AMILCAlt 



AMMAXATI, BARTOLOMEO. 



i vi 



AsBiMdf* fiexinse ar* purely ornamental, mere variegated deoo- 

 ralioa* H* painted some .uu.ll oonvsnatioo piece* in the stj le of 

 soot* of the baton painter*, which Laoxi prefers to his larger 

 wurk*. Of Ih* latter, one of the best is a Vuitat ion, at the Padri 

 di San KUippo at Venice. Th* print* after Aiuigoui aro very 



(Zaoetti, 1>M PHtmr* Vnniumf, Iu.; Bermudea, ftiecionano 

 //Mtrio. fte.: WalpoU, Jmafiln / Pituy w Aiglamd, tut.; 

 Laaa. fe*rM. /V//ora, Ac. : Haneken, DictimaHurt da Artukt, Ac.) 



AMILCAK. rHajmOaJLl 



AMIOT, or AMTOT, JOSEPH, Jesuit missionary to China, 

 WM born at Toulon in 1718. At the doe* of 1750 he arrived at 

 Macao in company with two Portuguese missionaries, aent also by the 

 Jesuit*, and th* brethren of that order already etUbliahed at Peking 

 nweotod a petition to the reigning emperor, Keen-Loong, to the 

 eject 1rrr^ the new comer* were well acquainted with mathematics, 



and might be found useful to the empire. A 



persecution againit the Christian* was going on at the time, but the 

 reply of th* emperor to this representation was favourable, and he 

 directed the missionaries to be conveyed to Peking at the public 

 expense. Amiot gives an interacting account of the journey in & 

 latttr Juseilsil in the ooUectioo entitled ' Lettre* Ediuautes et 

 CurieoM,' from which these particulars are taken. On arriving at 

 the capital, where an underhand sort of toleration was extended to 

 the mieiionarie* at th* very time that their religion was proscribed 

 Uewhcre, b* applied himself to the study of the Chinese, and after- 

 wards to th* Manchoo- Tartar language and literature, in both of 

 which b* made grrat proficiency. From that time he appears to have 

 aeUd raliier as a missionary of learning than of religion. While hia 

 Dam* scarcely figures at all in the ' Lettres ficiifiantes,' not a year 

 MOM to have pasaed without his dispatching to Europe some informa- 

 tion OB UK history and manners of the Chinese and Tartan, to the 

 illustration of which he contributed more than any other writer of 

 tb* 18th century. He remained at Peking for forty-three years, during 

 which time the order to which he belonged was dissolved, and more 

 than on* vigorous persecution was directed against the Christians iu 

 China. At the time of Lord Macartney's embassy, in 1793, Amiot 

 (for though bis name is not mentioned by Staunton, the person 

 described by him can be no other) wrote a letter to the ambassador 

 on his arrival in Peking, "expressive of the most ferveut wishes for 

 his success, and offering every assistance that his experience could 

 supply ;" but he was then so infirm as not to be able to wait on Lord 

 Macartney. In the following year, 1794, he died at Peking, at the 



" 8 AM1R-OM11AH. [EMIR-AI.-OJIRAH.] 



AMI.KTH. a prince of Jutland about the second century before 

 Christ, according to Sazo Orammaticus, who relates his adventures 

 at great length. By Saxo's account be was the son of Horvenilill, a 

 feudatory prince of Jutland, who had married Oerutha, the daughter 

 of Boric, his superior lord, the fifteenth king of Denmark from Danus. 

 Feago, the brother of Horrendill, inflamed with envy, treacherously 

 murdered him ; and, persuading Oerutha that he had done the deed 

 because her husband meditated putting her to death, succeeded to her 

 bed and to the princedom. Amleth, afraid of sharing his father's 

 fate, counterfeited madness ; and Saxo relates a number of stories to 

 show with what remarkable sagacity he gave his speeches and actions 

 the appearance of insanity, while they were in reality full of meaning. 

 A courtier of Fengo's suggested a plan of ascertaining if the madness 

 were assumed, by admitting Amleth to an interview with his mother, 

 and he offered to play the spy on their meeting, concealed from both. 

 Fengo consented, and the courtier hid himself in the straw on the 

 oor of Oerutha'* apartment. Amleth, suspicious of treachery, when 

 be met his motbrr began crowing like a cock, and jumping idiotically 

 about the room, till h* jumped on the unhappy spy, who, being thus 

 detected, paid for his officiousocu with his death. Amleth then 



ooruers, wno cameo witu tucm letters cut in wood (literal 

 ssn/frfe*), requesting the king of England to take Amleth'* life 

 the voyage Amleth got posMssion of the Utters, and subst 

 other*, rcqnestinc the king to put his companion* to death, 1 



hi* mother on th* enormity of her marriage with his 

 father's murderer, aroused her to repentance, and made her the con- 

 fidant of his intended revenge. Fengo, still disquieted with suspicion, 

 bat afraid of provoking Oerutna, conceived the plan of sending 

 AmUth on a mission to England, in company with two of his 

 courtiers, who carried with them letters cut in wood (Iticrat liyno 



h's life. On 

 substituted 



. __ ----- leatb, but to 



gnat to hiuiscU hi* daughter in marriage. The altered instructions 

 were obeyed ; and, after a year 1 * time, Amleth unexpectedly made his 

 " kanne* at the court of Jutland, where he had long been sup- 

 to b* dead. At a feast which was given in honour of his 

 be kept himself sober, while b* took car* to make all the 

 noble* drunk ; and while they lay about, he loosened a curtain made 

 by his moih-r which hang above the ball, and, letting it fall on their 

 wostrate bodiea, fa-tewd it tight by pegs to the ground, and set the 

 bail-line; on fir*. Us then hastened to th* bedchamber of Fengo, 

 who had retired at aa earlier period of Uie evening, aroused him from 

 aleep. informed him of the destruction of all the courtilrs, and told 

 him he came to take revenge for the murder of bis father. After 

 aUyiag Fengo be at first concealed himself; but finding that the 

 r*l d**4h was not much lamented, bo made a speech to the 



people, unfolding to them the whola of the course he had taken, and 

 was afterward* elected to the throne of his father. 



This is only the first part of the story of Amleth in Suxo. !!> 

 subsequent adventures have no relation to the story upon \ 

 Shalupere founded hia great tragedy of ' Hamlet.' That xuch 

 on a* Amleth existed seem* to be supported by national tradition. 

 Saxo mentions that there was in his time (about 1200) in Jutland "a 

 field distinguished by the burial and the name of Amleth. " Whatever 

 may be thought of Saxo's story, his chronology must be rejected. 



(Biographical .Dictionary of Ike Society for tke Di/uiiun o/ ' 

 Knowledge.) 



A'MM AN', JOST, a very celebrated Swiss engraver and designer of 

 the 16th century, born at Zurich in 1539. Though a Swiss by birth, 

 he was a German by adoption, for he established himself in Niiruberg 

 in 1560, and gave up his right of burghersbip in Zurich in 1577. A* 

 is the case with most of the old German masters, little or nothing is 

 known about Amman'* life. Many writers speak of him as a painter, 

 yet there is not a single painting of his known. Sandrart and Doppel- 

 rnayr speak of him as a painter on glass only. Amman's designs are 

 extremely numerous : a painter of Frankfurt, of the name of Keller, 

 who lived with Amman four years, told Sandrart that the drawings he 

 made whilst he was with him would fill a large waggon. Though ho 

 did not live long, he surpassed every artist that preceded him in the 

 number of hi* designs. There are about a thousand woodcuts attri- 

 buted to him, but whether he cut all or even any of them himself U 

 not known. Bartsch also doubts whether all the etchings attributed 

 to Amman are etched by him ; he supposes some to have been etched 

 by Stephen Hermann. Hia designs generally appeared as the illus- 

 trations of books ; few books were published iu Amman's time 

 without illustrations. Siegmund Feyerabend of Frankfurt was the 

 publisher of most of Amman's works ; many of them were published 

 after his death. He died at Niiruberg in 1591. 



His works comprise nearly every subject history (sacred and 

 profane), general costume, military costume, field-sports, natural 

 history, heraldry, and other subjects. His drawing is generally 

 good, and iu the costume very accurate, and evidently drawn from 

 nature ; his animals aUo are executed with, much spirit. Strutt, 

 speaking of hU style of engraving, says, " It is neat and decided ; but 

 if his strokes are more regular than was usual with the engravers on 

 wood of his time, it is to bo feared that as much as he gained by 

 the pains he took with this part of Ids execution, he lost iu freedom 

 and spirit" 



Amman was also an author. He wrote a book on poetry, painting, 

 and sculpture, which was published at Frankfurt, first in 1578, and 

 later as a Manual of Painting, ' Artis Pingcudi Enchiridion.' 



(Sandrart, TaUichc Academie, &c. ; Doppeluiayr, llitloritche Na- 

 cltriclit, Ac. ; Strutt, Dictionary of Engraven; the IHctionaria of 

 Heimken, Fiissli, and Nagler ; and lit Peintre-Graveur of Bartsch.) 



AMMAXATI, BAKTOLOME'O, sculptor and architect, was born 

 at Florence iu 1511, and bred in the very height of the golden age of 

 Italian art. Thus educated in such a nursery, with Baccio Baudiuelli 

 and Sausovino for bis tutors, he could not easily fail to produce works 

 worthy of his opportunities and his education. His father, Antonio 

 da Setiguouo, died when Bartoloineo was young, but he left him muter 

 of sufficient property to be in a condition to choose his own pro- 

 fession and to follow it. 



When Ammauati returned from Venice to Florence, Michel Angela 

 was at the height of his reputation as a sculptor, and Ammauati became 

 one of his most devoted admirers and imitators, and, like many other 

 painters and sculptors, catching chiefly the defects of Michel Angelo's 

 ftvle, fell into the error of treating the limbs as the most essential 

 port of man. In this spirit Ammauati executed several works in 

 various cities in Italy. Ammauati was much employed iu Homo 

 by several popes by Paul III., Julius III., and afterwards by 

 Gregory XIII. During the interval between the two periods that he 

 was employed by these pontiffs, he attained great fanio at Florence a-i 

 mi i u.'iueer and an architect He constructed tho celebrated Poutc 

 della Trinitit, which spans the Arno in three light and elegant elliptical 

 arches, calculated to allow the sudden floods of that river to pass 

 without the slightest risk; it still exists, and withstood in 1844 tho 

 most impetuous flood that had visited the Arno for centuries, iu 

 which even the newly-constructed iron suspension-bridge was swept 

 away. Atntuanati made also some additions to the Pitti Palace, which 

 had been commenced from a model by Brunelleschi, and has been 

 finished only within the last thirty years. At Rome ho built tho 

 Palazzo Kuccellai, afterwards Ituspoli; the court and facade of the 

 Collcgio Romano, built by the Jesuits by order of Gregory XIII.; and 

 the Palazzo Sacripanti for the Corsiui family. Hi- principal works of 

 sculpture in Rome are the figures of Justice and Religion and tho 

 other sculptures of the tomb of the Cardinal del Monte in the church 

 of San Pietro in Moutorio. 



The wife of Ammauati, to whom he was married iu 1550, was the 

 celebrated Laura Battiferri of Urbiuo, distinguished as a poetess. She 

 died at Florence in 1589, aged 65 years, Ammauati survived her 

 three yean, and died, according to BalJinucci's copy of the inscription 

 on hi- monument, in 1592, aged 81. 



(Daldiiiucci, A'otiric dti Profeuori del Diitgno, &c. ; Cioognara 

 Gloria delta Scultura.) 



