198 



GHIBELLINES 



GHOOBKHAS 



Ghibellines. See GUELPHS. 



Ghiberti, LOKENZO, an Italian goldsmith, 

 bronze-caster, and sculptor, was born at Florence 

 about 1378. He was apprenticed to his stepfather, 

 a skilful goldsmith, and also acquired dexterity in 

 drawing, painting, and modelling. In 1400 he 

 executed a noble fresco in the palazzo of Pandolfo 

 Malatesta at Rimini. Along with other artists, he 

 was next chosen ( 1401 ) by the Florentine guild of 

 merchants to compete for the execution of a gate 

 in bronze, to match that executed by Andrea Pisano 

 in the baptistery in 1336. The subject of the 

 design was ' The Sacrifice of Isaac,' to be executed 

 in bas-relief as a model for one of the panels. The 

 judges selected Ghiberti's design, both on account 

 of the art and beauty of its conception and the 

 delicacy and skill of its execution. When Ghiberti 

 had completed this great work (1424) his fellow- 

 citizens entrusted him with the execution of another 

 gate, to emulate the two already adorning the 

 baptistery. This second gate, finished in 1452, con- 

 tains ten reliefs on a larger scale, the subjects in 

 this case also being wholly biblical. The mingled 

 grace and grandeur of these compositions is beyond 

 all praise ; though his treatment of bas-relief has 

 been condemned as wrong in principle. On the two 

 gates he spent fifty years of most patient labour. 

 Not the least of Ghiberti's merits was the success 

 that attended his efforts to break down the con- 

 ventionalism that before his day hampered the free 

 development of sculptural art. Among his other 

 works may be mentioned the sepulchral monu- 

 ments of Dati in Santa. Maria Novella, and of the 

 Albizzi in Santa Croce at Florence, executed about 

 1427 ; a bronze relief in the Duomo, representing 

 St Zenobius bringing a dead child to life (1440) ; 

 and between 1414 and 1422 bronze statues of St 

 John the Baptist, St Matthew, and St Stephen 

 for the church of Or San Michele. Ghiberti died 

 at Florence, 1st December 1455. See Perkins, 

 Ghiberti et son ficole (Paris, 1885). 



Ghika, HELENA, Princess Koltzdff-Massalsky, 

 better known by her literary pseudonym of Dora 

 d'Istria, was a daughter of Prince Michael Ghika, 

 was a niece of two hospodars of Wallachia, and was 

 born at Bucharest, 22d January 1829. The family 

 from which she was descended was Albanian in 

 origin, and from the time of George Ghika, hospo- 

 dar of Wallachia in 1660, gave many princes and 

 eminent men to the principalities (see ROUMANIA). 

 Profoundly instructed in the classics under the 

 care of George Pappadopoulos, the princess added 

 to her acquirements by travels through Germany, 

 France, and Italy an extensive knowledge of 

 modern languages and literature. At fifteen she 

 commenced a translation of the Iliad into German, 

 and not long after wrote several pieces for the 

 theatre. On her unhappy marriage in 1849 with 

 Prince Koltzoff-Massalsky she accompanied her 

 husband to the court of St Petersburg ; but from 

 1855 she resided mainly at Florence, where she died, 

 22d November 1888. Her first important work, 

 La Vie Monastique dans realise Orientale, was 

 published in 1855. Other works were : La Suisse 

 Allemande (1856); Les Femmes en Orient ( 1 860 ) ; 

 Excursions en Roumelie (1863); Aux Bords des 

 Lacs Helvetiques (1864); Des Femmes, par une 

 Femme (1864); Gli Albanesi in Rnmenia ; Storia 

 dei Principi Ghika ( 1873 ) ; La Poesie des Ottomans 

 (1873). She wrote much for the Revue des Deux 

 Mondes and other journals and magazines of 

 France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland; and her 

 writings on Albanian literature stirred up a not- 

 able literary and national movement amongst the 

 Albanians. She was made a member of several 

 learned societies, and an honorary citizen of the 

 Greek kingdom. See Cecchetti, Dora d'lstria 



( 1871 ), and an article in Scribner's Magazine for 

 December 1878. 



Gllilail', a province of Persia, the western por- 

 tion of the narrow strip of country lying between 

 the Elburz range and the Caspian Sea, is separated 

 from Russian Caucasia on the north-west by the 

 river Astara. Area, 4251 sq. m. Owing to the 

 lowness of the land, the province is subject to 

 frequent inundations, and during great part of 

 the year is little better than a swamp. There are 

 dense forests, chiefly of oaks, maples, ashes, limes, 

 &c., and a tropical luxuriance of vegetation. Ex- 

 tensive plantations of fruit and mulberry trees 

 are grown, these last for the production of silk. 

 The soil is extremely fertile, bearing barley, wheat, 

 fruits, and great quantities of rice. Animal life 

 is abundant. The fisheries in the Caspian are very 

 productive. The population, estimated at 150,000 to 

 250,000, are principally of Iranian descent, mingled 

 with Kurdish and Turkic immigrants, and nearly 

 all are Shiite Mohammedans. The climate is 

 moist, changeable, and unhealthy. Storms are 

 very violent. 



GhilzaiS, an Afghan tribe. See AFGHANISTAN. 



Ghirlandajo. DOMENICO CURRADI, nick- 

 named II Ghirlandajo ( ' the garland-maker ' ), Italian 

 painter of the early Florentine school, was born in 

 1449 at Florence. As a youth he was apprenticed to 

 a goldsmith, probably his father, the maker of metal 

 garlands ; and it was not until his thirty-first year 

 that he became known as a painter. He painted 

 principally frescoes, and in his native city. The 

 church of Ognisanti there contains from his hand a 

 St Jerome and a Last Supper ( 1480 ) ; the Palazzo 

 Vecchio, the Apotheosis or St Zenobius (1481-85) ; 

 the church of S. Trinitk, six subjects from the 

 life of St Francis (1485) and an altar-piece, the 

 ' Adoration of the Shepherds ' ( now in the Floren- 

 tine Academy ) ; the choir of S. Maria Novella, a 

 series illustrating the lives of the Virgin and the 

 Baptist ( 1490). Between 1482 and 1484 he painted 

 for Pope Sixtus IV., in the Sistine Chapel at 

 Rome, the excellent fresco ' Christ calling Peter 

 and Andrew,' and about the same time two 

 pictures in the chapel of St Fina at San Gimignano. 

 Besides these he also executed some easel pictures 

 of great merit, as ' Adoration of the Magi ' ( 1488 ), 

 in the church of the Innocenti at Florence ; the 

 ' Visitation of the Virgin ' ( 1491 ), in the Louvre ; 

 the ' Adoration of the Virgin by the Saints,' in the 

 Uffizi at Florence; and 'Christ in Glory,' at Vol- 

 terra. All these are painted in tempera, and are 

 not free from a certain hardness of outline and of 

 colour. His frescoes are generally characterised 

 by excellent composition, good knowledge of per- 

 spective, strength in the outlines, except in the 

 case of feet and hands, and propriety of expression, 

 but often show a tendency to crudeness in colouring. 

 Ghirlandajo inaugurated at Florence the practice 

 of introducing into his sacred pictures portraits of 

 his contemporaries; and the same fondness for local 

 colour is frequently discernible in his landscape 

 backgrounds. He also executed mosaics, that of 

 the ' Annunciation ' in the cathedral of Florence 

 being especially celebrated. He died at Florence, 

 llth January 1494. Michelangelo was for a time 

 one of his pupils. 



His son RIDOLFO (1483-1561) was a painter of 

 considerable merit, whose best pictures are those 

 which show the influence of Fra Bartolommeo and 

 Raphael, such as two scenes from the ' Life of St 

 Zenobius ' ( in the Uffizi ), ' Ascension of the Virgin ' 

 ( at Prato ), and ' Adoration of the Shepherds ' ( 1510, 

 at Pesth ). 



Ghizeh. See GIZEH. 



Ghizni. See GHAZNI. . 



Ghoorkhas. See GOORKHAS. 



