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GIORDANO, LUCA. 



OIOVIO (JOVIUS), PAUL. 



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hb former political production*. He trives to ucerUin and fix n 

 standard for the various kinde of merit or value, physical, intellectual, 

 and accidental, of men. and to point out the authority which is to 

 ntimato the tome. This last subject engrosses a chapter which u 

 perhaps the moit curious in the whole work. Few of the advocates 

 of the political right* of the people hare openly faced the question of 

 the capabilities of the majority of that people for exercising those 

 right*. Qioja has not shrunk from th" thankless task. This chapter, 

 iii of book I., on the judgment of the people assembled for the pur- 

 pose of election, is divided into the following heads: 1. Knowledge 

 required in the people for making a proper choice of public function- 

 aries. 2. Will of toe people in making a choice. 3. Power or means 

 of the people to accomplish the same object Gioja urges the neces- 

 sity of restricting the number of electors by means of qualifications 

 of age, income, and civil and moral requisite). He insists chiefly on 

 the qualification of mature age in the electors, whilst in the candidates 

 for legislative functions he requires principally knowledge and morality, 

 which he thinks might bo ascertained by authentic documents. Book n. 

 treats of the various kinds of rewards for the different degrees of civic 

 merit ; and he combats Bentham and Condorcet, who assert that virtue 

 needs no reward. 



Gioja's work, ' Dell' Ingiuria e dei Danni e del Soddinfacimento,' 

 2 Tola. 8vo, 1821, is a kind of penal cod?, the main principle of which 

 is compensation to the injured per-ou. He proposes to fix a scale 

 applicable to various ca<es, keeping in view chiefly the respective cir- 

 cumstances of the offender and of the offended. A good notice of the 

 work is given in the 'Biblioteca Italiana,' for December 1821. Gioja 

 wrote also a ' Treatise on Ideology,' ' Elements of Philosophy,' ' 11 

 Nuovo Galateo,' or a ' Treatise on Good Manners,' and other works, 

 among which the ' Filosofia della Statistics,' 2 vols., 1826-27, deserves 

 especial mention. The first book treats of physical geography and its 

 various branches, in which he includes climate ; the second, of the 

 population as affected by the physical character of the country ; after- 

 wards the movement of the population, its number, births, marriages, 

 and deaths; the physical character of the people, their food, their 

 habits and occupations; the third, of the productions of countries, 

 vegetable, animal, and mineral. The work is highly interesting, and 

 deserves an attentive perusal. Gioja died at Milan in January 1829. 

 Hii remains were followed to the grave by his disciples and friends. 

 With some eccentricities of temper, he was a most remarkable man 

 for logical perspicuity, vastness of information, and indefatigable 

 labour. He ranks among the very first writers on political economy 

 that Italy has produced. 



(Pecchio, Dtgli Economitti Italiani ; Romagnoli published a biogra- 

 phical notice of Gioja in the ' Biblioteca Italiana,' No. 156.) 



GIORDA'NO, LUCA, called LUCA PA PRESTO, was born in 1629, 

 according to Velasco, or 1632 according to Dominici, at Naples, where 

 he studied painting under Hibera, better known by the name of 

 Spagnoletto. He afterwards went to Rome, where he became a pupil 

 of Pietro da Cortona, and assisted him in many of his great works. 

 Leaving Rome, he repaired to Lombardy to study Correggio, and then 

 to Venice, to acquire a knowledge of the composition and colouring of 

 the great Venetian artists. These various studies not only impressed 

 on his mind a vivid idea of the style of every eminent master ; but, 

 as he had great readiness of hand, enabled him to imitate them go 

 closely as to deceive even experienced connoisseurs. He had not only 

 a fertile imagination, but such a rapidity of execution that the number 

 of great works executed by him is astonishing. It was not from this 

 circumstance however that he derived the name of Fa Presto, but, as 

 is said, from the avarice of his father, who at the beginning of Luca's 

 career sold at a high price his designs after the works of the great 

 masters, and was continually urging him at meals as well as at work 

 by saying, ' I.uca, fa presto ' (' Lues, make haste '), which his com- 

 panions gave him as a nickname. After his return to Naples he was 

 much employed there, till in 1679 he was invited by Charles II., king 

 of Spain, to adorn the EscuriaL He accordingly went to Madrid, 

 where his polished manners, cheerful temper, and lively wit, in addition 

 to his talents as an artist, gained him the favour of the court, where 

 he remained till the death of Charles II., when he returned to his own 

 country. His colouring was agreeable, his designs were spirited and 

 ingenious, and his drawing, when he allowed himself time, correct ; 

 but from the rapidity with which he proceeded, his works are often 

 deficient in these particulars. His best works are his frescoes, in the 

 Escurial at Madrid, at Florence, and at Rome. Some of his finest 

 pictures are at Dresden. The grand altar-picture in the church of the 

 Ascension at Naples, representing the ' Battle of the Angels and the 

 Fall of Lucifer,' is considered as one of his finest performances. He 

 died in 1704 or 1705. 



GIORGIO'NE pi CASTELFRANCO (called GIOBOIO BABBABKLLI), 

 one of the most distinguished artists of the Venetian school, was born 

 in 1477 at Castelfranco, in the Trevisauo. He received his education 

 at Venice, where he at first devoted himself to music, and became an 

 excellent performer on the lute. He however soon applied to painting, 

 and became the disciple of Giovanni Bellini, whose minuteness of 

 manner he speedily rejected, and adopted a much freer style, distin- 

 guished by bold fore-shortening, ample outlines, dignity and animation, 

 breadth of drapery, richness of accompaniment, a more natural and 

 softer gradation of tints, rich and glowing though subdued tone of 



colour, and forcible effects of uliiar o'curo. This last had indeed been 

 already practised by Lionardo da Vinci, but there appears to be no 

 olid ground for the assertion of Vasari that Giorgione was indebted 

 for his chiar-oscuro to some paintings or drawings by Lionardo. In 

 the school of Bellini he had Titian for one of his fellow-pupils, who at 

 a subsequent period of their lives was so struck with the style and 

 colouring of Giorgione that, as some writers affirm, he became his 

 pupil ; but it appears more probable that be cultivated an intimacy 

 with him, which was ended by the jealousy of Giorgione, who saw that 

 his friend was becoming a formidable rival. His greatest works were 

 in fresco, and he adorned the fronts of many large buildings in Venice 

 with admirable works, of which nothing now remain*. He painted 

 however many oil-pictures, which are distinguished by vigorous imposto, 

 fulness of pencil, and grandeur of colour. His portraits are of remark- 

 able excellence, as well for their intellectual expression and dignified 

 repose as for their singular technical merits. His historical pieces are 

 few, and as he died so young, they are of course scare and highly 

 valued. 'Christ allaying the Storm,' in the school of St. Mark at 

 Venice, appears to have been the moat considerable of his historical 

 compositions. The ' Finding of Moses,' in the archiepiscopal palace 

 of Milan, and ' Christ bearing the Cross,' at Venice, have been looked 

 upon as his master-pieces. He died at Venice during the pligue in 

 1 51 1 at the age of thirty-four, leaving a fame as a colourist only rivalled 

 by that of Titian, and in a certain sombre glow and amenity he stands 

 alone. On the whole, he seems to have felt the poetry of colour more 

 truly than any other of the great colourists even of the Venetian 

 school. Our national and public galleries possess no adequate 

 scarcely a genuine example of this great painter. 



GIOTTO, properly AMBBoatoiro BONDONE, born in 1276, in the 

 district of Vespignano, near Florence, was the son of a simple peasant 

 and followed his father's occupation. In the half-idle employment of 

 tending the sheep in the fields, he used to amuse himself by sketch- 

 ing figures, and being found by Cimabue drawing a sheep with a 

 sharp stone on a piece of slate, this artist was so struck with the per- 

 formance that he asked Giotto's father to entrust his son to him. He 

 took him to Florence, where he instructed him in painting (in fresco 

 or distemper, oil painting not being yet discovered). Giotto applied 

 with great diligence to the art, and fully realised the anticipation of 

 his master, whom he soon excelled. He first freed art from the dry 

 gothic manner which then prevailed, and gave expression and action 

 to his figures. He was distinguished above all his contemporaries by 

 nobler forms, a pleasing disposition of his figure.-, the broad majestic 

 folds of his draperies, and especially by a gracefulness which remained . 

 unequalled till the appearance of Masaccio. It seems likely that he 

 was partly indebted for his superiority to the study of the antique, 

 with which he might have become acquainted at Florence, and after- 

 wards at Rome ; and it is the more probable, as we know that he was 

 also an architect and sculptor, and that models of his still existed in 

 the time of Lorenzo Ghiberti. His reputation spread throughout 

 Italy, many cities of which are adorned with his works. The greatest 

 proof of his powers was the once celebrated mosaic of the Navicella, 

 or boat of St. Peter, placed over the grand entrance of the church at 

 Rome ; but it has undergone so many alterations that it now affords 

 little evidence of his talents, which however we may judge of by his 

 still remaining works at Florence, in the ' Coronation of the Virgin,' in 

 the church of Santa Croce, the ' Entombment of the Virgin ' at 

 and in the ' History of St. Francis,' in Sacro Convento. He may also 

 be called the restorer of portrait painting, and ha, together with the 

 features, given the air and character of Dante, Brunetto Latini, and 

 Douati, the first of whom mentions him in hia poem*. He was a man 

 of genius and knowledge, pleasant in conversation, and fond of poetry. 

 Boccaccio and Sacchetti often mention him in their novels, and record 

 his witty sayings; and Petrarch speaks of him in his letters. 11 > 

 went with Pope Clement V. to France, where he executed many fresco 

 paintings. He died in 1336. 



OIO'VIO (JOVIUS), PAUL, was born in 1483, of a noble family 

 of Como, and studied in the universities of Padua and Pavia. Ho 

 was intended by his relatives for the medical profession, which how- 

 ever he forsook to devote himself to literature ; and he studied the 

 Roman classics, with a view to form his style in that language. Having 

 repaired to Rome, soon after the election of Leo X., he found means 

 to be introduced to him, and from that moment the pope became his 

 patron. He was attached to the suite of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, 

 afterwards Clement VII., and followed him in various missions. He 

 remained at the court of Rome after Clement ascended the papal 

 throne, and witnessed the pillage of that city by the Imperial troops. 

 After the restoration of peace, Clement bestowed on him the bishopric 

 of Nocera, where he never resided, but entrusted the charge of his see 

 to a coadjutor. He was present at the famous conference of Bologna 

 between Charles V. and Clement VII., in 1 630, and was favourably 

 noticed by the emperor, who gave him a circumstantial account of 

 his expedition to Tunis, to be inserted iu the history which Giovio 

 was then writing. When Paul III. became pope, Giovio fell into a 

 sort of disgrace, that pope being zealous concerning ecclesiastical dis- 

 cipline, in which the Bishop of Nocera was a latitudiuarian, both in 

 his conduct and writings. (See his ' Lettere.') Ho was accused by 

 satirical poets of every sort of licentiousness, and was also charged 

 with infidelity and atheism. There was malignity aa well as exag^e- 



