CRATIPPUR. 



CREDI, LORENZO DI. 



raoorded on which the judges pronounced him only Moond to that 

 great pool ; and in D.C. 4iS. the- 6nt prim was awarded to hia comedy 

 wiled the ' \Viue-Flask,' the Tounin 1 of Auitiptias being placed 

 second, and th* * Cloudt ' of Aristophanes third. He died the year 

 altar. Cratinus wat highly esteemed bj hu countrymen, and at one 

 time, according to hi* rival Aristophanes, was ao much in fashion, that 

 no songs WOT* listened to at banquet* except choruses from hit 

 comedies. In his old age ha wat much addicted to drinking ; and in 

 hit last play ha abow* bow hi. faithful wife 'Comedy' strove to get 

 divorced from him in consequence of his exceeding love for hia 

 fisnhriti-f mistrw* UM ' Wine-Flask.' (Scholiast on Aristopb. ' Eqq.' 

 401.) Arutophan a frequently alluded to this failing of hii con- 

 temporary. (For instance, the ' Peace,' 701.) The names of forty of 

 bis comedies have oome down to us. (Fabricius, ' BibL Gneoa, ii., 

 p. 431.) 



CRATIPPUS, a Peripatetic philosopher, born at Mitylene. He was 

 a contemporary and friend of Cicero, who thought him the first 

 philosopher of the age ('Da OfticiU,' "aCratippo noatro, principe 

 hujua meiuorue pbilosophorum"), and intrusted bin son Marcus to his 

 care at Athens. (' De Oraoiis,' L 1.) He taught first in his natiro 

 place, when ha was still residing when Pompey came thither after 

 the battle of Pbarsalia ; ha had an interview with the defeated general, 

 with whom he conversed on providence. (Plutarch, 'Pomp.,' c. Ixxv.) 

 Afterwards he went to Athens, and Cicero not only got him made a 

 Roman citizen by Julius Omar, but even prevailed upon the Areopagus 

 to vote that be should be requested to continue at Athens as an 

 instructor of youth, since be was an ornament to the city. (Plutarch, 

 ' Cicero,' c. xxiv.) Brutus went to Athens to bear Cratippus while 

 engaged hi preparations to meet the army of the Triumvirate. (Plu- 

 tarch, ' Brutus,' c. xxiv.) Cratippus wrote a treatise on divination, in 

 which ha allowed that kind which was derive 1 from dreams and the 

 ravings of idiots, bnt denied all other torta of divinatiou. (Cicero ' De 

 Divinat., 1 L 3 and 32.) In addition to bis merits as a philosopher, we 

 are told that be was an amusing companion, and gifted with givat 

 powers of conversation. (Cicero, ' Ad Familiares,' xvi. 21.) 



CRATER, CASPAR DE, one of tha most distinguished Flemish 

 historical painter*, was born at Antwerp in 1582, and was instructed 

 by Raftaelle , the son of Michael Coxie. He first distinguished himsnlf 

 at Brussels, where ha painted several great altar-pieces, but he settled 

 eventually at Ghent, where his greatest works are still preserved in 

 the museum and in various churches : many of his works however are 

 scattered over Germany and the Netherlands. He died at Ghent in 

 MM 



The works of ('raver, in their style, subjects, and dimension?, are 

 generally of the highest pit-tenuous, and they are in a great degree 

 successful, but yet are frequently formal aud cold. Besides other 

 great works, be painted at Ghent twenty-one large altar-pieces for the 

 principal churches of that city, some of which, for their fulness and 

 dignity of subject, correct and occasionally vigorous design, and the 

 judicious bestowal of extra care in the execution of their more 

 important parts, command high admiration, notwithstanding a very 

 reosible coldness of effect and a certain formality of treatment Even 

 tha gorgeous testa of Rubens is said to hare been vividly impressed 

 with the great merits of Crayer. 



Tbara are fourteen of his works in the museum of Ghent, com 

 prising some of hit principal pictures, as ' St. Rosalia crowned by 

 the infant Christ;' the 'Martyrdom of St, Blaise,' his last work, 

 painted in his eighty-sixth yaar; and three of the pictures painted 

 fur the triumphal arches erected at Uhent upon the occasion of the 

 formal entry of Prince Ferdinand, Infant of Spain, into Ghent, in 

 One is Francis I. surrendering bis sword to Lannoy after the 

 battle of Pavia in 1625; another, the descent of Charles V. upon the 

 coaat of Africa in hia expedition against Tunis, ten years afterwards : 

 the figure* of these works are colossal, and they are slight in their 

 execution, but at the tame time remarkably vigorous and correct. 

 There are a few works by Crayer in Spain, and ha is supposed to have 

 visited that country in the reign of Philip IV. Few of bis great works 

 have been engraved, and they hare comparatively seldom been moved, 

 Mag too large for tha commerce of picture-dealers. Tha large alUr- 

 pieoa of tha ' Virgin and Child enthroned amongst angels and sur- 

 rounded by taint-,' in tha gallery of Munich, about 19 faat lung by 

 12 fevt wide, and by no means on* of the bast of bis works, cost, 

 with the copy that waa substituted in it* place, 20,000 rix dollars. 

 Sir Joshua Reynolds, who saw this picture in tha gallery at Dusel- 

 ilorf, make, aome severe but just observations upon it in his 'Journey 

 to Flanders and Holland.' It was painted in 1'ilC, and tha lower 

 flgursa arc portraits of Crayer and his family. 

 (Dascmmps, L* KM dtt Ptinlrti Plamnndt, Ac.) 

 CRKIHLLON, PROSI'KR JOLYOT DK, was born at Dijon in 

 1874, of an ancient and noble family. He was sent by bis father to 

 Pans to study the. law, under a parson named 1'rieur. The master 

 aad pupil war* both attecbad to th* theatre; and the former observing 

 in Crabilloa strong marks of a poetic genius, urged him to try bis 

 powers on a tragedy. Crebillon accordingly look the subject of th* 

 Children of Brutus, which ha carried to the actors, who however 

 rejected it in a manner so little flattering to the feelings of an author 

 that be threw hi* manuscript into th- fire, and gave up sll thoughts 

 of writing for th* stage. Priaur would not suffer him to rrmain in 



this despondency, and the tragedy of 'Idomenee,' produced in 1707, 

 was the fruit of hit persuasions. The fifth net did not at first please 

 the audience, but nn alteration was made, and the piece was perfectly 

 successful. In 1707 appeared his second piece, called ' AtnSe,' which 

 u founded on the horrible incident of AUvua bringing to Thyestes a 

 cup filled with the blood of hi own sou. Prieur being in a declining 

 state of health when this tragedy caine out, was carried into a box : 

 at the end of the representation ho embraced Crebillou, and sai>l, ' 1 

 die cont -nted ; I have made you a poet, and I leave a man to the 

 nation." The success of ' Atree ' was indeed very fair, but it was not 

 until the production of ' Rhadamiste,' in 1711, that Crebillon's fame 

 race to its height, aud it is on this piece that it chiefly rests. After 

 the production of this piece, Crebillon did not much increase his 

 reputation; his 'Xerxes' (1714) and ' SemirauiU ' (1717) were not 

 very successful ; and though ' Pyrrhus* (1726) was very well received, 

 the author himself said he was surprised, as it was " the shadow of a 

 tragedy, rather than a tragedy iUelf." 



He did not bring out any other piece for twenty-two years. The 

 death of hia wife, and certain pecuniary difficulties, weighed down his 

 spirits to such an extent that he was incapable of writing. However, 

 at the end of that period he was allowed by the king a pension of 

 1000 francs, for which he was indebted to the persuasions of Madame 

 Pompadour, who was instigated, it is said, by her hatred to Voltaire 

 to benefit Crebillon, as these two authors wero looked on as rivals in 

 the drama. His tragedy of ' Catilina' was now advertised, and great 

 were the expectations of the public ; the court were determined to 

 patronise him, and the king himself furnished the requisite dresses. It 

 was produced in 1749, aud the applause waa tumultuous. The public 

 however on reading it began to retract their hasty praise, and it was 

 objected that the tragedy was a very unfaithful picture of the manners 

 of ancient Rome, a censure which should not be passed on Crebillon 

 as peculiarly distinguishing him from other authors of hU school. 

 ' Le Triumvirat' was produced when the author was eighty-one years 

 of age aud had but indifferent success ; he also began another tragedy, 

 called ' Cromwell,' about this time, which was never completed. 



Crebillon died in 1762, aud a monument was erected to his memory 

 in the church of St. Gervois, by the order of Louis XV. The French 

 actors also caused a magnificent service to be celebrated in the church 

 of St. Jean de Latrau in honour of the veteran dramatist, at which all 

 the literati and most of the nobility of France attended. 



Those who wish to know more of Crebillon may read a chapter on 

 this author in La Harpe'a ' Cours de la Literature.' The chapter U a 

 long one, and the extracts are so copious, and the reader's attention is 

 directed so pointedly to the remarkable passages that he may really 

 learn more of Crebillon by reading that critique than by perusing the 

 author's own works. 



CKKHIU.ON, CLAUDE PROSPER JOLYOT DE, son of the pre- 

 ceding, was born at Paris in 1707. He wrote a number of romances, 

 which acquired a great popularity, owing, as some say, more to their 

 extreme licentiousness than to any intrinsic merit. His strict moral 

 character is always brought forward as n remarkable contrast to the 

 great laxity of his writings. He was well known as a member of two 

 convivial societies, called the Dominican! and the Caveau, the latter 

 of which enrolled among its names those of Pirou, Collu, aud ' 

 Crebillon the younger died in 1777. 



The remark that his fame is only owing to his obscenity does not to 

 us seeui wholly true. The fact is that his novels, in spite of their 

 outrageous indecency, contain a remarkably accurate picture of tha 

 motives that actuate persons in a corrupt state of society. Still, tha 

 philosophy which they inculcate is of a morbid nature (being much 

 like that of Kochefoucau.lt), and only those whose minds are 

 unassailable by impurity can peruse with any profit the novels of 

 Crobillon. 



CREDI, LORKX/,0 DI, one of the best of the old Florentine 

 painters and sculptors, wss born at Florence about 1453. His real 

 name was, according to Vasari, Lorenzo Sciarpelloui, aud he acquired 

 the name of Credi from his master, a distinguished goldsmith at 

 Florence in that time. Lorenzo however did not remain long with 

 Credi ; his skill in drawing warranted his exchanging the art of the 

 goldsmith for that of the painter, though he had distinguished himpclf 

 as a goldsmith, and he accordingly entered the school of Verroccliio, 

 in which lie was the fellow-pupil of P. Pcrugino and of Lionardo da 

 Vinci, the latter of whom he afterwards imitated. 



Lorenzo was Verrocchio's favourite pupil; and when Verrocchio 

 went to Venice to make the bronze equestrian statue of Bartolouieo 

 Cplleoni [ViBRoociiio, ANDREA DEL], be left Lorenzo in charge of all 

 his affairs at Florence. Lorenzo visited his master several times while 

 ha was engaged at Venice, and after his unexpected death in 1488 

 carried his body home to Florence. Verrocchio made Lorenzo di 

 Credi his principal heir, and expressed a desire in his will that he 

 mi /lit !>< entrusted with the completion of the monument of Culleoui. 

 <'rr-li did not take possession of any of Verrocchio's property, except 

 his drawings and works of art ; the rest he made over to his 

 ' relations. 



Lorenzo di Credi was an excellent painter. HU ' Birth of Christ,' 

 formerly in the monastery of Santa ChUra, but now in t.h" gallery of 

 tbo Academy at Florence, is on of the best works in that admirable 

 collection ; it is excellent in expression, in colouring, and iu the exe- 



