763 



PESCE, NICOLA. 



PETAU, DIONYSIUS. 



7'4 



opportunities of access to many artists and their works, determined to 

 apply himself to painting, which he did with so much assiduity, both 

 from his natural inclination and from his wish to aid his mother and 

 sister, that he made extraordinary progress. After executing some 

 subjects in a chapel at Volterra, he accompanied a painter of that city 

 named Piero to Rome, where the latter was employed by Alexander VI. 

 The death of that pope frustrated their scheme of working in concert 

 at the Vatican : however, Baldassare remained for awhile at Rome, 

 where he painted some frescoes in the church of S. Onofrio, and in 

 that of San Rocco a Hipa ; and distinguished himself by some others 

 at Ostia, particularly by one in chiaroscuro, representing a siege by 

 Roman warriors, and remarkable for the strict fidelity of the ancient 

 military costume, which he derived from bas-reliefs and other existing 

 monuments. 



On returning to Rome he found a liberal patron in the celebrated 

 Agoatino Chigi (a native of Siena), by whom he was enabled to continue 

 at Rome for the purpose of devoting himself chiefly to the study of 

 architecture. The acquirements he thus made soon displayed them- 

 selves in what was then quite a new career of art, namely, architectural 

 perspectives and scene-painting; and the science of perspective and its 

 application to pictorial illusion and effect. Vasari relates, as an illus- 

 tration of the perfection to which he brought this branch of art, that 

 on his taking Titian to see some of Peruzzi's works, that great painter 

 could hardly believe at first that the objects were not real. Of his 

 performances in scene-painting there is now no evidence, but some 

 idea of his extraordinary ability in it may still be formed from the 

 painted architecture, &c., with which he decorated a gallery in the 

 Famesina. It was not however in scenic and fictitious architecture 

 alone that he displayed his talent for that art ; he designed many 

 elegant facades at Rome, and gave proof of his superior ability in the 

 Palazzo Masaimi, one of the most original and tasteful edifices of its 

 class in that city. Instead of being perplexed by the awkwardness of 

 the site, he availed himself of it to curve the front of the building, and 

 thereby produce so happy an effect that such form seems to have been 

 entirely the result of choice, and independent of other circumstances. 

 The loggia and small inner court are singularly beautiful, and the 

 whole edifice deserves the attention it has received in a folio work, by 

 Buys and Uaudebourt, expressly devoted to it, and containing outline 

 engravings of all its parts and details (Paris, 1818). 



In 1520 Peruzzi was appointed by Leo X. to succeed Raffaelle as 

 architect of St. Peter's ; and he made a design for St. Peter's on the 

 plan of a Greek cross, which, bad it been executed, would perhaps 

 nave surpassed the present structure. He likewise made two different 

 designs for the facade of San Petronio at Bologno. On Rome being 

 taken and sacked by the Constable Bourbon, it was with extreme 

 difficulty that Baldassare escaped from the hands of the soldiery ; and 

 after being pillaged of everything reached Siena, where he was most 

 kindly received, and employed on various buildings. He returned 

 however to Rome, and it was then that he built the Palazzo Massirni, 

 but did not live to see it quite completed. lie died in 1536, and was 

 buried in the Pantheon, near Raffaelle. 



There are two works attributed to Peruzzi in the National Gallery 

 ' The Adoration of the Magi,' which however was probably painted by 

 a scholar ; and a drawing in chiaroscuro of ' The Adoration of the 

 King*.' 



PESCE, NICOLA or COLA, a famous Sicilian swimmer and diver, 

 who lived towards the end of the 14th century. His name was 

 Nicholas, and he was surnamed ' Pesce ' (the ' Fish ') on account of his 

 expertness in diving. Frederic II., king of the Two Sicilies, employed 

 him and encouraged hia feats. The most incredible stories are told 

 of him : it is said that he passed whole hours under water, and whole 

 days in the water ; that he need to swim from Sicily to the Lipari 

 Islands, carrying letters and despatches in a leathern bag, &c. The 

 truth seems to be that he was a most expert swimmer and diver, and 

 that he could remain longer under water than any other person on 

 record. He had been accustomed from his boyhood to dive for oysters 

 and coral along the coast of his native country. It is reported that 

 King Frederic once asked him to dive into the sea off the Point of 

 Faro, where the current forms a whirlpool known by the name of 

 Chary bdis; and as Peace hesitated, the king threw a golden cup into 

 the tea, when Pesce plunged in, and after remaining a considerable 

 time under water brought up the cup, to which the king added a purse 

 of gold as a gift. Pesce was induced to repeat the experiment, but he 

 never rose again from the sea. (lurcher, ' Mundus Subterraneua,' b. i.) 



Mariotti, in his ' Kiflessioni ' on the Lake of Perugia, speaks of a 

 fisherman called Nonno di San Ftliciano, who was " a great swimmer 

 and diver, like Pesce Cola of Sicily, and lived almost entirely in the 

 water. He lived till past ninety years of age." It must be observed 

 however that the Lake of Perugia is not very deep. 



PKSNE or PENE, JEAN, a French painter and engraver, distin- 

 guished chiefly for his excellent prints after Nicolas Poussin, was born 

 at Rouen in 1 623. The chief merit of his prints after Pousein is the 

 preservation of the peculiar style of that painter: they are generally 

 of a large size, and are valued by collectors. He engraved also many 

 print*, chiefly landscapes, after Annibal Caracci. He died at Paris 

 ill 17 



riv-iTALU/ZI, JUHAXN HEINHICH, was boru January 12, 1746, 

 at Zurich, in Switzerland. Ilia father, who was a medical practitioner, 



BIOU. OIV. VOL. IV. 



died when Pestalozzi was about six years old ; but his mother, with 

 the assistance of some relatives, procured him a good education. He 

 studied divinity and afterwards law, but instead of adopting either the 

 clerical or legal profession, turned to farming as a means of support. 

 At the age of twenty-three he married the daughter of a merchant of 

 Zurich, purchased a small landed property which he named Neuhof, 

 and went to reside upon it and cultivate it. The reading of Rousseau's 

 ' Emile ' had drawn his attention to the subject of education, and he 

 began in 1775 to carry out his views by turning his farm into a farm- 

 school for instructing the children of the poorer classes of the vicinity 

 in industrial pursuits as well as in reading and writing. In this how- 

 ever he was little more successful than he had been in his agricultural 

 operations : at the end of two years his school was broken up, and 

 he became involved in debt. In order to relieve himself from his 

 incumbranccs, and to procure the means of subsistence, he produced 

 his popular novel of ' Leinhardt und Gertrud,' 4 vols., Basel, 1781 ; 

 in which, under guise of depicting actual peasant life, he sought to 

 show the neglected conditiou of the peasantry, and how by better 

 teaching they might be improved both morally and physically. It was 

 read with general interest, and the Agricultural Society of Bern 

 awarded him for it a gold medal, which however his necessities com- 

 pelled him at once to sell. It was followed by ' Christoph und Else,' 

 Zurich, 1782. During 1782-83 he edited a periodical entitled 'Das 

 Schweizer-Blatt fur das Volk ' (' Swiss-Journal for the People '), which 

 was collected in 2 vols. ' Nachforschungen iiber den Gang der Natur 

 in der Entwickelung des Mencheugeschlechts ' (' Investigations into 

 the Process of Nature in the Improvement of the Human Race') 

 appeared at Zurich in 1797 ; and he wrote also other works of less 

 importance. 



In 1793, with the assistance of the Swiss Directory, he established a 

 school for orphan children in a convent which had belonged to the 

 Ursuline nuns at Stanz, in the canton of Uuterwalden. Stanz had 

 been sacked by a French army, and the children were such as were 

 left without protectors to wander about the country. In the bare nud 

 deserted convent he had, without assistance and without books, to 

 teach about eighty children of from four to ten years of age. He was 

 thus driven by necessity to set the elder and better-taught children to 

 teach the younger and more ignorant; and thus struck out the moni- 

 torial or mutual-instruction system of teaching, which, just about the 

 same time, Lancaster was under somewhat similar circumstances led 

 to adopt in England. [LANCASTER, JOSEPH.] In less than a year 

 Pestalozzi's benevolent labours were suddenly interrupted by the 

 Austrians, who converted his orphan-house into a military hospital. 

 He then removed to Burgdorf, eleven miles north-east from Bern, 

 where he founded another school of a higher class, and produced his 

 educational works, ' Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrt ' (' How Gertrude 

 teaches her Children'), Bern, 1801; 'Buch der Mutter '(' Mothers' 

 Book '), Bern, 1803 ; and some others. During this period of political 

 excitement he joined the popular party, and in a considerable degree 

 incurred the disapproval of the upper claas. In 1802 the people of 

 the canton of Bern sent him as their deputy to an educational con- 

 ference summoned by Bonaparte, then First Consul, at Paris. His 

 establishment at Burgdorf was prosperous, became celebrated, and was 

 resorted to from all parts of Europe by persons interested in education, 

 some for instruction and others for inspection. In 1804 he removed 

 his establishment to Miinchen-Buchsee, near Hofwyl, in order to 

 operate in conjunction with Fellenberg, who had a similar establish- 

 ment at the latter place ; but the two educational reformers disagreed, 

 and in the sanre year Pestalozzi removed to Yverdun, in the canton 

 of Vaud, where the government appropriated to his use nn unoccupied 

 castle. This establishment became even more prosperous and more 

 celebrated than the one at Burgdorf, and had a still greater number 

 of pupils and of visitors. Unfortunately dissensions arose among the 

 teachers, in which Pestalozzi himself became implicated, and which 

 embittered the latter years of his life. The number of pupils rapidly 

 diminished, the establishment became a losing concern, and Pestalozzi 

 was again involved in debt, which the proceeds of the complete edition 

 of his works (' Pestalozzi's Siimmtliche Werke,' 15 vols., Stuttgard and 

 Tubingen, 1819-26) hardly sufficed to liquidate. This edition was the 

 result of a subscription got up in 1818 for the publication of his 

 works, the names of the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, and 

 the King of Bavaria, standing at the head of the list. 



In 1825 Pestalozzi retired from his laborious duties to Neuhof, 

 where his grandson resided. Here he wrote his ' Schwanengesaug ' 

 (' Song of the [Dying] Swan '), 1826 ; and ' Meine Lebensschicksale als 

 Vorsteher meiner Erziehuugsanstalten in Burgdorf und Iferten ' (' My 

 Life's Fortunes as Superintendent of my Educational Establishments 

 at Burgdorf and Yverdun'), 1826. He died February 17, 1627, at 

 Brugg, in the canton of Aargau. 



PETAU, DIONYSIUS, was born at Orleans in 1583. He studied 

 at Paris, and afterwards entered the Order of the Jesuits. He 

 lectured on rhetoric in the colleges of Reims, La F16che, and lastly at 

 Paris, in which he was made professor of theology in 1621. Applying 

 himself assiduously to classical and historical studies, he became a 

 distinguished scholar and critic. In 1627 he published his great work 

 on chronology, ' De Doctrina Temporum,' 2 vols. folio, which was 

 republiehed with considerable additions by himself, as well as by 

 Hardoum and others, in 3 vols. folio, Antwerp, 1703. The 'Doctriua 



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