107 



RIZO RANGABfi. 



ROBERT (OP FRANCE). 



108 



and had an extraordinary readiness of invention and execution, but 

 was at the same time, aa is usual in such cases, superficial and incor- 

 rect ; still his readiness to design and facility to execute ensured him 

 a brilliant career. In 1656 he was appointed principal painter to 

 Philip IV. ; and he held the same place under Charles II., who gave 

 him the additional place of deputy keeper of the royal keys. He had 

 however previously been appointed (1653) painter to the cathedral of 

 Toledo, a post often in Spain more important than that of painter to 

 the king, for he has the charge of all existing works in the cathedral, 

 and generally the execution of all new works, which in Spanish 

 cathedrals were at one time numerous and important. 



Francisco Rizi ia one of the painters to whom the decline of painting 

 in Spain is attributed, through the mere superficial attractions of his 

 works ; and he is said also, by his capricious decorations of the theatre 

 of Bueuretiro, to have done equal injury to the architectural taste of 

 the period. Rizi's last work was a sketch for the great altar-piece of 

 the Retablo de la Santa Forma in the Sacristy of the Escorial, which 

 Charles II. ordered for the veil of the magnificent tabernacle and 

 altar, which Rizi had also assisted in making, to contain the Host (La 

 Santa Forma). The subject was the ceremony of the Collocation of the 

 Host by Charles II. in 1684 ; but Rizi died the following year at the 

 Escorial, having only executed the sketch. The picture was paiuted 

 by Coello from a sketch of his own, and it is one of the finest pictures 

 in Spain. [COELLO, CLAUDIO.] This Host, or Santa Forma Incorrupta, 

 is the miraculous wafer which bled at Gorkum in 1525 when trampled 

 on by the followers of Zwingli. Rudolf II., emperor of Germany, 

 gave it to Philip II. of Spain, whither it was transported in 1592, and 

 in 1684 Charles II. constructed the present gorgeous altar and taber- 

 nacle for its reception, and the present altar-piece is the ceremony of 

 its collocation. When the Forma is exhibited for adoration, the pic- 

 ture, which forms a veil, is let down, and is accordingly much injured. 

 The French, under La Houssaye, who pillaged the Escorial in 1808, 

 carried off all the gold and silver of this altar : the monks Lid 

 the 'wafer' in a cellar, and it was restored with great pomp by 

 Ferdinand VII. in 1814. 



The pictures (both frescoes and in oil) by Rizi are very numerous : 

 there are several iu the Museo of the Prado at Madrid, and many in 

 the churches of Madrid and Toledo, especially in the cathedral of 

 Toledo. 



FBAY JUAN RIZI, Francisco's elder brother, born at Madrid in 1595, 

 was also an eminent painter. His principal works are in the Bene- 

 dictine Monastery of San Martin at Madrid. His design was more 

 correct than his brother's, and his pictures are distinguished for force 

 of light and shade. He retired to Rome, and joined the Benedictines 

 of Monte Casino. He was, while in Italy, made an archbishop, in 

 1675, by the pope Clement X., but he died in the same year at Monte 

 Casino before entering upon the duties of his office. 



(Cean Bermudez, Diccionamo Historico, &c, ; Ford, Guide for 

 Travellers in Spain, &c.) 



*R1ZO RANGABfi, and RHIZOS RHANGAVIS, ALEXANDROS, 

 are two different ways of writing the name of a Greek author, 

 AAelewSpos Pios Pa,yK<n/3r)s, who is the present minister of Foreign 

 Affairs at Athens, and one of the finest living poets, dramatists, and 

 orators of Greece. The date of his birth was probably about the year 

 1810. His father, Jacovos Rizo Raiigabe", was the translator of some 

 French plays into Romaic. In a volume of ' Various Poems ' ( Aia^opa 

 noiTj/uara), which appeared at Athens in 1837, and in a second which 

 appeared in 1840, the son aspired to revive the original drama of his 

 country, and his tragedies of ' Phuosyne,' and 'H Uapa.fj.ofr}, or ' The 

 Eve,' are, especially the latter, rich in passages of beauty and spirit. 

 In ' Phrosyne,' the leading personage is Ali Pasha of Janiua, and the 

 principal incident is the destruction by his order of the beloved of 

 hia son, Mouktar Pasha; in ' The Eve' an unsuccessful insurrection of 

 the Greeks against the Turks constitutes the main action. Among 

 the shorter poems are translations from the ancient into the modern 

 Greek of the first act of the ' Phcenissse ' of Euripides, and the first book 

 of the 'Odyssey' of Homer. The 'Odyssey,' which is rendered into 

 hexameters, affords an admirable opportunity of comparing the Greek 

 of our own days with the Greek of nearly three thousand years ago. 

 The volumes also contain poetical compositions by the author in 

 French and German, many of them translations from the Greek of his 

 friend the poet Panagiutes Soutzo. His 'Marriage of Kutrulis,' an 

 Aristophanic comedy, published in 1845, under the assumed name of 

 Christophanos Neologides, was very successful, and has been translated 

 into German by Sanders. Another volume of tragedies from his pen 

 appeared at Athens in 1851. His prose works are chiefly of an histo- 

 rical and antiquarian character. In 1840, by the desire of the Greek 

 government, he executed a translation from the English of Gold- 

 smith's ' History of Greece,' which was introduced by authority into 

 all the schools an honour doubtless little anticipated by Goldsmith 

 when he was compiling the work for the booksellers to meet the 

 exigencies of the day that was passing over him. In a second edition, 

 which was published in 1844, Rangabe* introduced considerable altera- 

 tions, and took occasion to re-establish from the original historians the 

 actual wording of sayings that were uttered by the heroes of Grecian 

 history. In 1842 appeared at Athens the first volume of a work in 

 French by Rangabe", ' Antiquite"s Helldniques ' (' Hellenic Antiquities, 

 or a Repertory of Inscriptions and other Antiquities discovered since 



the emancipation of Greece ' ), which is dedicated to Professor 

 Thiersch, as a tribute from " an old pupil." Of this very important 

 work no second volume seems to have yet appeared. Rangabe" also 

 took a part in the preparation of a French and Greek dictionary 

 (Athens, 1842), and was one of the editors of the EvpwwaiKos Epavtcrrris, 

 or ' European Contributor,' a Greek magazine, founded at Athens in 

 1840, which consisted of original articles and translations from the 

 leading periodicals of Europe, the ' Revue des deux Mondes,' ' Blaok- 

 wood'a Magazine,' &c. Rangabe' afterwards became secretary of the 

 Archaeological Society of Athens, and a professor at the university 

 founded by King Otho. While holding that appointment he paid a 

 visit to England in 1850, to receive contributions of books for the 

 university library, and he was accompanied on that occasion by 

 Madame Rangabe", who is a Scottish lady, the sister of George Finlay 

 of Athens, the author of several valuable works on the history of 

 Greece. After his return his name appeared before the public as the 

 discoverer of some ancient statues in a temple of Juno at Argos. For 

 some years he had held subordinate posts in the government, but his 

 political career did not assume importance till 1856. In that year, 

 when the relations between Greece and the western powers were on 

 an uneasy footing, in consequence of the leaning which Greece had 

 shown to Russia during the war, the death of General Fabvier, a 

 French officer who had made himself conspicuous in the war of the 

 Greek insurrection, by the part he had taken in the defence of the 

 Acropolis of Athens, afforded the Athenian municipal council an 

 opportunity of taking a step towards the assuaging of angry feelings. 

 It resolved that a funeral oration in his honour should be pronounced 

 in the Acropolis, and appointed Professor Raugabe; to pronounce it. 

 The oration which was translated in the French papers, was found so 

 efficient for its object tbat Rangabd was shortly afterwards named 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs. In that capacity, on the 20th of April 

 1856, he signed a treaty with Turkey for the mutual suppression of 

 brigandage on the frontiers, and he afterwards successfully defended 

 it in the -chambers. By two circulars iu June and September he 

 invited the assistance of foreign capital for the construction of roads 

 and harbours in Greece. The last occasion on which his name has 

 appeared in public has been in March 1857, on his bearing public 

 testimony, on the evacuation of Greece by the western powers, to the 

 good conduct of their troops during the period of occupation. 



RIZZIO. [MARY STUAHT.] 



ROBERT, King of France, was elected king on the death of his 

 brother Eudes, by that party of the French who rejected the claims of 

 Charles le Simple. [CHARLES III.] He was recognised as king in an 

 assembly of his partisans, held at Soissons in 922, and consecrated in 

 the church of St. Remi, at Reims, by the Archbishop of Sens. He 

 fell in battle against his competitor, Charles le Simple, near Soissons, 

 on the 15th of June 923, having reigned scarcely a year. He was 

 grandfather to Hugues Capet, founder of the third or Capetian race of 

 French kings. 



ROBERT, King of France, surnamed ' le Sage ' (the wise), and ' le 

 De"vot' (the devout), was the son of Hugues Capet, whom he succeeded 

 on the throne in 996. He was born about 970, and had been twice 

 crowned in the lifetime of his father at Orleans in 988, and at Reims 

 in 991. The character of Robert was devoid of shining qualities, but 

 he was a prince of upright and peaceable disposition. Early in his 

 reign France was afflicted by a scarcity of four years' continuance, 

 arising from the failure of the harvests, and the scarcity was followed 

 by a pestilence, which again appeared in 1010, and a third time iu 

 1030-33. These calamities are said to have reduced the population of 

 France a third. 



Robert was early embroiled with the church ; he had married in 

 995 Berthe or Bertha, widow of Eudes, Count of Blois, but there were 

 some difficulties as to the lawfulness of the marriage, for which Pope 

 Gregory V. refused a dispensation, and declared the marriage void. The 

 king refused obedience, in consequence of which he was excommuni- 

 cated ; and it is said that under this terrible sentence his palace was 

 deserted by all except two menials, who after every meal purified by 

 fire the utensils employed at the royal table, Robert at length yielded ; 

 he put away Bertha in 998, and married Constance, daughter of the 

 Count of Toulouse, an imperious and vindictive woman, but oue of the 

 greatest beauties of her time. Robert and Constance may be compared 

 in point of character to Henry VI. of England and his consort Margaret 

 of Anjou. 



In J 002, Robert engaged in a war to secure the succession of the 

 duchy of Bourgogne, of which he was lawAil heir; and, being sup- 

 ported by Richard, duke of Normandy, succeeded, after a struggle of 

 thirteen years (1002-15), in gaming possession of it. He bestowed it 

 on his son Henry. In 1006 he marched to the assistance of the Count 

 of Flanders, one of his great vassals, attacked by the Emperor 

 Henry II., who was obliged to retire. Peace was concluded next year 

 between the two princes. 



Robert possessed a taste for music, and, prompted by this, as well as 

 his devotional temper, frequently led the choir of St. Denis, and com- 

 posed hymns for monastic use. He is charged with lavishing his 

 treasure upon mendicants, conniving at thefts from his own person, 

 and truckling to the fierce and cruel temper of his queen, who pre- 

 sumed so far on his lameness as to procure his favourite, Hugues de 

 Beauvais, to be murdered in his presence. Robert visited all the 



