensioner of the Spanish govern- 

 ment, to take the oath of allegiance to the new king ; he was however 

 released shortly afterwards. After the completion of his statue of 

 Ganymede, Alvarez's pension was increased to 28,000 reals, and he 

 left Paris for Rome, where he thenceforth chiefly resided. In Rome 

 he executed or modelled many much-admired works, the best of which 

 was a group of Autilochua and Memnon in 1818, for which he was 

 nominated court-sculptor by Ferdinand VII., who commissioned him 

 to execute the group in marble : it is now in Madrid. 



In 1825 he was appointed principal sculptor to the king of Spam, 

 and was decorated with the cross of Civil Merit. In 1826 he visited 

 Madrid for the purpose of selecting the best statues and other sculp- 

 tures in the king's palaces to be placed together in the museum of the 

 Prado ; but be died within twelve months of his arrival, in the 60th 

 year of his age. From his office, the circumstances connected with 

 his death, and the honourable commiaion about which he was engaged, 

 it is evident that the reports which appeared ii the French newspapers 

 at the time of his death about his extreme poverty bordering upon 

 destitution must be fulse. There are many of his works at Madrid ; 

 several from ancient mythology, some full-length statues, and a few 

 busts. Busts he did not willingly model, but the few he did are 

 reputed excellent likenesses, and among them are those of Rossini, 

 the composer, and Ceau Bermudez, the author of the ' Dictionary of 

 Spanish Artists.' 



It is generally admitted that Alvarez excelled in many qualities of 

 a high ordt r in invention, in expression, and in design ; and he is by 

 his admirers compared with Canova. That he is less generally known 

 than many of his more fortunate or more renowned contemporaries, 



BIO'J. DIV. VOL. I. 



is probably more owing to an ignorauce of his works than to their 

 inferiority. He was a member of the Institute of France, of the 

 Academy of St. Luke of Rome, and of the academies of Carrara and 

 Naples. He left three eons, who were allowed to retain a portion of 

 their father's pension. The eldest, who promised to be a sculptor of 

 ability, died at Burgos in 1830, in his 25th year. 



There was another distinguished Spanish sculptor of this name, 

 Don Manuel Alvarez, who was born at Salamanca in 1727. After 

 acquiring the rudiments of his art with two sculptors of Salamanca 

 he repaired to Madrid, and became the pupil of Don Felipe de Castro, 

 the king's sculptor, whom he assisted in many of his works. He 

 obtained the first prize of the academy of San Fernando in 1754, by 

 which he was entitled to study in Rome, with a pension from the 

 Spanish government ; but he declined the advantage on account of 

 the weak state of his health. In 1757 he was elected a member, in 

 1762 Vice-Director, in 1786 Director of the Academy of San Fer- 

 nando ; and in 1794 sculptor to the king. He died in 1797, generally 

 regretted, in the 70th year of his age. His statues and busts are very 

 numerous in the churches, palaces, and monasteries of Spain, espe- 

 cially at Salamanca, Toledo, Zaragoza, and Madrid. Alvarez was 

 commonly called by his fellow artists El Griego, or 'the Greek,' on 

 account of the purity and vigour of his design, and his accuracy of 

 execution a great compliment. 



(Archive filr Geschichte, &o., 1829, No. 15 ; Seminario Pintoresco 

 Espanol, No. 52 ; Cean Bermudez, Diccionario Historic*) de los mas 

 Ilmtres Profesoret de las Bellas Artes en Eipana.) 



ALYATTES, a king of Lydia, the father of Crcesus, who seems to have 

 been some time associated with him in the government ; he died about 

 B.O. 562, after a reign of fifty-seven years. On his accession he con- 

 tinued a war with Miletus, which was left unfinished by his father 

 Ludyattes. In the fifth year of the conflict a temple of Minerva was 

 burnt by him. Soon after he sent for advice under sickness to the 

 oracle at Delphi, but was refused a response till the temple was 

 restored. He rebuilt the temple, recovered from his sickness, and 

 made peace with Miletus. From B.C. 590 he was engaged during five 

 years in a war with Cyaxares, king of Media, in consequence of 

 receiving some Scythians who had offended that monarch. In the 

 course of hostilities Alyattes expelled the Cimmerians from Asia, 

 captured Smyrna, and attacked Clazomence. A battle between the 

 forces of the three kings was interrupted by an eclipse of the sun. 

 This event led to a peace, which was consummated by a marriage 

 between Aryenis, the daughter of the Lydian king, and Astyages, the 

 son of Cyaxares. The place where the eclipse was seen is uot men- 

 tioned by Herodotus; but we may fairly conjecture it was in the 

 upper latitudes of Asia Minor, and between the Halys and the higher 

 waters of the Euphrates. This eclipse was predicted by Thales of 

 Miletus, but all that the historian can be made to signify is that hu 

 predicted the year. 



Near the Lake Gygoca, which is a few miles north of Sardis, now 

 Sartis, in Asia Minor, is still seen the immense mound of earth which 

 was raised to his memory. Herodotus, who gives the first account of 

 it (i. 93), says, that the circuit round the base was 3800 Greek feet, 

 and the width 2600 feet; the height is not given. It rested on a 

 foundation of great stones, which are now covered by the earth that 

 has fallen down ; but the mound still retains its conical form, and 

 rises up like a natural hill. 



AMADEUS (Ital. Amedeo), the name of nine sovereigns of Savoy. 

 Amadeui I. was count of Maurienne in Savoy ; it is uncertain whether 

 he survived his father, Humbert the Whitehanded, who was living iu 

 1030; but he styled himself count in an undated deed, and is reckoned 

 by historians among the ancestors of the house of Savoy. Amadeus If. 

 was the nephew of the preceding, the second son of Oddo, count of 

 Maurienne, and of Adelaide, marchioness of Susa, with whom, after 

 his father's death, he governed the territories, and who survived him. 

 He died in 1078. Amadeus III. succeeded his father, Humbert II., 

 in 1103; joined in the crusade with Louis VII. of France, and died 

 in Cyprus on his return in 1148. Amadeus IV., born in 1197, suc- 

 ceeded his father Tomaso I. in 1233 ; he considerably increased his 

 possessions, and died in 1253. His brother Peter was long in England, 

 being uncle to Eleanor, queen of Henry III., by whom he was made 

 Earl of Richmond, and built the Savoy palace in London. Amadeus V., 

 born in 1249, succeeded his uncle Fiiippo in 1285; he acquired the 

 county of Bresse and the district of Asti ; he died in 1323. 

 Amadeus VI., 'the Green Count,' born in 1334, succeeded his father 

 1343 ; he defeated the French at Arbrette in 1354 ; he nearly doubled 

 his territories in Piedmont, and extended them in other directions ; 

 he died in 1383. Amadeus VII., ' the Red Count,' born in 1360, suc- 

 ceeded his father in 1383 ; he acquired Nice in 1388, and died in 1391. 

 Amadeus VIII., born in 1383, succeeded his father 1391. By the 

 extension of various branches of his family, whose possessions he 

 inherited, he came to rank among the great powers of Europe, and 

 was created Duke of Savoy, 1416. He was the legislator of his 

 dominions, and published a code in 1430 called 'Statuta Sabaudiso.' 

 In 1434 he resigned the sovereignty, and retired to a monastery at 

 Ripaille. In 1439 he wts elected Pope, and proclaimed as Felix V. ; 

 this occasioned a schism which lasted till 1449, when he resigned the 

 papacy, and again retired to Ripaille. He died in 1451. Amadeus IX., 

 bom in 1435, succeeded his father Louis, son of Amadous VIII., in 



