Brun. Pascal with the means of describing his diagrams, 

 p v - the use of coals taken from the hearth. His first 

 production, which obtained particular admiration, 

 was a portrait of his grandfather, taken when he 

 was not more than twelve. Fortunately, his genius 

 did not want all the encouragement and aid which it 

 deserved : After having studied with great success 

 in the school of Vouet, in his 23d year he was sent 

 by the Chancellor Seguier to Italy, where he pur- 

 sued his art during six years, under the inspection 

 and the roof of Poussin. Though his genius led 

 him to great designs, yet he was so well aware of 

 the advantage of correctness in the minutest things, 

 that he made the manners and costume of antiquity 

 a particular study during the period of his educa- 

 tion, which was happily prolonged till his 30th year. 

 He now returned to Paris, where he was soon dis- 

 tinguished by a court the most polished in Europe, 

 and a monarch who added to his other ambition, the 

 more honourable emulation of the character of the 

 most munificent patron of the fine arts. He was in- 

 troduced to the king by Mazarin, arid found a pow- 

 erful friend in Colbert, to whom he was indebted for 

 his appointment as the king's first painter, as well as 

 for letters of nobility. These honours were confer- 

 red upon him in 1662. To the same minister he 

 owed his appointment to the general direction of all 

 the royal works. He was afterwards placed at the 

 head of the academy of painting, which he greatly 

 served, by his successful exertions, to procure the 

 establishment of a new school at Rome, in which 

 young artists, selected from his countrymen, might 

 be gratuitously educated. In his old age, however, 

 Le Brun experienced mortifications arising from 

 causes not necessarily implied in age. Colbert was 

 removed from the superiatendance of the royal edi- 

 fices. Louvois succeeded to the department, and it 

 was natural that the new superintendant's enmity to 

 Colbert should embrace all his favourites. If the 

 king was not to be influenced so far as to withdraw 

 his countenance from Le Brun, yet it was easy to 

 torment a man of his character, by giving him a ri- 

 val at the palace, in the person of Mignard, and by 

 pointing the competition with all the vexations of a 

 little and contemptible malice. Le Brun was not of 

 a temperament to regard these attempts upon his 

 quiet with philosophical indifference, or with cool 

 disdain. They shook his tranquillity, and are thought 

 to have hastened his dissolution : he died of a de- 

 cline in 1690, in the 71st year of his age. Extreme 

 jealousy of competition seems indeed to have been 

 the great shade in his character, unless the imputa- 

 tion may be thought to have arisen not so much from 

 an excess of jealousy in him beyond other professors 

 of his art, as from his more unreserved expression of 

 what he felt. Had he judged it necessary or deco- 

 rous to make a secret of his feeling of jealousy, he 

 would doubtless have suppressed the expression of sa- 

 tisfaction, after his visit to another and a formidable 

 rival, Le Sueur, in his last illness, on which occasion 

 lie was heard to say, that death was going to take a 

 great thorn out of his foot. The discredited report 

 that he had procured his rival's death, by poison, is 

 a proof, both of the prevailing opinion of his jealousy, 

 and of the scandalous illiberality of his enemies. The 



6 



Brunn. 



2 B R U 



merit of Le Brun, as a painter, was such, that few Bruadiri 

 have had less cause for apprehension from competi- 

 tion. His genius, and the course of his studies, en- 

 gaged him in lofty designs, in the execution of which, 

 the historical propriety, good ordonnance, and just ex- 

 pression, are particularly admired. As a colourist, he 

 is entitled to less praise ; and in drapery and orna- 

 ment, by departing from simplicity, he has betrayed 

 considerable deficiency of taste. As a writer, he is 

 well known by his two works, one on physiognomy, 

 and the other on the passions, the latter of which con- 

 tained figures, which have been much used as models 

 for drawing. It is mentioned, in proof of his solici 

 tude to unite correctness of execution with grandeur 

 of design, that his figures were all drawn naked, arid 

 afterwards clothed ; and it is related of him, that 

 when he was employed about his great work, the 

 battles of Alexander, he obtained models of Per- 

 sian horses, drawn for the purpose at Aleppo. The 

 other most celebrated productions of his pencil are> 

 St John in the isle of Patmos, the carrying of the 

 cross, the crucifixion, and the penitent magdalen. 

 He has gained less reputation by his paintings in the 

 great gallery at Versailles, which occupied him during 

 fifteen years of his life, and in which he has exhibited, 

 in allegory, the great events of the reign of Louis XIV. 

 In this work the artist was instructed and trammel- 

 led by the courtier ; and, if to say, materiem superat 

 opus, is but restricted praise, it is all that could be 

 required, in a labour that was rather imposed by in- 

 terest than chosen by the judgment. See D' Argeu- 

 ville Vies des Peintres. (j. M.) 



BRUNDLSI, or BRUNDISIUM. See BRINDISI. 



BRUNELLIA, a genus of plants of the class 

 Dodecandria, and order Pentagynia. See BOTANY, 

 p. 227. 



BRUNFELSIA, a genus of plants of the class 

 Didynamia, and ordei Angiospermia. See BOTANY, 

 p. 249. 



BRUNIA, a genus of plants of the class Pentan- 

 dria, and order Monogynia. See BOTANY, p. 155. 



BRUNN, BRINN, BRIUN, BRNO, or Bruna, 

 is a city of Moravia, and the capital of a circle 

 of the same name. This town is agreeably and- 

 strongly situated, at the confluence of the rivers 

 Schwartschaw and Surtawa, upon two mountains, 

 the sides of which are well cultivated, and covered 

 with vines. The town is long, and well built, and is 

 remarkable for the beauty of its churches and public 

 edifices. The principal of these is the palace of Diet- 

 richstein ; the fine church of the Jesuits ; the convent 

 of St Thomas, where there is a miraculous Madonna, 

 pretended to have been painted by the Evangelist 

 JLuke ; and the castle of Spielberg, which is built on 

 an eminence near the town, and forms its principal de- 

 fence. This castle is used also as a state prison, and if 

 it were not a little commanded by the higher ground, 

 it would be one of the finest fortresses in Europe. At 

 the foot of the fortress stands two cloisters of nuns, 

 and an hospital of the Knights of Malta. The Car- 

 thusian monastery of Konigsfield is very near the 

 city ; and half way between Brunn and Rischaw s 

 there is a monument of marble erected in honour of 

 one of the emperors. The bas reliefs in bronze, re- 

 present him as conducting the plough. There are 



