MKMMI, SIMONS. 



MEMNON. 



181 



Ttere aho pietvrea attributed to Memling at the Uigur, at 

 Antwerp, *t Louvain. at Berlin, and at Munich, and in the private 

 .Pultons of England. Our National Gallery U itill without a 

 i Mian by Vim, The nine workf attributed to him at Munich an 

 wortbv of all UM praiM that baa been beetowrd upon Memling : they 

 Dearly all formerly in the Boiseeree collection. Of tone nine 

 following an remarkable pictures : ' Israelites collecting the 

 *!L Christopher carrying the infant Christ ;' 'Abraham and 

 Melehiedrk;- the -Seizure ofChrUt in the Garden;' a 'Sancta 

 Veronica,' or Fat* of Christ; and, above all, the 'Joys and Sorrows 

 of the Virgin,' and the ' Journey of the three King* from the East,' 

 wiih their numerous retinue*, tix feet wide by two feet and a half 

 high. Few picture* can hare coet to great an amount of labour aa 

 3i laat mentioned. Betides an extensive and elaborate landscape 

 corerinf almost the whole panel, for the point of tight ia very high, 

 H ** about fifteen hundred imall figures and other objects of 

 various kinds, all executed with the minutett attention to detail, with 

 extreme care, and with a cleanieae and brilliancy of colouring which 

 could not easily be lurpaated, and baa certainly seldom been equalled. 

 Memling, not ratisfied with the mere representation of the ipipbany 

 or UM adoration of the kings, baa represented them in every stage of 

 their expedition from the letting out to the accomplishment of their 

 mission ; he ha* represented all the countries they journeyed through, 

 and, in the extreme distance, even their own kingdoms and homes, 

 with their citiea and their palaces. In the foreground are represented 

 also, besides the nativity and adoration of the kings, the flight into 

 Egypt, the murder of tie Innocent*, and the other principal events of 

 UM life of Christ, to his ascension, and to the descent of the Holy 

 Ghost. The fifrures range in size from about six inches to one, and 

 the whole ia well modelled and arranged, and harmonious in light and 

 shade and colour. 



Rathgeber enumerates upwards of one hundred pictures which arc 

 attributed to Memling, but few of them can be authenticated. Some 

 of them have been lithographed by Strixner. Memling also decorated 

 missals and other books of church service : there is one in the library 

 of St. Mark at Venice. There are other similar works attributed to 

 him in different parts of Europe. 



The date ai.d place of Memling's death are as uncertain as those of 

 Us birth, tut it probably took place in Spain between 1499 and 1606. 



MKJ1MI. SIMONE, or SIMONE DI MARTINO, was a very cele- 

 brated Italian painter of the 14th century. Though he is called 

 Memmi by V atari and Lanzi, Martini appears to be the more correct 

 name, as Martino was the name of his father, and he has inscribed 

 his name as Simon Martini upon some of bis works. Memmo, or 

 OugUtlmo (William), was the name of his father-in-law, and he is 

 said to have also inscribed himtelf Memmi upon some of his pictures. 

 He was born at Sit na about 1234, or 1285 : be is supposed by some, 

 upon the authority of Vaaari, to have been the pupil of Giotto, which 

 Rumobr and others consider tcarcely possible, lie was the rival of 

 Giotto : Petrarch speaks of the two together in one of his letters in 

 the following terms : " I have known two excellent painters, Giotto, 

 a citizen of Florence, whose fame among the moderns is immense, 

 and Simone of Siena. 1 ' Simone now owes bis fame chiefly to Petrarc 

 they were both living at the same time at Avignon during the 

 residence of the popes there, and Simone painted the portrait cf the 

 celebrated Madonna Laura for the poet, who, through admiration and 

 gratitude, wrote two sonnets on the painter (Son. 66 and 67), by 

 which be has given him an undying name. Few of Memmi's works 

 BOW remain, and these ere dry and meagre performances. The 

 principal are thefrwcoes of the chapter of the chapel Degli SpagnnoH 

 at Florence, painted in 1332: they consist of stories from the lives 

 of Christ, Sao Domraico, Saint Peter Martyr, and part of the history 

 of the order of the Dominicans or Predicants. In one of the last 

 works are the reputed heads of Petrarch and Laura, but this story, 

 as Land says, is a mere fable, for Memmi did not paint Laura until 

 four yean after the completion of these works, in 1836, after be was 

 Inviud to Atifnon. [GADDI, TADDEO.] There are also some stories 

 by Miami, from the life of San Kiuicri, in the Campo Santo at 

 Kss>; they are engraved in Latinio's ' I'itturo del Campo Santo.' 



Rimooe painted also in miniature. There is a manuscript of Virgil 

 jrhh UM commentary of Servlua, now in the Ambronian Library at 

 Milan, bat formerly in the possession of Petrarch, which is preceded 

 by a miniature (supposed to have been made at the instance of 

 Petrarch) of Virgil tested with his pen in his band, invoking the poetic 

 muse, before him is .neas in armour, with his sword, representing 

 UM XoM; there are likewise a shepherd and a tiller of tho soil 

 ruirmalUs. the Bucolics and Georgia ; and Servius is slto there 



i refl to himself, as symbolical of tho elucidation of his 

 . Memmi died at Avignon in 1344. 

 Wotwithetaadinf Vasaria encomium upon the style of Memmi 

 Us* be amid wss worthy of one of the moderns, bis remaining 



J!T *f!, "?, mt *" b ** oud hU *" ' nd lie w * >T>as*d by the 

 two Oaddi : bis dotifn is meafr* snd ugly. Of bis portrait of Laura 

 stttUaf whatever I* known. The reputed head of Laura above 

 *"'"' "raved la D-Agincourfs Hittoire de 1'Art par les 



y*Tfr i 1 "!? 1 & auia ^ Md in Cicogn** ' Storia della 

 ore, L pL 48. Cirognara has disputed the authenticity of thi 

 sad some other reputed portraits of Petrarch and Laura, at consider- 



able length in the third volume of his History. The only authentic 



lortrnit of Laura extant, of that age, appears to bo n miniature in a 



uanimcript in the liibliotheca Laurentiana at Florence, which however 



may have been copied from the original work by Memmi : there is on 



itlino of this also in Cioognara's work, i. pi. 42. 



Lii'ro MKMMI. the brother-in-law of Simone, assisted Simone in 



some of his works, and completed others which were loft un6nished 



at his death. He was not equal to Simone, though a better colouriit 



ban he : there are a few of his works still extant Ho was living 



in 1361. 



MEMNON, a personage frequently mentioned by Greek writers, 

 le is first spoken of in tho ' Odyssey,' as the son of Eos, or the 

 morning, as a hero remarkable for his beauty, and as the vanquisher 

 of Antilochug (iv. 188 ; xL 521.) Hesiod calls him the king of the 

 Ethiopians, and represents him as the son of Tithonus. (' Th.,' 985.) 

 le is supposed to have fought against tho Greeks in the Trojan war, 

 and to have been killed by Achilles. In the Yi/xotrriurfa, a l os t drama 

 of .lEschylns, the dead body of Memnon is carried away by his 

 mother Eos. (' Fragm.,' No. 261, Dindorf.) He is represented by 

 most Greek writers as king of the Ethiopians, but he is also said to 

 lave been connected with Persia, According to Diodorus (ii. 22), 

 Tithonus, the father of Memnon, governed Persia at the time of the 

 Trojan war, as tho viceroy of Teutamus, the Assyrian king ; ami 

 Uemnon erected, at Susa, the palace which was afterwards known by 

 ,he name of Mcmnonium. Diodorus also adds that the Ethiopians 

 claimed Memnon as a native of their country. Pausanias combines 

 the two accounts : he represents Memnon aa a king of the Ethio- 

 pians, but also says that lie came to Troy from Susa, and not from 

 Ethiopia, subduing all the nations in his way. (Paua., x. 31, 

 i. 42, 2.) JEschylus also, according to Strabo, spoke of the Cissian, 

 that is, Susian, parentage of Memnon (xv., p. 720) : and Herodotus 

 mentions the palace at Susa, called Memnonia, and also says that the 

 city itself was sometimes described under the tame name. (Herod., 

 v. fi3, 54 ; vii. 151.) 



The great majority of Greek writers agree in tracing the origin of 

 Memnon to Egypt or Ethiopia in Africa ; and it is not improbable 

 that the name of Memnon was not known in Susa till after the 

 Persian conquest of Egypt, and that the buildings there called 

 Memnonian by the Greeks were, in name at least, the representative 

 of those in Egypt. (British Museum, ' F.^yptian Antiquities,' i., p. 267.) 

 The partial deciphering of the Egyptian proper names affords us 

 sufficient reason for believing, with Pausanias (L 42, 2), that the 

 Meincon of the Geeeks may be identified with the Egyptian Phamc- 

 nopb, Phamenoth, Amenophis, or Amenothph ; of which name the 

 Greek is probably only a corruption. Phamenoph is said to mean 

 'the guardian of the city of Amman,' or 'devoted to Amman,' 

 ' belonging to Amman.' 



Memuon then must be regarded as one of the early heroes or 

 kings of Egypt, whose fame reached Greece in very early times. In 

 the 18th dynasty of Manethon the name of Amenophia occurs, with 

 this remark : "This is he who is supposed to be the Memnon an 1 

 the vocal stone." He is Amenophis II., and the son of ThutmosU, 

 who is said to have driven the shepherds out of Egypt 



There are many colossal statues in Egypt, which have been called 

 Memnonian, of which the most celebrated is the vocal statue described 

 by Strabo and Pausanias. At sunrise a sound was said to proceed 

 from this statue, which Pausanias compares to tho snapping of a 

 harp or lute string (i. 42, 3). Strabo states that he heard the sound 

 himself, in company with JElius Callus (p. 816); and Tacitus relates 

 that Germanicus also heard tho sound. (' Ann.,' ii. 61.) This statue 

 is identified, by the descriptions of Strabo and Pausanias, with the 

 northernmost of the two colossal statues in the Theban plain, on the 

 west bank of tho Nile. Its height, according to modern travellers, 

 is about 60 feet ; and its legs contain numerous inscriptions in Latin 

 and Greek, commemorating the names of those who had heard the 

 sound. Most of these inscriptions belong to the period of the early 

 Roman emperors. There is some difficulty however, notwithstanding 

 these inscriptions, in identifying this statue with the one described 

 by Strabo and Pausanias. These writers say that the upper part hod 

 in their time fallen down ; but at present the upper part exists in 

 its proper position, though not in a single piece. Heeren conjectures 

 that the broken statue might have been repaired after the time of 

 Strabo. With respect to the sounds supposed to come from this 

 statue,. it is conjectured that they were caused by some trickery of 

 the priests. "Alexander Humboldt speaks of certain sounds that 

 are heard to proceed from the rocks on the banks of the Oronoko at 

 sunrise, which he attributed to confined air making its escape from 

 crevices or caverns, where the difference of tho internal and external 

 temperature is considerable. The French 'savans' attest to having 

 heard such sounds at Caroak, on the east bank of the Nile ; ana 

 hence it is conjectured that the priests, who had observed this* phe- 

 nomenon, took advantage of their knowledge, and contrived, by what 

 means we know not, to make people believe that a similar sound 

 proceeded froin the colossal statues." (British Museum, ' Egypt. 

 Antiq.,' vol. i., p. 266.) 



The head of the colossal Memnon in the British Museum has no 

 claim to bo considered as the vocal Memnon described by Strabo, 

 Tacitus, and Pausanias. The height of the figure to which the head 



