219 



RYSBRACK, PETER. 



SAAD-ED-DEEN. 



220 



Commissioners on the Public Records, in which it was proposed to 

 incorporate other documents, which had been discovered since the 

 time of Rymer. This edition extends only to the close of the reign of 

 Edward III. There are in the British Museum a great number of 

 transcripts of documents made under Rymer's direction not used in 

 his work. 



Notwithstanding his appointment of historiographer, and whatever 

 remuneration he might receive for his labours on the 'Fcodera,' 

 Rymer became exceedingly poor in the latter part of his life. He died 

 December 14, 1714, in Arundel-street, in the Strand, and was buried 

 in the church of St. Clement Danes. 



RYSBRACK, RYSBRAECK, or RYSBRECHTS, PETER, was born 

 at Antwerp, in 1657, and studied landscape painting under Francis 

 Mile, whom he accompanied to Paris. He followed the style of Poussin, 

 in imitating whom he was pre-eminently successful. Notwithstanding 

 large offers and flattering encouragement to remain in France, he 

 returned to hia native city, and in 1713 was made director of the 

 Academy there. The landscapes of Rysbrack are distinguished by 

 grandeur of style, which, though founded on an imitation of the admir- 

 able productions of Nicholas Poussin, possess sufficient originality to 

 secure him from the imputation of plagiarism. Indeed he painted in 

 the spirit rather than copied the works of that great artist, though 

 there is a want of variety in his pictures, which places them, in the 

 estimation of connoisseurs, far below those of Poussin. Rysbrack's 

 colouring is harmonious, his touch is bold and free, and he possessed 

 great facility of execution. He died in 1716. 



RYSBRACK, MICHAEL. The date of the birth and the birth- 

 place of this distinguished Flemish sculptor are differently given by 

 different writers ; but Charles Rogers, the publisher of the ' Century 

 of Drawings,' &c., who was well acquainted with him, states that he 

 was born at Antwerp, June 24, 1693. He was the son of the landscape- 

 painter PeterRysbrack, who, after he had given his son some instruction 

 in design, placed him in 1706 with the sculptor Michael Vander Vorst, 

 with whom he remained six years. 



In 1720 Rysbrack came to London, and distinguished himself for 

 his small models in clay. He was the first sculptor who was exten- 

 sively employed in England, and he spread a general taste for the art 

 over the country by his fine monumental works. His progress in 

 London was at first slow, and his first work which attracted notice 

 was a bust of the Earl of Nottingham. He was for some time engaged 

 by Gibbs, who contracted with the original parties for monuments, for 

 which he on his part contracted with Rysbrack, greatly to his own 

 advantage. For instance, Qibbs received from Lord Oxford 100J. each 

 for the statues on Prior's monument in the south transept (or Poet's 

 Corner) in Westminster Abbey, while he gave Rysbrack only B51, each. 

 Rysbrack however soon became aware of his own merit, and shook off 

 all dependence on Gibbs. Engagements crowded upon him, and there 

 was not a work of sculpture of any consequence undertaken in England 

 that was not intrusted to Rysbrack. When men found, says Walpole, 

 that there was a man capable of furnishing statues, the taste for 

 monuments was much improved and greatly spread. 



Rysbrack, unlike most of the artists of his age, studied exclusively 

 nature and the antique; he had no respect for the works of his great 

 countryman Rubens, and those of Rembrandt he would not look at, in 

 which he was of course actuated wholly by the feelings of a sculptor, 

 form and character being his exclusive study. He was a most indus- 

 trious sculptor : fine works are to be seen by him in many parts of 

 England, but especially in Westminster Abbey, at Blenheim, at 

 Stourhead,and at Bristol In few sculptors' Workshops has there been 

 more activity than there was in those of Rysbrack in Vere-street, 

 Oxford-street, during about forty years of the half century that he 

 dwelt in England, though latterly, through his successful rivals 

 Scheemaker and Roubiliac, his occupation sensibly diminished. 



Rysbrack's busts were very numerous, and include those of many 

 distinguished characters. His first great public work was the bronze 

 equestrian statue of William III., which was made for the city of 

 Bristol, and erected in Queen' s-square in 1733. Scheemaker also com- 

 peted for this statue, and his model was thought so excellent that he 

 was presented with 50, though it was rejected for the design of 



Rysbrack, who received 3000Z. for it: Walpole says 1800/. The 

 monument to Sir Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey, which wan 

 exposed in 1731, was executed by Rysbrack from a design by Kent. 

 One to Mrs. Oldfield, in the cloisters, put up the year before, wan 

 apparently his first independent monument in the abbey. 



In 1735 he finished a colossal statue of George II. for the parade 

 of Greenwich Hospital, at the expense of Sir John Jennings, the then 

 governor : it was cut out of a single block of marble weighing eleven 

 tons, which had been captured from the French by Sir George Rooke. 

 He made also the statue of George II., which was in the old Royal 

 Exchange, London. He obtained however most reputation by las 

 monument to John, Duke of Marlborough, and his duchess in the 

 chapel at Blenheim. They are represented with their two sons, who 

 died young, supported by Fame and History ; in the lower part is a 

 basso-rilievo of the surrender of Marshal Tallard : the style is however 

 very far removed from the purity and severity of monumental sculpture 

 of a high order. At Blenheim also, in the library, is a beautiful marble 

 statue of Queen Anne : it was erected in 1726. In Christchurch College, 

 Oxford, there is a statue of Locke by RysbracS, executed in 1757. This 

 college contains also some busts of distinguished members by Rysbrack. 

 Besides what have been already mentioned there are the following 

 monuments by him in Westminster Abbey : to Admiral Vernon, and 

 Richard Kane, governor of Minorca, in the north transept ; to James, 

 Earl Stanhope, in the north aisle ; to John Friend, M.D. ; and John 

 Methuen, in the south aisle; to Sir Godfrey Kneller, in the nave; to 

 John Gay, Nicholas Rowe, John Milton, and Ben Jonson, in the south 

 transept, or Poet's Corner ; and one to Daniel Pulteney in the 

 cloisters. 



The erection of Shakespere's monument by Scheemaker, in West- 

 minster Abbey, is said to have greatly obscured the reputation of 

 Rysbrack ; but it only stimulated the industrious sculptor to make 

 still greater exertions. This rivalry was the cause of his making his 

 Palladio, Inigo Jones, and Fiamrningo, at Chiswick ; and subsequently 

 his masterpiece, the Hercules, at Stem-head, the seat of Sir Richard 

 Colt Hoare. This Hercules is a species of historical figure, a record 

 of the English gymnasium or amphitheatre for boxing, an institution 

 which was put an end to, as the principal gymuasiasts generally ended 

 their career by being hanged. The figure was made for Henry Hoare, 

 Esq., who built a temple expressly for it. It is of the heroic size, 

 seven feet high, and cost Rysbrack three years' labour. The head is 

 copied from the Farnese Hercules ; the limbs are taken from several 

 different English frequenters of this gymnastic amphitheatre. ' The 

 arms,' says Walpole, ' were Broughton's ; the breast a celebrated coach- 

 man's, a bruiser; and the legs were those of Ellis the painter, a 

 great frequenter of that gymnasium.' 



There are many other statues by Rysbrack as a Flora from the 

 antique, at Stourhead ; the Duke of Somerset, at Cambridge, presented 

 by his daughters the Marchioness of Granby and Lady Guernsey ; 

 Charles Duke of Somerset and his Duchess, in Salisbury Cathedral ; 

 Sir Hans Sloane, in the botanical garden at Chelsea, and his bust in the 

 British Museum ; Lady Folkestone, Coleshill, Berks ; Lady Besborough, 

 Derby ; the second, third, and fourth Dukes of Beaufort, at Badmin- 

 ton, Gloucestershire ; Dr. Radcliffe, at Oxford ; John Willet, Esq., Merly 

 House, Dorsetshire; a statue of Charles I., for George Selwyn; and 

 the following busts : Pope, Gibbs, Sir Robert Walpole, Duke and 

 Duchess of Argyle, Lord Bolingbroke, Wooton the landscape-painter, 

 Martin Folkes, Ben Jonsonj Butler, Milton, Cromwell, the heads in 

 the Hermitage at Richmond, and those of the English Worthies which 

 were executed for the Elysian Fields at Stowe : he made also a good 

 bust of himself. Notwithstanding his industry, Rysbrack was not 

 rich, and when at the age of seventy he gave up his profession, he 

 made a sale of his principal effects his remaining works and his col- 

 lections of prints, pictures, drawings, marbles, casts, models, &c., in- 

 cluding a large collection of his own drawings, which, says Walpole, 

 were conceived and executed in the true taste of the great Italian 

 masters. The chief amusement of the last three years of his life 

 was in making such drawings in bistre, and many were sold at two 

 auctions of hia effects which took place after hia death. He died 

 January 8, 1770. 



O AAD-ED-DEEN (KHOJA SAAD-D-DEEN MOHAMMED EFFKNDJ), the i 

 3 most celebrated of the Turkish historiographers, was born in the 

 early part of the 16th century of our era. Hassan-Jan, his father, a 

 Persian by birth, held a post in the household of Sultan Selim I., and 

 was highly esteemed by that ferocious monarch, whom he attended in 

 his last moments. His son Mohammed received his education among 

 the pages of the imperial palace, and having devoted himself to the 

 study of Mo.slem theology and jurisprudence, became a muderris, or 

 professor in the college attached to the great mosque of St. Sophia. 

 The talents and learning which he displayed in this capacity gave him 

 high celebrity, and he was appointed by Selim II., in 1573, khoja, or 

 preceptor to his son Mourad, the heir apparent, who then held the 

 government of Magnesia. The death of Selim, in December 1574, 



called Mourad to the throne ; and Saad-ed-deen was nominated 

 cadhilesker, or military judge; but he continued to retain almost 

 unlimited influence over his imperial pupil, who had recourse to his 

 advice in matters of government so constantly as to excite the 

 jealousy of the vizirs ; and an attempt was made to ruin him by 

 representing the erection of an astronomical oV servatory, which the 

 sultan had founded at his instigation near Top-khana, as an evil omen 

 for the stability of the empire. But though the observatory was 

 demolished by the superstitious fears of Mourad, the favour with 

 which he regarded Saad-ed-deen was unimpaired ; and Mohammed III., 

 who succeeded in 1595, continued to entrust the confidential adviser 

 of his father with the management of the most secret diplomatic 

 relations of the empire. The Khoja-Effendi (as Saad-ed-deen is fro- 



