CON STANCH 



CONSTANT DE REBECQUE 431 



tin- liii-.iLinx away from the traditions of Claude 

 an. I tin- hnteli masters, the return to direct and 

 personal impressions of nature. Witli a broad and 

 rapid ti'iirli In- renders all the force and variety of 

 colouring that full-leafed English landscape pre- 

 sents ; catches, with singular skill, her passing 

 effects of rain-cloud and sunlight ; suggests, with 

 swift and unsurpassable power, her sense of glitter 

 uii'l mot ion. Mi Kiiskin's criticism has, alike in 

 its general scope and in most of its specih'c refer- 

 ences, done much to disparage Constable's art in 

 the estimation of the public of the time that is 

 just passing ; but already there is a recoil on the 

 part of both painters and critics from the detailed 

 intricacy of pre-liaphaelite methods; Constable's 

 works are assuming their true place in the sequence 

 of our national art ; and their painter is being recog- 

 nised as one of the very foremost figures of English 

 landscape painters. Three of his most important 

 and most powerful landscapes, ' The Valley Farm,' 

 ' The Cornfield,' and ' The Hay-wain,' were already 

 in the National Gallery in 1888, when five more 

 were gifted by the painter's family. His ' Salisbury 

 Cathedral ' is at South Kensington, where, as also 

 in the British Museum, his work in water-colour 

 and pencil may be studied. 



The most important of the engravings after 

 Constable are the mezzotint plates by David Lucas, 

 many of which were supervised with especial care 

 during their progress by the painter himself. See 

 his Life by C. R. Leslie ( 1843 ; new ed. 1896). 



Constance, or KOSTNITZ, a city of Baden, once 

 a free imperial city, is situated on lx>th sides 

 of the Khine, at its exit from Lake Constance, 

 91 miles E. of Basel by rail. One of the most 

 ancient towns of Germany, Constance owed its 

 prosperity to its linen industry, for which it was 

 already famous in the 12th century ; but five cen- 

 turies later this had sunk greatly, and it has only 

 been partially revived since the establishment of 

 railways. Its manufactures include linen, cotton, 

 jute, and waterproof fabrics, canvas, carpets, and 

 chemicals ; and other industries are bell-founding, 

 printing, and publishing. Beside the picture- 

 gallery, library, and town-hall, with a valuable 

 collection of archives, the most noteworthy build- 

 ings are the cathedral (part of which dates from 

 the llth century), the ola Dominican convent (now 

 an hotel), and the present market-hall, in which 

 three places the sessions of the great council were 

 held. Pop. ( 1890) 16,235. The most notable event 

 in the history of Constance is the meeting of the 

 ecclesiastical council here in 1414-18 with a view 

 to put an end to the disorders in the popedom and 

 in the election of popes, and also to prevent the 

 spread of the doctrines of Huss. There assembled 

 with the Emperor Sigismund and Pope John XXIII. 

 3 patriarchs, 33 cardinals, 47 archbishops, 145 

 bishops, 124 abbots, 750 doctors, and about 18,000 

 priests and monks, besides numerous princes and 

 counts of the empire, and representatives from all 

 the monarchs of Catholic Christendom ; and the 

 retinues of these members of council swelled the 

 number of strangers resident in the town to 

 over 50,000. The three rival popes, John XXIII. , 

 Gregory XII., and Benedict XIII., were deposed, 

 and Martin V. was elected. Huss (q.v. ) and 

 Jerome of Prague (q.v.) were condemned and 

 burned. The emperor was, however, disappointed 

 in his hope of a thorough reform of the church 

 (<ini.ni reformationis), in spite of the efforts of such 

 advocates of reform as Peter d'Ailly and Gerson 

 (q.v.); and the Council of Basel (o^.v.Jwas after- 

 wards called to carry on the work which the Council 

 of Constance had failed to accomplish. 



Constance. LAKE (called by the Germans 

 Bodensee or Bodmansee the Locus Brigantiniix 



of tin- Romans), lien between Switzerland and 

 (Jeiiiianv, and on the north *i<le of the Alp- of 

 Swit/erfand, and form- a meeting-point of the five 

 territories Baden, Wiirtemlmrg, Havana, Vorarl- 

 berg (Austria), and Switzerland. It ha.- an eleva- 

 tion of 1306 feet above the sea. Lake Constance 

 is traversed by the Khine from east to west ; it 

 greatest length is about 44 miles, and utmost 

 breadth 9 miles, the area lieing 208 .-<j. miles ; the 

 mean depth is 490 feet, while the greatest depth is 

 906 feet. The southernmost of the two western 

 extremities is railed the lower lake, and is separated 

 from the main lake by a narrow channel two miles 

 long, and lies full a yard below the level of the 

 lake. The shores are formed by hilly lands, with 

 low tracts at the mouths of the Khine and smaller 

 rivers. Cornfields, vineyards, pastures, orchards, 

 and wooded declivities, witli here and there the 

 ruins of old castles interspersed, surround the lake. 

 The water has a dark-green hue, often rises suddenly 

 some ten or twelve feet during a thaw, and rolls in 

 high waves during the prevalence of a strong south, 

 north-west, or east wind. Without visible cause it 

 sometimes rises and falls to a considerable degree. 

 Usually the level rises from June onwards to 

 August, when it sinks again. It is seldom frozen, 

 except in very severe winters. The fisheries of 

 this lake are important. Since 1824 steam-naviga- 

 tion has added to the facilities of commerce across 

 the lake, and its commercial importance has been 

 greatly increased by the connection of the chief 

 towns on its shores with the railways of South 

 Germany and Switzerland. The chief towns are 

 Constance, Bregenz, Lindau, and Friedrichshafen. 

 See Capper's SAores and Citicsofthe Bodensee ( 1881 ). 



Constans, youngest of the three sons of Con- 

 stantine the Great, received Illyricum, Italy, and 

 Africa as his share of the empire. After the 'defeat 

 and death of his elder brother Constantino, in 

 340 A.D., Constans became sole ruler of the West 

 till his death in 350. 



Constant, BENJAMIN, subject-painter, was 

 born in Paris, 10th June 1845. He studied in the 

 Ecole des Beaux-Arts and under Cabanel, and 

 began to exhibit at the Salon in 1869, with his 

 ' Hamlet and the King,' a work purchased by the 

 French government. He soon turned to "those 

 Eastern subjects for the treatment of which he is 

 best known, producing ' Prisoners in Morocco ' 

 ( 1 875 ) ; ' Mahomet 1 1. ' ( 1 876 ) ; ' The Harem ' ( 1 878 ) ; 

 'The Favourite of the Emir' (1879): 'The Day 

 after a Victory in the Alhambra ' ( 1882) ; and ' The 

 Vengeance or the Cherif (1885). His works are 

 characterised by direct and powerful but frequently 

 most repulsive realism, melodramatic feeling, bold 

 portrayal of the nude, and vivid colouring. He is 

 one of the most popular of contemporary French 

 painters, and received medals in 1875 and 1876, and 

 the decoration of the Legion of Honour in 1878. 



Constant de Rebecqne, HENRI BENJAMIN, 

 author and politician, was born of French Huguenot 

 ancestry at Lausanne, 23d October 1767. He was 

 educated at Oxford, Erlangen, and Edinburgh, 

 where he became acquainted with Mackintosh 

 and Erskine. In 1795, settling in Paris, he 

 quickly gained reputation as a publicist. He 

 entered the Tribunate in 1799, but was banished from 

 France in 1802, for having denounced the despotic 

 acts of Napoleon. After travelling over Germany 

 and Italy, in company with Madame de Stael, he 

 lived for a number of years in Gottingen. On 

 Napoleon's fall in 1814 he returned to Paris, and 

 issued several pamphlets advocating constitutional 

 liberty ; during the Hundred Days he became one of 

 Napoleon's Councillors of State, though previously 

 he had styled Napoleon a Genghis Khan, and his 

 government a government of Mamelukes. After 



