117 



NI, GIOVANNI BA.TTISTA. 



GUERCINO. 



213 



persons, which might probably have perished ia their scattered state. 

 (Nice"ron, Memoira pour servir, kc.. vol. ix. ; Bayle.) 



GUAUI'NI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, was born at Ferrara in 1537, 

 of a family which had produced several distinguished men of letters. 

 His ancestor Guarino of Verona was one of the restorers of Greek 

 studies in Italy. He died at Ferrara in 1460, leaving a son, Giovanni 

 Battista Guarini, who was many years professor of belles-lettres at 

 Ferrara, where he died in 1494, and left several works; among others 

 a dissertation ' De Secta Epicuri,' and another, ' De Ordine docendi et 

 Btudendi.' Guarini, the subject of the present article, after receiving 

 a careful education was taken into the service of his sovereign 

 Alfonso II., duke of Ferrara, who sent him on several missions as his 

 ambassador to Venice, Rome, Turin, and also to Germany and Poland. 

 In 1582 Guarini retired to his villa near Rovigo, where he applied 

 himself to his studies and to his domestic affairs, which were much 

 impaired by the expenses attending his various journeys. After four 

 years he was recalled by Alfonso, who appointed him secretary of 

 state ; but Guarini soon after resigned again, and passed into the 

 service first of the Duke of Savoy, and afterwards of Vineenzo 

 Gonzaga, duke of Mantua. In 1590 he was once more recalled to 

 Ferrara, aud restored to Alfonso's favour. In 1592, Alfonso having 

 died, and Ferrara being taken possession of by the pope, Guarini 

 offered bU services to Ferdinand do' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, 

 by whom they were readily accepted ; but having some time after 

 quarrelled with him also, be passed into the court of Francesco 

 Maria, duke of Urbino. Becoming dissatisfied here also, he left the 

 Duke of Urbiuo, and went to Rome, Ferrara, aud lastly to Venice, 

 where he died in October, 1612. He often complained of the trammels, 

 jealousies, and ingratitude of courts ; and yet, although he was not 

 debtitute of the means of independence, he could not live away from 

 courts, and after repeatedly quitting in dudgeon one prince, he looked 

 about for another to take him into his service. Guarini wrote poetry 

 of various kinds : the most celebrated of his compositions is his 

 ' Pastor Fido,' (the faithful swain), a pastoral drama, which was per- 

 formed with great splendour at Turin on the occasion of the marriage 

 of Charles Einanuel, duke of Savoy, with the infanta Catbariue of 

 Spain. It was published for the first time ut Venice, in 1590, ten 

 years after the publication of Tauo's pastoral drama, the ' Aminta.' 

 The two dramas however .are very different, that of Guariui being 

 more complicated in its plot, and more elevated in its sentiments and 

 style ; perhaps too much so for a composition called pastoral. Bat 

 Guariui' s shepherds are in fact men of the world and smart reasoners. 

 The greatest charm of the poem is in the softness and fluency of its 

 versification. It is said that the author spent many years in touching 

 aud retouching his work. It must also be observed that the ' Pastor 

 Fido' contains some loose passages and immoral sentiments. The 

 beauties and the faults of this production have been commented upon 

 by a host of critks, the titles alone of whose works fill up a whole 

 chapter of Fontanini's ' Biblioteca dell' Eloquenza Italiaua,' vol. i. 

 class 4, chap. 5. Some of these commentaries, with the name of 

 Verrato, or Veruto, in defence of his poem, were written by Gu.iriui 

 himself. The ' Pastor Fido ' went through mure than thirty editions 

 ia Italy alone ; it was performed with applause in the different Italian 

 cities, and has been translated into almost every language of Europe. 

 Guarini wrote also a number of madrigals, and other specimens of 

 lyric poetry. His works were collected and published in i vols. 4to. 

 Venice, 1737. 



GUBBIO, ODERIGI DA, a famous painter of the latter half of the 

 13th century, was a native of Gubbio or Agobbio, near Perugia. He 

 resided in Rome, where he was the friend of Giotto, and of Dante, 

 who mentions him (Purgatory, Canto xi) as " L'onor d' Agobbio, e 1'onor 

 di quell' arte, che alluminar e chiamata a Parisi" (Glory of Agobbio, 

 and glory of that art, which is termed at Paris the illuminator's) ; he 

 also resided at Bologna, where he instructed Franco, the oldest of the 

 Bolognese painters. He is taid to have likewise practised and taught 

 his art in his native place. Baldinucci endeavours to show that he 

 was a pupil of Cimabue, but this seems improbable. He was chiefly 

 celebrated ag a miniature and uiissal painter, but he appears to have 

 also painted with success in fresco. He died about or shortly before 

 1300. 



* GUDIN, THEODORE, the moat celebrated living French marine 

 painter, was born at Paris, Aug. 15, 1802. He became a pupil of Girodet 

 Trioson [GlHODLT, TRIOJOJI], on leaving whom however he directed 

 his attention exclusively to marine and landscape painting, which he 

 practised both in oil and water colours. He tint exhibited at the 

 Salon in 1822; in 1824 he obtained the second-class medal (marine) ; 

 and in 1827 the government recognised his merit by naming him 

 Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. But the picture which secured 

 his celebrity, was his ' Sauvetage des Pasaagers du Columbus,' which 

 was exhibited at the Salon in 1831, and is now in the Museum at 

 Bordeaux. A still more powerful production was his ' Coup de Vent 

 dans la rade d'Alger,' exhibited in 1835, and which being purchased by 

 the government, is now in the Luxembourg. When Louis Philippe 

 resolved to carry on the decorations of the interior of Versailles, 

 Gudiu, a* the moat eminent in Lis line, was commissioned to paint the 

 principal events in the naval history of France ; and from 1838 to 

 1818, when his labours were brought to a suildeu termination by the 

 Revolution of February, hi* facile pencil produced for the galleries of 



that palace no less than sixty-three marine paintings, chiefly battle- 

 scenes, many of them of considerable size. Constant employmeut, and 

 the eagerness manifested to possess his pictures, produced however an 

 ill influence upon his style. Always somewhat peculiar and affected 

 in style, with a tendency to the melodramatic, he now grew to be 

 negligent of details, loose aud slovenly in touch, outro in composition, 

 and more and more artificial in colour ; until he seemed to have lost 

 all regard for the simplicity and amenity of nature, even in his mere 

 views of places. A few years ago M. Gudin visited this country, and 

 stayed some time in Scotland, and his ' Coast Scenes near Aberdeen,' 

 ' Moonrise on the Aberdeen Coast," the ' Banks of the Don,' &c., are 

 among the most strongly pronounced examples of his later and more 

 artificial manner. Even more exaggerated in style however were 

 some pictures he painted a few years ago in a class differing somewhat 

 from that which he usually practises, such as ' 1'Incendie du Faubourg 

 de Pe'ra,' ' La Plage d'Afrique,' &c. More pleasing in style are his 

 earlier scenes on the coast of France and Holland ; and with all their 

 peculiarities, his views of Caen, Grenoble, &c. M. Gudin was created 

 an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1841, and received a medal of 

 the first class at the Exposition of 1855. 



GUELPHS AND GHIBELINES, the names of two great political 

 parties which divided Italy and Germany duriug the middle ages, 

 became first known as the watchwords of their respective adherents at 

 the battle of Winsberg, in Suabia, between two rivals for the Imperial 

 throne, Conrad, duke of Fraucouia, and Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, 

 of the house of Welf, or Wolf. \\'elf, who was young Henry's uncle, 

 fought on behalf of his nephew, and hia name was the war-cry of his 

 followers ; whilst those of Conrad took for their rallying word the 

 name of Weiblingen, a town of Wurtemberg, and the patrimonial seat 

 of the Hohenstauffcn family, to which Conrad belonged. [Con- 

 RAD III.] In the course of time the name of Guelphs was given to all 

 who were disaffected to the Emperor, aud that of Ghibelmes to the 

 supporters of the Imperial authority ; and as the popes, reviving their 

 old rivalry with the empire, encouraged and supported the disaffected 

 Guelphs, they became at last the leaders of that party, and the Italian 

 cities were divided between the adherents of the popes and those of 

 the emperors. The names of Guelphi and Ghibeliuea were not how- 

 ever generally adopted in Italy till the reign of Frederick II., when, 

 Italy was divided, as it were, into two cauips ; some cities, such as 

 Florence, Milan, Bologna, ranging themselves on the Guelph side, 

 while Pisa, Arezzo, Verona, and others, remained Ghibeliue. But in 

 the long struggle that ensued many alternate changes took place in 

 each city, where sometimes the Guelphs aud sometimes the Ghibeliues 

 gained the upper hand. Most of the powerful nobles in northern 

 Italy, the Viscouti, Doria, Delia Scala, Pelavicino, were Ghibelmes; 

 the Aujou dynasty, which the popes had called to the throne of 

 Naples, were the main support of the Guelphs. As the emperors, 

 engrossed by their German affairs, neglected aud dropped their hold 

 upon Italy, the names of Guelph and Ghibeliue lost their original 

 meaning, and the struggle became one of personal or municipal ambi- 

 tion among the Italians themselves, the Ghibelines beiug for the most 

 part animated by a spirit of aristocracy, the Guelphs professing to be 

 favourers of a popular form of government. [DAK IK.] But even this 

 distinction was often belied by facts, aud the leaders of the Guelphs 

 ia some towns tyrannised over their couiHrymen; whilst in some 

 instances, as at Genoa, the Ghibeliues formed really the popular 

 party. In the lath century the names of Guelphs and Ghibelmei had 

 become a mere traditional shadow, and at last the popes themselves 

 united with the emperor in extinguishing the independence of the 

 Italian republics, without distiuctiou of parties. (Sismoudi, ' History 

 of the Italian Republics ; ' Raumer, ' Geschictite der Hoheustauffen.') 



The House of Brunswick, being descended from, both the houses of 

 Estc and Wt-lf, once allied by marriage, assumes the uauie of Este- 

 Guclph. 



GUKRCI'NO (properly GIOVANNI FRANCESO BAUBIERI), 

 was born in the year 1 JUU at Cento, a village near Bologua, belonging 

 to the province of Feriara. He gave very early proof of his taleuts by 

 painting the figure of the ' Virgin ' on the front of his father's house 

 when Le was ouly ten years of age. He studied under his countrymen 

 Cremouini and Benedetto Geuuari, aud some accounts of hiui have 

 adopted a tradition of his having been a pupil of the Caracci ; but, 

 not to mention other circumstances which render it improbablo that 

 he ever belonged to that school, it is observable that of three different 

 mauuers which he successively adopted, no one bears any traces of the 

 precepts of that celebrated academy. In bis first style, which is the 

 Last known, he followed the manner of Michel Angelo da C'aravaggio, 

 with bright lights, deep shades, a yellowish tone of the flesh, producing 

 a very powerful but not always natural effect. His second style, 

 which is the best au9%iost esteemed, was formed on the results of his 

 observation, the study of the Roman, Venetian, and Bulognese schools, 

 by his connection with the moat eminent scholars of the Caracci, and 

 the personal friendship of Caravaggio. In this style he still retained 

 the striking effects of light and shade iu which lie folio wed Caravaggio, 

 but greatly excelled him in elegance and dignity of feature, ^especially 

 in his female figures ; his men being, in general, little superior to the 

 model he hod before him. He established an academy at Cento iu 

 1616, well furnished with models aud antiques, to which numerous 

 diaciplea soou resorted, for whose improvement he showed the greatest 



