167 



ROSSI, JOHN CHARLES FELIX, R.A. 



ROSSINI, GIOACCHINO. 



163 



1847; 'Memorandum presented to the Council of the Royal Society 

 for rendering the Council of the Society more efficient,' in a letter 

 of Sir J. South to the Royal Society, privately printed in 1856. 



ROSSI, JOHN CHARLES FELIX, R.A., was born in 1762 at 

 Nottingham, where his father, a native of Siena, though not a licensed 

 practitioner, practised as a medical man. Young Rossi was appren- 

 ticed very early to a sculptor of the name of Luccatella, with whom 

 he remained, after he had served his time, as a journeyman, at 

 18s. per week; but being employed by his master to correct some 

 work on which Luccatella's principal assistants had been engaged, he 

 suspected that his own abilities were of a superior class, and he 

 demanded and obtained higher wages. It was now however, having 

 once felt the longing for praise, impossible for him to remain in his 

 then subordinate situation, and he determined upon trying to better 

 himself in London. There, still a boy, he entered himself as a student 

 of the Royal Academy; and in 1781 he obtained the silver medal, and 

 in 1784 the gold one, which entitled him to three years' maintenance 

 at Rome. He went to Rome in 1785 ; in 1788 he returned to London ; 

 in 1800 he was elected an associate of the academy ; and only two years 

 afterwards, a very short interval, he was elected an academician. He 

 was subsequently appointed sculptor to the Prince Regent, and he was 

 employed in decorating Buckingham Palace. He was afterwards 

 sculptor to William IV. But his celebrity had passed away, and he 

 had little to do after the completion of his great public monuments in 

 St. Paul's cathedral. In the latter years of his life he depended chiefly 

 upon a pension from the Royal Academy. He died February 21, 1839. 

 He was twice married, and had eight children by each wife. 



Rossi was both a classical and a monumental sculptor, and his style 

 was manly and vigorous, especially in his monumental works, but 

 they are not remarkable for any refinement either of sentiment or 

 execution. Of the first class the following may be mentioned : A 

 Mercury in marble, executed in Rome ; a recumbent figure of Eve, ip 

 marble ; Edwin and Eleanora ; Celadon and Amelia ; Musidora ; 

 Zephyrus and Aurora ; and Venus and Cupid. A statue of Thomson 

 the poet by him is in the possession of Sir Robert Peel ; and there is a 

 large colossal statue of Britannia on the Exchange at Liverpool. His 

 best works however, and those by which he is and will be known, 

 are the following monuments in St. Paul's cathedral : The Marquis 

 Cornwallis, in the nave ; Captain Faulkner and Lord Heathfield, in the 

 south transept ; and Captains Mosse and Riou, and Lord Rodney, in 

 the north transept. The principal of these are those to Lords Corn- 

 wallis, Heathfield, and Rodney, and Captain Faulkner; all of which, 

 except the second, are groups of three or more figures of the heroic 

 size. That to Lord Cornwallis is placed opposite to Flaxman's monu- 

 ment to Nelson, and is in a similar style of composition and on a 

 similar scale : it is a pyramidal group, the Marquis, as a Knight of the 

 Garter, on a pedestal forming the apex ; below are three allegorical 

 figures Britannia, and impersonations of the Begareth and Ganges, 

 representing the British empire in the East. The sitting male figure 

 or Ganges has much grandeur of form. Lord Heathfield is a single 

 statue, represented in his regimentals : on the pedestal is an alto-rilievo 

 of Victory descending from a castellated rock to crown a warrior on 

 the sea-shore with laurel. Against the same pier is the monument to 

 Captain Faulkner, R.N., who was killed on board the Blanche frigate 

 in 1795 : Neptune, seated on a rock, is in the act of catching the 

 naked figure of a dying sailor; Victory is about to crown him with a 

 laurel. Lord Rodney's monument is a pyramid group, the statue of 

 the admiral forming the apex ; below is Fame communicating with 

 History. As will be seen, he depended mainly for religious sentiment 

 and poetic effect on the admixture of allegory borrowed from classical 

 mythology with literal fact, which was so favourite a practice with the 

 sculptors of the 18th and early part of the present century, but which 

 appears very difficult to reconcile with the requirements of monu- 

 mental works in a Christian temple, or with common-sense. 



ROSSI, ROSSO DE', or IL ROSSO, called in France, 'Maitre Roux,' 

 a celebrated Florentine painter, was born in Florence in 1496. He 

 studied the works of Michel Angelo, and was distinguished for the 

 boldness and freedom of his style. He executed several works in 

 various cities of Italy, but his paintings are not numerous in Italy, as 

 he passed the best portion of his career from about 1538 in the service 

 of Francis I. at Fontainebleau, where he superintended all the works 

 of the palace, with a princely allowance, and a house in Paris, given to 

 him by Francis. In the year 1541 however, while still at Fontaine- 

 bleau, a few hundred ducats were stolen from him, and he accused his 

 friend and assistant Francesco Pellegrini of the theft, who was put to 

 the torture and was declared to be innocent, Rosso' s sorrow for what 

 had happened, and the taunts of Pellegrini and his friends together, 

 annoyed him to that extent that he poisoned himself, to the great 

 astonishment and grief of Francis and his own pupils and assistants. 

 He is said to have been called II Rosso on account of his red hair : he 

 was remarkable for his large and handsome person and general accom- 

 plishments and acquirements. Rosso was the boldest painter that had 

 appeared in Italy up to the time of Vasari. Very few of his works 

 were left at Fontainebleau ; many of them were destroyed by his suc- 

 cessor Primaticcio. Many of his works have been engraved. (Vasari, 

 Vite d Pittori, &c. ; Lettere Pittoriche ; D'Argenville, Vies des 

 Peintres.) 



"ROSSINI, GIOACCHINO, the greatest dramatic composer of the 



present century, was born on the 29th of February, 1792, at Pesaro, a 

 little town near Bologna. His father was a horn-player in the orches- 

 tras of strolling theatrical companies, and his mother was a second- 

 rate actress and singer. Young Rossiui began his career by playing 

 second horn to his father when he was only ten years old, and thus 

 gained an acquaintance with opera music and opera business. Having 

 a beautiful voice, his father had him taught singing by an eminent 

 professor. He sang the treble parts as a choir-boy in the Bologna 

 churches, and very soon became an excellent singer and a skilful 

 accompanist. The breaking of his voice put an end to his occupation 

 as a chorister ; and at the age of fifteen he was admitted into the 

 Lyceum of Bologna, and received lessons in counterpoint from the 

 learned Padre Mattel. He did not take kindly to the severe duties 

 imposed on him by his master ; his temperament was too ardent and 

 volatile for the drudgery of double counterpoint, fugues, and canons. 

 Mattel, having told his pupils one day, that simple counterpoint, which 

 they had been hitherto studying, might suffice for music in the free 

 style, but that deeper knowledge was necessary for the composition of 

 ecclesiastical works, the quick-witted youth instantly caught at the 

 remark : " Do you mean to say, Padre, that, with what I have learned 

 already, I could write operas ?" " Why, yes," was the answer. " Well, 

 then," rejoined Rossini, "I mean to write operas : and I don't want 

 any more lessons." And thus ended the young musician's scholastic 

 education. But, in truth, he educated himself, and was indefatigable 

 in his labour of self-instruction. He gave his days and nights not 

 only to the great composers of the Italian musical stage, but to the 

 German masters, who were then neither appreciated nor understood 

 in Italy. To Mozart he especially devoted himself, and he retains to 

 this day the deepest veneration for his illustrious predecessor. In 

 this way he made himself a musician; and his works show his mastery 

 of all the resources of art which are necessary for that branch of it 

 to which he applied himself. He continued this process of self-tuition 

 during the whole of his career. It was a course of constant progress ; 

 a progress which may be measured by comparing his first great work 

 with his last his ' Tancredi ' with his ' Guillaume Tell.' 



Before the beautiful opera which made him at once famous, he had 

 produced several juvenile pieces, which obtained some degree of 

 success; but they need not now be enumerated, as they have all 

 passed into oblivion except ' L'Inganno Felice,' performed at Venice in 

 1812. This opera became known beyond the confines of Italy, and 

 we once (many years ago) witnessed its representation in London. It 

 contains some beauties ; but, as a whole, it is feeble, and not worthy 

 of preservation. 



' Tancredi ' was produced at Venice in 1813. No work of genius 

 ever excited in a higher degree that sensation which the Italians so 

 emphatically designate by the term furore. The susceptible Venetians 

 were enchanted with its freshness and spirit, its noble chivalrous tone, 

 its beautiful melodies, and brilliant yet simple accompaniments. The 

 dilettanti exclaimed that Cimarosa had come back to the world. 

 Nothing was to be heard in the saloons, the streets and public walks, 

 the places of amusement nay, even the courts of justice, but snatches 

 of airs from ' Tancredi.' Its renown flew over all Italy, and over all 

 Europe. In Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal, there was not a 

 musical theatre, great or small, where it was not performed and 

 received with enthusiasm, within a year or two of its first production; 

 and in a very few years more it had crossed the Atlantic, and pursued 

 its triumphant course over the great American continent. In short, 

 Rossiui, with hia ' Tancredi,' speedily made the conquest of the whole 

 world of music. This work indeed raised him at once to the summit 

 of fame, and all his subsequent labours could do no more than sustain 

 him at the same elevation. 



Rossini now produced opera after opera with astonishing rapidity, 

 but he was not for some time able again to reach the level of 

 ' Tancredi.' ' L'ltaliana in Algieri,' ' La Pietra di Paragone,' ' Deme- 

 trio e Polibio,' ' II Turco in Italia,' and ' Aureliano in Palmira,' were 

 all favourably received at the different theatres where they were 

 brought out, but none of them has kept possession of the stage. 

 ' L'ltaliana in Algieri,' and ' II Turco in Italia,' were performed at Her 

 Majesty's Theatre ; and the former was revived at the Royal Italian 

 Opera during Mademoiselle Alboni's first season at that theatre ; but 

 neither of them proved attractive in England : as to the others, they 

 appear to be entirely forgotten. ' Aureliano in Palmira ' was success- 

 ful at first, the principal character having been performed by Velluti, 

 then in the height of his popularity. This celebrated singer, who was 

 a great master of the 'florid' style, covered his airs with such a pro- 

 fusion of brilliant embellishments, that Rossiui exclaimed, "Non 

 conosco piu la mia musica " (" I do not know my own music "), and, 

 it is said, was induced* by this circumstance to write his airs with all 

 their ornaments, so as to prevent them from being spoiled by the pre- 

 sumption and bad taste of singers ; though his expedient has not been 

 very successful, for the favourite warblers of the day cannot bo 

 restrained from embellishing even his embellishments. 



In the year 1815 Rossini was appointed musical director of the 

 great theatre of San Carlo at Naples ; a situation which he held for 

 seven years. The first opera composed by him for Naples was 

 ' Elisabetta Regina d'Inghilterra,' which had great success ; owing, 

 it would seem, to the manner in which the character of the queen 

 was performed by Mademoiselle Colbrand, one of the greatest 



