GIOJA GIOTTO. 



447 



disposed verticiilattly : these leaves are composed of 

 five unequal leaflets, which are oval lanceolate, acute 

 and dentate on the margin : from the centre of the three 

 leaves arises a peduncle, terminated by a small umbel 

 of greenish inconspicuous flowers, which are succeed- 

 ed by rounded and slightly compressed scarlet berries. 

 It is said to be a native of Tartary, growing wild in 

 a mountainous and wooded region between lat. 39 

 and 47, where it is collected with many precautions 

 by the Chinese and Tartars, at the commencement 

 of spring and in the latter part of autumn, and is so 

 rare as to bring three times its weight in silver. An 

 early traveller relates that the emperor of China 

 employed, in one year, 10,000 Tartars in procuring 

 this root. From China it is imported into Japan, 

 where it was obtained by the Dutch, who first 

 brought it to Europe. Notwithstanding the extra- 

 vagant price and high reputation of ginseng in China, 

 it appears to be, really, a plant of very little efficacy; 

 the taste is sweet and mucilaginous, accompanied 

 with some bitterness, and also slightly aromatic. 

 The same plant, at least it is so considered by botan- 

 ists, inhabits America, chiefly upon or in the vicinity 

 of the Alleghany mountains, and has been exported 

 to China, in such quantities as to reduce the price 

 very much. The P. trifolium, another species of 

 ginseng, inhabits Canada and the north-eastern parts 

 of the United Stales, and is distinguished from the 

 former by its smaller stature and ternate leaves. 



GIOJA, FLAVIO, by some called also Gira and 

 Girt, a navigator of Pasitano, a village in the vicinity 

 of Anialfi, lived at the end of die thirteenth and the 

 beginning of the fourteenth centuries. He was long 

 considered as having first applied the loadstone to 

 the purposes of navigation, and therefore as the in- 

 ventor of the compass. Later inquiries upon this 

 subject have proved that European navigators of the 

 twelfth century made use of the compass or magnetic 

 needle. The merit, therefore, of the navigator of 

 Anialfi can only be that of having perfected what 

 was already invented, which, however, is enough to 

 entitle him to the gratitude of posterity. Till his 

 time, the needle was laid upon a couple of pieces of 

 straw, or small split sticks, in a vessel of water, and 

 thus pointed out the parts of the heavens ; but this 

 instrument must evidently have been unserviceable, 

 except when the sea was still, and the vessel without 

 much motion. G ioja introduced the improvement of 

 suspending the needle in such a manner, that it will 

 point north under all circumstances ; and the im- 

 portance of this fact may be inferred from this, that 

 the whole nautical science assumed, from this mo- 

 ment, a new form, and the vessels, which before 

 rarely left sight of the coast, now launched out upon 

 the wide ocean. Thus Gioja may be considered the 

 father of modern navigation ; and posterity is in- 

 debted to him for the advantages it derives from it. 

 His discovery has subsequently been much improved. 

 See Compass, and Magnetic Needle. 



GIORDANO, LUKE, a painter, born at Naples, 

 1632, a scholar of Spagnoletto, went to Rome to 

 study the great Italian masters, and became the pupil 

 of Peter of Cortona, whom he assisted in his great 

 works. Paul Veronese had afterwards a great influ- 

 ence on his manner. He imitated the greatest 

 masters so well tliat even connoisseurs were imposed 

 upon. He acquired the name of Luca fa presto, on 

 account of the incredible celerity of his execution, 

 or, more probably, because his father, from avarice, 

 often urged him, by this phrase, to expedition. He 

 was rich in invention ; his colouring was soft and 

 harmonious, his pencil free and rapid, and he was 

 well grounded in perspective. He was much em- 

 ployed at Naples, after his return. In 1679, he was 

 employed, by Charles II., to ornament the Escurial. 



He was of an ardent temperament, and amused the 

 court with his sallies. The queen once expressed a 

 wish to see his wife. The painter executed a por- 

 trait of her on the spot, and showed it to the queen, 

 who was so delighted with it, that she took on" her 

 pearl necklace, and sent it to the wife. The king 

 once showed him a piece by Bassano, and expressed 

 much regret at not possessing the pendant. A few 

 days after, Giordano showed him a picture, which 

 the king took to be by Bassano, and for a long time 

 continued to do so, till our painter made himself 

 known as the artist. Besides this picture, he also 

 executed two other pieces, in imitation of the style 

 of that painter, which are in the Carthusian conven- 

 at Naples. There is also in the same convent, ;< 

 piece in which he imitated the manner of the cheva- 

 lier Maximo Stanzioni. After the death of Charles 

 II., he returned to his native country, where he died, 

 1704. His most celebrated pieces are his frescos, 

 in the Escurial, at Madrid, Florence, and Rome. 

 Some of his finest paintings are in the gallery at 

 Dresden. His works are too numerous to have 

 allowed him time for careful study : few are there- 

 fore without faults. 



GIORGIONE DI CASTELFRANCO, properly 

 GIORGIO BARBARELLI, born, in 1477, at Cas- 

 telfranco, in the Venetian territory, is one of the most 

 celebrated painters of the Venetian school. His 

 master was Giovanni Bellini, who dismissed him 

 from envy of his merits. In Venice, he ornamented 

 the fagades of several large buildings, as was the 

 fashion at that period, with frescos, which have 

 mostly perished. He found in Titian a formidable 

 rival in this branch of his art. His portraits are reck 

 oned among the finest of the Italian school. In order 

 to decide practically the dispute concerning the 

 superior of the two imitative arts, he painted, accord- 

 ing to Vasari's account, a naked figure, of which the 

 back was to the spectator, and the front represented 

 as seen in a clear fountain. Upon a polished cuirass, 

 which lay on one side, was the left profile, while the 

 right was reflected from a mirror upon the opposite 

 side, that he might show, in this way, that painting 

 deserves the preference to sculpture, since it can 

 exhibit more parts of the body in a single view. 

 His pieces are rare. At Milan, and in the galleries 

 at Vienna and Dresden, some are to be seen ; and 

 the ducal palace at Brunswick and the gallery at 

 Pomersfelden hav ?ach one of his pictures. He 

 died in 1511. His school is distinguished by truth 

 of colouring. 



GIOTTO. This celebrated painter, and friend of 

 Petrarch, was named Ambrogiotto Burdone. Being 

 the son of a peasant in the Florentine village of Ves- 

 pignano (born, according to Vasari, in 1276, accord- 

 ing to Baldinucci, in 1265), he was employed in tend- 

 ing cattle. But having been once seen by Cimabue, 

 as he was drawing figures of his sheep upon a piece 

 of slate with a stone, that artist obtained leave from 

 his father to take him with him, carried him to 

 Florence, and taught him painting. His natural 

 talent, and especially the gracefulness so peculiar to 

 him, developed themselves so rapidly, that he became 

 a master in a short time, and soon surpassed all con- 

 temporary artists. He represented human figures in 

 his pieces with truth and nature, and surpassed all 

 others in the dignity of his figures, a pleasing ar- 

 rangement of them, and a regard to correct propor- 

 tions and natural disposition of the drapery. His 

 figures have more life and freedom than those of his 

 predecessor, Cimabue, as he particularly avoided the 

 stiff style. Among his most celebrated pieces is the 

 Navicella (ship), at Rome (a picture of Peter walking 

 upon the waves, in Mosaic), some fresco paintings 

 at Florence (the crowning of the holy virgin, in the 



