CONR.UHN*. 



INSTABB. 



IC 

 M 



eg*. was styled by the Iulin Conradino, or little Connul. 

 The young pine* was brought up in Germany, mid 

 ed remained rgeot of the kingdom of Sicily and Apulim in thu 

 MOW of hi* nephew. For the Gbibeline version of all IboM tran- 

 asjettooa. see Kaumer's ' Oeschicbte dr Hobeuetauffen,' and for the 

 Otwluh put, tb uuuitruus Italian writers, end Sisuiondi's ' Histoire 

 des KeiMibUques luli.nnw. 1 



OONKAl'lN. ( UNUAITNO. eon of Conrad IV. and of Eluabeth 

 of Bavaria, wat an infant when hi father died in 1254. He wu 

 acknowledged M Duke of Suabia, but liii father'* splendid inherit- 

 ance of Sicily and Apulia pasted into the Lands fir.t of Maufr. d and 

 forward! of Charles of Aujou, by the bettlu of La GrandelU, 1265, 

 in which Manfred WM killed. 



In tlie autumn of 1267, Conradin, when only 16 years of ago, let 

 out for Italy at the head of a few thousand men. At Verona he was 

 wall received by the gieat Obibeline leaden of northern Italy. lie 

 entered Borne without opposition, the |pe being then at Viterbo, and 

 thence took the road of the Abruzzi. He met hi* opponent, Charles, 

 at Tagliaoono, near the Lake of Celano, on the 23rd of August 1268. 

 Tb battle wai long conteated ; to* Germans bad at first the advan- 

 tage, and, elated with success, were pursuing the French, when Charlo, 

 who bad been lying in wait, came up with hi* reserve and completely 

 routed them. Conndin escaped from the field of battle with M,i 

 cousin Frederic, duke of Austria, and others, and descending from the 

 mountains reached the village of Astura, on the sea coast near the 

 Pomptine marshes, expecting to find some means of reaching the fleet 

 of his allies the Pisani, which was in tlie neighbourhood. But John 

 Fnngipani, lord of Astura, saiz-d upon him and delivered him up to 

 Charles for a sum of money. He ws taken to Naules, tried, and, not- 

 withstanding the protest of a celebrated jurist, Ouido da Luzzauo, 

 and others, he was condemned aud beheaded in the market-place on 

 the 29th of October 1268, together with Frederic of Austria and 

 several of their follower*. The story of the glove said to have been 

 thrown down by ConraJin from the scaffold, to be delivered to Peter 

 of Aragon, the husband of Constance, daughter of Manfred, does not 

 swm sufficiently authenticated. A chapel was raised on the place of 

 the execution. The c> apel no longer exists ; but in the vestry of the 

 new church of Santa Croce al Mervato, built opposite to it, is a small 

 column of porphyry, which once stood on tbe very spot of the 

 scaffold, with a Latin distich commemorative of the event. ( W.rry, 

 Voyages en Italic.') Couradiu's mother hastened from Germany to 

 ransom her son. Coming too late, she used the money in founding 

 the groat convent Del Carmine, where the remains of Conradin and 

 Frederic of Austria were deposited behind the great altar. 



COXSALVI, K'KCOLE, CARDINAL, born at Rome in June 1757, 

 studied for tlie church, but applied himself likewise to belles lettres, 

 music, and tbe arts. He became a mousiguore, or prelate attached to 

 tbe papal court, and was mad>, by Pius VI., Uditor di Knots, or mem- 

 ber of tbe highest civil court of the Roman state. \Vliej Cardinal 

 Chiaramonti b vaine pope hu made Cousolvi, whom he knew and 

 appreciated, a cardinal deacon, with the title of Santa Maria ad Mar- 

 tyre*, in August 1800, aud appointed him at the suue time his 

 secretary of state, or tir-t minister. 



In 1801 Consalvi repaired to Paris, aud conclude! the concordat 

 with tlie firt consul, Bonauart". His plecamg manners and liberal 

 opinions procured him marked attention during hi* stay in the French 

 capital. In 1806, when Bonaparte began to quarrel with the pope, be 

 iasfte-l up.m Consalvi being removed from uis office, under thu pre- 

 tence that he was ill affected towards him, which meaut iu reality that 

 be defended the interest! and rights of his own sovereign. Couaalvi 

 bimwlf urged tbe pope to accept his resignation for the sake of peace. 

 Pius al la*t unwillingly received it, aud appointed Cardinal Csaoui bis 

 successor. Coasalvi remained at Home during tbe following years 

 until the abdication of tue pope in 1S09. After that event he was 

 exiled from Home with tbe other c >rdiuls, but some time afterwards 

 be was allowed to join the pope at Knntamebleau. On the release of 

 the pope, and his rvturn to Kome in 1814, Cardinal Consalvi was rein- 

 stated in his office of secretary of state, uud continued the pi 

 minister of the court of Rome till the death of I iu, 20th of August 

 1828. Consalvi did not long survive liii matter aud friend, to whom 

 be bad been faithfully attached through all the vicinaitude* of a long 

 and stormy pontificate, and between whom and him there was both 

 sympathy of mind and mutual confidence. [Pius VII.] Cardinal 

 Consalvi died at Rome, January 21, 1824. He was buried in the 

 church San Maroello, where a monument was raised to him by tlie 

 sculptor Kinaldi. An excellent full-length likeness of him by Sir 

 Thomas Lawrence U in tho royal gallery at Windsor. 



Coosalvi's a I ministration of the papal state forum an epoch in the 

 history of modern Kome. He abolUhed numerous abuses aud ol I 

 emtoms which were no longer in accordance with tbe state of society. 

 He was favourable to rational change. By t M . I'mprio of 1816 

 all feudal tato-, monopolies, aud excluive rights were sup, 

 Torture and tho puuitnm nt of thu corda, or e.lrapa ie, the use of 

 whi< h hid long disgraced the molt frequented street of Rome, were 

 likewiie abolished, as Weil as tlie puniihment of death for the indefinite 

 and (indefinable offence of hrro.y. A new civil code, a commercial 

 code, and a penal code, were ordered to bu framed. The maintenance 

 of the refisUy of mortgages (introduced by the French), a better system 



of police, and the establishment of workhouses for the poor in the 

 principal town", are among the results of Coimalvi'it n-l 

 He alto took strong measures to extirpate the buiditti u >m thf 

 Campagna, and in one instance, July 1819, he on ' '<vn of 



Sonnino. one of their notorious haunts, to bo raced to the ground. 

 New concordats were entered into with France, Naplei, Bavaria, aud 

 other German states. 



(Comjxadio Ittorico n) Put VII., Miltno, 1884 ; Bioyrajia drgl' 

 Itaiiani rirtnti, art. Contain; and Tonrnou, Kiutlci Ulatatiqiut nir 

 /.', H I 



CONSTABLE, JOHN. wa born at East Bergholt, i.i Suffolk, in 

 1776. HU father, Oolding Constable, was a miller, and John, the 

 second son, was originally intended for the church ; but as he showed 

 an aversion or disinclination to study, his father gave up this design 

 and endeavoured to make a miller of him, in which business Constabla 

 was actu dly engaged for about a year. His time was however chiefly 

 spent in contemplating and studying the characteristics of natural 

 scenery : he displayed much originality of observation iu hi- at- 

 at portraying it* beauties, and his mind became gradually engrossed 

 in sketching and the study of landscape. His tastu for art h ni early 

 displayed itself: when at school at Dedhatn he wat iu the habit of 

 neglecting hU lessons for hi* pencil 



The result was his adoption of landscape-painting as a profession, 

 and in this be was instructed by R. It. K-intgle, R.A., and ha received 

 much encouragement from Sir George Beaumont. In 1795 he visited 

 London, but returned to his native place; in 17i<9 he again \ 

 London with a view to try his fortune, and in 1800 he wai admitted 

 as a student into the Royal Aoa lemy. For many yean he was a 

 steady exhibitor iu the Royal Aca<ioiiiy, but his works attracted little 

 attention, owing probably to the 'unpretending nature aud extreme sim- 

 plicity of hi* ht_sle. He professed to despUe, and prohibit- did despise 

 all styles and conventionalities ; he ued to say, " There is room enough 

 lor a natural paiuter ; the great vice of the ilay is brarura an a; 

 to do something beyond the truth." He was ri_;ht ; ami in no great 

 number of years his merits were a kuowledgod by the pub.ic. 



In 1820 Constable took a house at Himpstead, where be chiefly 

 resided ; he had also a bouse in Charlotte street, Fitxroy-square, where 

 he kept a gallery of bin works, for, though admired, many of his 

 paintings remained on hU hands. At leugtn in 1829 he reoeiv. 

 tardy professional acknowledgment of his merits by his election as a 

 Royal Academician : he was then iu his fifty-third year. He was taken 

 ill on tbe night of the 30th of March 1837, anil died iu less than an 

 hour afterwards. 



Constable has painted many excellent pictures, and all his works 

 improve in colour by age; the 'Corn- Field' in the National Gallery U 

 oue of his best works, and tho ' Valley Farm ' in the Veruon Q llery 

 i< a very good example of his style. His style is frer.ii, original, and 

 peculiar, and his scenes are generally extremely him pie. His attention 

 wa-i iu fact more engrossed by certain minutiae and transient eff-ota in 

 nature than by a love for the picturesque or beautiful of scenery. 

 He c irried this attention to minutiae so far as to repeat in many of 

 his pictures the representation of tbe effect of the morning dew, an 

 effect, however pleasing, extremely transient ; aud but one, and not 

 the most beautiful, of the ever-varying effects of nature. This effect 

 ot dew, of wnicli he was so fond, is a distinctive characteristic of hi* 

 works, au I bus caused them to be stylo 1 mouldy by some critics, who 

 in thu earlier part of his career exercised their function* with little 

 charity towards the painter ; but if the ' connoisseurs ' of art showed 

 little sympathy for tbe painter's intense love of nature, he iu return 

 was not slow to express his contempt for their commonplace conven- 

 tionalities. Constable apjie >rs indeed to have been very early influenced 

 by bis own view-, of things, for wheu a youu,' man, being anke<l by Sir 

 George lietumout what style he proposed to adopt, he answered, " M one 

 but Go I Almighty's style, Sir George." 



Constables character both as a man and an artist is well described 

 in the following account of him by hit friend an I feilow-acajemician, 

 Mr. Uwins, in a |>aper read at tbe Phrenological Society in 1 - 

 ' He seemed to think that he came into the world to convince mankind 

 that nature is beautiful. Instead of seeking for tho materials of poetic 

 landscape in foreign countries amidst temples aud classic groves, or in 

 our own amongst castles, lakes, and mountains he t night that the 

 simple cottage, the village green, thu church, the meadow cos-ore I with 

 IM: tie, the canal with its barges, its locks and weedy banks, contained 

 all the matt-rials and called up all the associations necessary for picture. 

 He doted upon his native fields. ' I love,' said he, ' every stile, and 

 stump, and lane iu thu village : as Ion,- a< I am able to hold a brush 

 1 -ii ill never cease to paint them.' " 



(Alcinvin of i/ie Life uf Juhn tjonttable, Eiq., R.A., compti'd chiejly 

 of Ini Lctert, by C. H. Leslie. K q-, U.A., 4to, London, 1842.) 



CONSl'ANS, son of Constantino, was at au early ng i app 

 governor of Italy, Africa, and Western lllyiicuui, and on the ,i.. 

 of tbe empire, tnuse countries wer apportioned to him. Hi 

 brother Coustantine, being envious of his share, attacked him, but 

 wai defeat d, aud killed near A-^nl' 1 1. i i 340 ; ofl-r which Constant 

 took possession of his brother's dominion*, au.f l.ecame empui 

 the whole weit. Magueutius, commander of the troops iu Gaul, 

 having revolted against him, and drawn a great part of Gaul into tils 

 party, Coustans, who happened to be iu that province nt the time, was 



