556 



PICTURES PIEDMONTESE REVOLUTION. 



visible in the counties of Northumberland and Cum- 

 berland. 



PICTURES, LIVING, OR TABLEAUX VI- 

 VANS. After attitudes (q. v.) had become a pe- 

 culiar study (see Hamilton, Lady), the imitation of 

 the attitudes of statues or pictures by living persons 

 became very popular, and it was but one step far- 

 ther to give to Jiving persons the appearance of a 

 picture. A frame is made of sufficient width, co- 

 vered with gauze, behind which the persons stand 

 in their proper attitudes, either invented by an artist 

 (e. g. from the striking descriptions of a poet), or 

 taken from celebrated historical pictures, gay or 

 grave. Living pictures are particularly popular in 

 Germany, where they are sometimes exhibited on 

 the theatre with the necessary preparations, much 

 more often, however, in families on birth-days and 

 similar festive occasions, and are a source of great 

 and refined amusement. 



PICTURESQUE, in the most general meaning of 

 the word, denotes every thing proper for painting ; 

 that is to say, such objects as present a variety of 

 tints, the charm of light and chiaro scuro, &c. It 

 is particularly applied to wild, romantic scenery. 

 The word is easily transferred from the subject to 

 the treatment ; and we call a picture which satisfies 

 the claims of art, is perfect in its grouping, repre- 

 sents a charming whole, &c.> picturesque. This 

 word, too, like numerous other terms used in paint- 

 ing, is applied to the art of describing and repre- 

 senting by the pen ; and a book of travels is called 

 picturesque if it represents a variety of things and 

 scenes in a lively and forcible manner. Picturesque, 

 too, is often applied, at least in French, to books of 

 this sort, when accompanied with illustrative de- 

 signs, as in the common title Voyage pittoresque. 

 In the theory of the arts, the word picturesque is 

 used as contradistinguished to poetic and plastic. 

 The poetical has reference to the fundamental idea 

 to be represented, to the painter's conception of 

 his subject ; whilst the picturesque relates to the 

 mode of expressing the conception, the grouping, 

 the distribution of objects, persons and lights. The 

 poetical part of a picture, as well as its mechanical 

 t- xecution, may be without fault, and yet the picture 

 a total failure, as regards the picturesque. 



PICUS, an old soothsayer, or wood-deity, in Italy, 

 son of Saturn and father of Faunus, was beloved by 

 the sorceress Circe, who changed him into a wood- 

 pecker because he would not return her passion. 

 His wife, Canens, pined away into air from grief. 

 Picus was represented with the head of a woodpec- 

 ker, and presided over divination. 



PIEDMONT ; a principality and principal pro- 

 vince of the Sardinian monarchy, from which it was 

 separated by the French in 1798, and, in 1802, incor- 

 porated with France. (See Sardinian Monarchy.} 

 On the fall of Napoleon (1814), it was restored to 

 the king of Sardinia, and the duchies of Milan (the 

 Sardinian part) and Montferrat have been united 

 with it. It is now divided into twenty-six districts. 

 Piedmont, in a narrower sense, borders on the Valais 

 and Savoy to the north, on France to the west, on 

 Nizza and Genoa to the south, and on the Sardinian 

 Milanese and Montferrat to the east. Within these 

 limits, it contains a population of 1,400,000, on a 

 superficial area of 6575 square miles ; including the 

 Sardinian Milanese and Montferrat, it has a popula- 

 tion of 2,322,000 on 12,000 square miles. Pied- 

 mont has its name (pie di monte r foot of the moun- 

 tain) from its situation, at the foot of the Pennine 

 Alps (in which are the lofty Montrosa and the Great 

 Bernard) on the north, and of the Graian and Cot- 

 tian Alps (including Montblanc, the Little Bernard, 

 Montcenis and Monteviso) towards France and Sa- 



voy. The principal river is the Po, which flows 

 lowii from these mountains, and receives all the ri- 

 vers of the province; the Doria, Stura and Sesia 

 from th< left, and the Vraita, Maira and Tanaro 

 from the right. On the south lie the Maritime 

 Alps, separating Genoa and Nizza from Piedmont. 

 To the north and west it is covered with high moun- 

 tainous chains, from which less elevated ridges shoot 

 off, and terminate, in the central part, in plains. 

 This portion, which is watered by the Po, and 

 which is composed of an agreeable variety of hill, 

 plain and valley, is the most fertile part, and is in a 

 state of high cultivation, yielding corn, wine, oil, 

 fruits, rice and hemp. The breeding of the silk- 

 worm is carried to such extent in no other part of 

 Italy, and produces yearly 22,000,000 lire worth of 

 silk, most of which is exported raw. The northern, 

 western and southern districts supply the central re- 

 gion with wood. The Piedmontese are industrious 

 and frugal, and are all Catholics, excepting 20,000 

 Waldenses. (See Chateau vieux's Letters on Italy.) 

 They have some silk, linen and woollen manufac- 

 tures, and thousands of them are seen travelling 

 about Italy, France and Germany, as pedlers. 

 Their language is a mixture of the French and Ital- 

 ian. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. 



PIEDMONTESE REVOLUTION. When the 

 house of Savoy was restored, in 1814, to its posses- 

 sions on the mainland of Italy, it understood not 

 how to act under the existing circumstances. Salu- 

 tary regulations, which had been introduced during 

 the period of the French dominion, were annullea, 

 and oppressive ones retained. French and Sardinian 

 forms conflicted, because the officers of the old and 

 of the new organizations did not understand one an. 

 other. The course of justice was arbitrarily inter- 

 rupted, and the greatest dissatisfaction was created 

 by the character of the French military police. 

 This state of things induced several men of the 

 highest classes to aim, in imitation of France, at a 

 constitutional form of government for Savoy, Pied- 

 mont and Genoa. The events in Spain, Portugal, 

 and Naples increased the excitement. Austria was 

 making preparations against Naples, and the resis- 

 tance expected there increased the hopes of the 

 Adelfi and Federati for Italian independence. The 

 friends of the constitutional system and the enemies 

 of the Ultramontanists formed a combination for 

 obtaining, by force, a freer form of government. 

 Thus, at the end of Feb., 1821, a conspiracy arose 

 among the nobility and officers. Through the influ- 

 ence of the Spanish ambassador to Turin, the che- 

 valier Bardaxi, the Spanish constitution became the 

 watch- word of the disaffected, though some prefer- 

 red the system of two chambers and the French 

 constitution. It was the intention of the conspira- 

 tors to choose the prince of Carignano, their chief. 

 The revolution broke out, March 10, among several 

 regiments at Fossano, Tortona and Alessandria. 

 The conspirators had gained over the common sol- 

 diers by the rumour that Austria required the disband- 

 ing of the national army, and designed to occupy 

 the principal fortresses of Piedmont with A ustrian 

 troops. Alessandria was the focus of the revolu- 

 tion. On the llth, the cry of rebellion, and " Huzza 

 for the king and the Spanish constitution ! " was 

 heard in Turin. On the 12th, some officers open- 

 ed to the Fe'derati and the students the citadel of 

 Turin. The people now, for the first time, joined 

 in the cry " Huzza for the king ! Huzza for the Span- 

 ish constitution ! War on the Austrians !" On the 

 13th, king Victor Emmanuel resigned the crown, 

 and, in the absence of his successor (his brother Fe- 

 lix, duke of Genevois, who was then at Modena), 

 appointed prince Charles Albert of Carignano re- 



