GIRAUD, COUNT GIOVANNI. 



GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART, M.P. 



116 



Canlinal Richelieu, tho group of the ' Rape of Proeerpiue,' the four 

 principal figure* in the ' Bath of Apollo ' t Versailles, and the bronze 

 equestrian lUtue of Looii XIV., formerly In the Place- VendAme ; on 

 the il>ject of which last BoBrand published a work entitled 'Descrip- 

 tion de o* qui a etc* pratique 1 pour fondra en bronze d'uu seul jet la 

 figure eqoestre de Louis XIV.,' fol.. 1743. 



O1KAUD, COUNT GIOVANNI, one of the beat and most popular 

 writers of Italian comedy, was born at Rome on the 28th of October 

 1770, and was of a noble and wealthy family, originally of French 

 extraction. Of hia first studies and his early passion for the drama 

 and everything connected with the theatre, lie himself has given an 

 amusing account in the general preface to his comediea. When he 

 wu at the age of sixteen the death of his father, Count Ferdinando, 

 left him to frequent the theatre without restraint. Even before that 

 time he had begun to attempt dialogues and scenes in imitation of 

 Goldoni, Chiiuri, and other dramatist* ; but it was not till some years 

 afterwards that he composed hia fir.it regular piece, 'I Gelosi per 

 EquiToeo,' nor was that performed till 1S07. It met with decided 

 success; and in tho same year he produced liU 'L'Ajo nell' Imbarazzo' 

 ('The Tutor in a Scrape'), which is universally allowed to be bis 

 masterpiece, and one of the happiest specimens of modern Italian 

 comedy. In 1812 he went to Paris with hit elder brother Pietro, and 

 he again visited France in 1815, after the restoration of the Bourbons, 

 and also came over for a short time to England. On his return to 

 Italy he published (1816) his 'Teatro Domestioo,' and produced some 

 fresh pieces for the stage, but was soon after seized with a fancy for 

 entering into mercantile speculations and other schemes, which, 

 besides diverting him from the career in which he had distinguished 

 himself, failed so completely, that he was at length reduced to com- 

 parative poverty. His disappointments greatly affected both his health 

 and his mind ; he fell into a declining state, and was at lost carried off 

 by a severe nervous attack in the spring of 1834. 



Giraud possesses more of comic power than is displayed by any of 

 his contemporaries; he exhibits more of vivacity, incident, situation, 

 and stage effect ; and if his dialogue seldom rises above the level of 

 ordinary conversation, it is free from that drawling flatness which is 

 a frequent defect of modern Italian comedy. Some of his pieces were 

 founded upon real circumstances, and in one instance thU brought 

 him into a very serious dispute with the family of the Marchese 

 Albergati (another celebrated dramatist) ; for his 'Sospetto Fuuesto ' 

 was supposed by them to allude very undisguisetlly to an unfortunate 

 domestic affair, and the suspicious circumstances attending the sudden 

 death of the marquis's second wife. The piece was in consequence 

 prohibited ; nor does it appear to have ever been published. To all 

 of those which he did publish he prefixed a separate preface, which 

 self-commentaries possess a value and interest of their own. 



GIRODET-TRIOSON, ANNE LOUIS, one of the most celebrated 

 of the recent French painters, was born at Moutargis on the 5th of 

 January 1767, and was the favourite pupil of Divid ; he studied also 

 Home time in Italy. His name is really Girodet ; he adopted that of 

 Trioson in 1812, from bis guardian, a physician. His first picture of 

 note was the 'Dream of Kndymiou,' painted in Rome; and in 1806 

 he created considerable sensation by hia large picture of a scene from 

 the ' Deluge,' now in the Louvre, a composition exceeding all limits of 

 probability, quite void of true dramatic character, dead in modelling 

 and in colour, and good only in the academical outline of the figures, 

 which however, though about to fall headlong, are motionless : the 

 whole composition ia an example of the awful made ridiculous by bad 

 treatment. 



There are three other works by Girodet in the Louvre the ' Endy- 

 mion, 1 the ' Burial of Atala,' from Chateaubriand, and the ' Revolt of 

 Cairo,' an extremely extravagant composition. Girodet's chief merits 

 are an elaborate execution and an academical beauty of design ; but it 

 is generally a cold lifeless beauty. One of his best pictures is 

 'Pygmalion and his Statue,' in the Somoriva collection, which is 

 chaste and beautiful in composition and execution, and it is a subject 

 which does not suffer from Girodet's peculiar style : it has been 

 engraved by Laugier. 



Host of the best works of Girodet have been well engraved, as well 

 as a vast number of designs for publishers. A collection of literary 

 works, also by him, was published in 1829, under the title 'Les (Euvres 

 posthumes, Poe'tiques, et Didactiques, de Girodet Trioson,' 2 vols. Svo, 

 containing also a life and correspondence. 



Girodet was a member of the Academy of Painting and of the 

 Institute of France, a knight of the Order of St. Michael, and officer 

 of the Legion of Honour. He died December 9th, 1824. A sale of 

 his effects was made after his death, when some of his drawings 

 realised enormous prices. 



GIU'LIO ROMA'NO, or GIULIO PIPPI, was born at Rome in 

 1 492, and at an early age it was his good fortune to become the scholar 

 of Raffaelle, of whom ho was the favourite pupil, and whose successor 

 he may justly be considered. He assisted that great master in very 

 many of his works, particularly in the celebrated ' Battle of Coustau- 

 tine,' and other frescoes in the ttanzc of the Vatican, where he see ill 8 

 to have wrought with a congenial spirit, and to have been inspired by 

 the conceptions of his instructor and guidt*. So great was the attach- 

 ment of Haffaclle to him, that at his death he made Giulio his chief 

 heir, and further directed that all his unfinished works should be 



completed by him. His name therefore is in some manner linked 

 with that of the greatest of modern painters. From him too Giulio 

 imbibed a taste for architecture, in which art his proficiency was such 

 that it was as much in the capacity of architect and engineer a> that 

 of painter that he was, after the death of Raffaelle, invited by Frederic 

 Gouzaga to Mantua, for the purpose of conducting the various works 

 which that prince had projected for the improvement and embellish- 

 ment of his capital. At Home he had already erected several buildings 

 remarkable for their taste, including the Villa Madama, the Villa 

 Lante, and the two small palazzi, Alberini and Ceuci, the casino 

 belonging to the first-mentioned of which has always been greatly 

 admired by artists for the invention and classical elegance shown in its 

 arabesques and other decorations. 



Arrived at Mantua, be found an ample and varied field open to his 

 talents, being called upon to exercise them on works of the most 

 opposite character, from those whose merit lay in scientific skill and 

 construction to those which afforded him an opportunity of displaying 

 his fancy in their elaborate embellishment. Among tho former were 

 those for draining the marshes, and securing the city from tho inun- 

 dations of the Po and Miucio ; and among the hitter, the decorations 

 and spectacles got up on the occasion of the emperor Charles V.'s 

 visit to Mantua. But that of the greatest note was the palace called 

 the Tc, of which he was not only the architect, but adorned the apart- 

 ments with a variety of admirable stuccoes and paintings executed by 

 himself and his pupils. The building itself indeed is rather plain 

 externally, being a simple square of about 190 feet, and of rather low 

 proportions, as it consists of only a single order (Doric), comprising 

 two ranges of windows, the upper one of which is a mezzanine. The 

 whole is sufficiently sober, for the windows are without dressings; 

 neither is there any other embellishment besides the order itself and 

 the rusticated surface of the walls. The simplicity which reigns 

 throughout is increased by the entablature being carried quite 

 unbroken along the whole extent of front, which it terminates, thero 

 being neither attic nor balustrade above it. Yet if in respect to its 

 exterior this edifice does not offer much for description, it would 

 require a volume to enumerate and explain all the various decorations 

 of the interior the profusion of stuccoes, friezes, and frescoes, with 

 which the different apartments are adorned. One of the most remark- 

 able is that named the Sala de' Giganti, the walls being entirely covered 

 with figures representing the defeat of the Titans a subject treated 

 by him with such astonishing energy that Giulio has hero shown him- 

 self equal to the style of Michel Angela ; while in the series repre- 

 senting the history of Psyche he has emulated Raffaelle, though he 

 falls far short of him in delicacy and refinement. Unfortunately, 

 both these works have been so retouched and repaired that they now 

 exhibit very little of the original execution, and therefore show only 

 their desigu and composition, and the poetical genius of their author, 

 which, according to Reynolds, he possessed in a higher degree than 

 any other artist before or since. Even the embellishment of this 

 palace alone would appear to have been nearly the work of an entire 

 lifetime ; and such indeed it must have proved had not Giulio con- 

 tented himself with giving his designs aud cartoons to be copied by 

 his pupils, which being done, it was his practice to go over the whole 

 of each painting, correcting it aud finishing it up until he had stamped 

 it with the character of his own pencil. 



Besides the edifices already mentioned, he restored or embellished 

 various churches at Mantua, and especially the cathedral, which, 

 although comparatively seldom spoken of, is one of the finest build- 

 ings of its kind in. Italy. Giulio however did not live to see it finished, 

 but it was completed after his death by his pupil Bertano. He died 

 in 1546, as he was on the point of quitting Mantua; for notwith- 

 standing the high repute and favour he enjoyed there, his ambition 

 tempted him to accept the offer of succeeding Sausovino as the architect 

 of St. Peter's, although he had previously refused the pressing instances 

 of Francis I., who was anxious to engage him in his service. 



As a painter Giulio was by no means so happy in colouring as in 

 design and invention, which, if occasionally rather forced aud extrava- 

 gant, were for the most part highly noble. He chiefly excelled in 

 mythological subjects, nor was he always very scrupulous iu treating 

 them, many being exceptionable on account of their voluptuousness. 

 Indeed it is said that his chief inducement at first for removing to 

 Mantua was to abscond from Rome, where he was implicated iu an 

 affair that will ever bo a blot in his character ; it being reported that 

 he had furnished the engraver Mark Antonio Raiuioudi with a series 

 of obscene drawings for as many sonnets of Aretino. Raimondi was 

 thrown into prison ; and, had he remained at Rome, Giulio would in 

 all probability have shared the same fate, and not undeservedly. 



While at Mantua he formed a sort of school, the most eminent 

 scholars of which were Primaticcio and Rinaldo Mantovano. 



GLADSTONE, THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM i:\VAHT, M. P., 

 is tho fourth son of the late Sir John Gladstone, Bart., of Fasque, N.B., 

 an eminent merchant of Liverpool, by a daughter of the late I ' 

 Robertson of Dingwall, N.B. He was born at Liverpool iu 1809, and 

 received his early education at Eton, and afterwards at Clirietuhurch, 

 Oxford, of which he was elected a student in 1829, aud where ho 

 graduated as a double first-class iu 18S1. Having spent several months 

 iu n tour through a great portion of the continent, lie was elected 

 member of parliament for Newark, iu the Conservative interest, in 



