G I O 



G I O 



bis pi-odii*lioiii, fooii fpn-ad his fame over Europe. Tlie 

 king- of Spain (Charles 11.) (Wfiriiig to fee him paint, and 

 to li'ave tlie Efciirial adoriiccl by his lumd, invited hiin lliere, 

 ordering h.iin to be paid 1 500 ducats de Plata for the voyage, 

 and allowing him to freight the fliip th:it brought him over 

 duty free. He alfo made- him groom of the bed-chamber, 

 h')nouring him witli a golden key, but difpcnfnig with his 

 attendance, that he might be more his own mailer. 



Vclafco fivs, " that it is impofTible to exprefs the num- 

 ber a;'.d beauty of his compolitions in Madrid, Toledo, and 

 at the Efcurial : and tiiat he employed only two years to 

 paint ten arched cielings of the church and llaircafe of that 

 palace. He was exceedingly induftrious, generally painting 

 nx or fe-.vu hours every day; and being highly favoured by 

 the kinu-, b.-ca.iie exceedingly rich. It was in 1692 he firil 

 arrived at Madrid, and did not return to Italy till 1702, 

 when he accompanied Philip V. to N.-ples, and in 1704 

 died there. 



Previoufly to his going into Spain he had executed nume- 

 rous works in Rome, Genoa, Milan, and other places; and 

 had produced a vall number of pictures in imitation of 

 Titian, Tintoret, Giorgiune, &c. &c. which are extremely 

 C'jrreft, and exhibit the amazing power of his memory, and 

 the verfatility of his genius. The extraordinary facility of 

 painting v.hich he poiTelfed, enabled him to work with great 

 fuceefs in frefco, as well as in oil. This very facility is, 

 however, the eaufe that Giordano's vvoi-ks will never be re- 

 o-arded as ftandards in the art of painting. Too great a de- 

 gree of freedom is an enemy to grandeur of llyle, and tlie 

 perfon who poiTedl-s it is apt to be too eafily fatisued with 

 hi?, produftions ; and indulging himfelf in the pleafure afford- 

 ed by the freflinefs and cleaniefs of colo'.u- and efTetl pro- 

 duced by it, is unwilling to dillurb it in order to render the 

 parts more poiitively correft; and thus, though ever agree- 

 able, vet works wrought in this manner arc too often fiimly 

 and weak in their effeft on the mind. Tliis is the charac- 

 ter of Luca Giordano, who, though a gn at mailer in the 

 art, ranks only in a fecond or third rate. One of his moft 

 confiderab'e prodnttions is the altar-piece of the church of 

 tl-.e Afcenlion at Naples, reprefenting the fall of Lucifer.^ 

 And in the Durazzo Polan at Gtnoa, is a fine piclurc of 

 Sene-a dying in the Bath; of which, alfo, there is a dupli- 

 cate in the gallery at Drefden. 



GIOP.GIEV, in Geography, a town of Walachia, on 

 the N. fide of the Danube ; 40 miles S.W. of Bucharelh 

 In June 1771, the Ruffians defeated the Turks near this 

 town, killing 5000 of tliem, and taking 180 pieces of can- 

 non, with artillery and baggage for 30,000 men. N. b.t. 

 43° 38'. E. long.' 25-' 18'. 



GIORGIO Antoniotto, in Biography, an Italian 

 writer on mufic, wiio, having been a confiderable time in 

 EiK^land, had a work entitled " L'Arte Armonica," tranf- 

 l-.ited into Englifh, whicli he publifiied in two vols, folio, by 

 fubfcription, under the title of " A Treatife on the Compo- 

 lition of Mufic," in three books, with an bitroduftion on 

 tlie Hiftory and Progrcls of iVIufic from its beginning to this 

 time, written in Italian by Giorgio Antoniotto, and tranf- 

 lated into Englidi, 1760, printed by Johnfon, Chcap- 

 iide. 



We had at this time no well digefted, clear, and ample 

 treatife of compofition in our language. Morley's treatife 

 was become fcarce, obfolete, and totally defective in every 

 thing that concerns modern mufic. We had indeed Mal- 

 colm's treatife publifiied in 1 721, and that of Dr. Pepufch 

 in 1731. The firil is dark and awkwardly written; the 

 fecond, though excellent as far as it goes, has fome preju- 

 dices of the old fchoal, which were totaUj abandoned in 



1760, and it is too concife in many particulars to enlighten 

 or fatisfy the doubts of young Undents in many clleutia! 

 points, which were now neceflary to be explained, and 

 which in the year 1 73 1 had no exiftence. Geminiani's " Guida 

 Armonica,'' fo long expedled, and publiflied about the year 

 1746, puzzled the caufe, and difappointed every reader. 

 Much therefore was expected, even by profeflors, from a 

 work in two vols, folio, written by a learned Italian, and 

 nearly half the lift of fubfcribers confilled of the names of 

 the principal compofers and organills of the time. 



We had a miferable trandation of Ranieau's treatife, 

 written originally in a mufical tcchnica, totally different from 

 that to which we were accuftomed, which, with the ungram- 

 matical and bad Englifli into which the reft was tranflated, 

 threw every one who attempted to read it into defpair. 



The fonatas and concertos of Corelli, pubhfhed in fcore 

 by Dr. Pepufch, and the works of Handel and Gcminlani, 

 for thofe who took the trouble to fcore them, were excellent 

 leffoHS of counterpoint, if they had been properly ftudied. 

 But it is aftonilhing how lor.g even great performers on in- 

 ftruments remain in utter ignoranre of compofition. Jack 

 James, Magnus, and Kilway, though admirable organills, 

 never attempted comjKifition, and if they had, after a cer- 

 tain time, they would never have been fure of their ground, 

 but even in making a bafe to a minuet or country dance 

 would have difcovered to real judges, that they were not 

 regular bred contrapiuitills. 



Signer Antoniotto, we believe, was a perfeft judge of 

 the mechanical rules of harmony ; but his method is not 

 clear and intelligible to a Undent out of the reach of a 

 mailer, plis introduction, and hiilorical account of the' 

 progrefs of mufic from the fyilem of the Greeks to thepre- 

 fent time, will amufe, though not accurately inftrufl;, 

 curious readers. 



He afcribes to Guido the invention of harmony, and to 

 John de Muris the invention of mufical charafters, as had 

 been long done by others, wlu), trutting to tradition, had 

 never feen the Micrologus of Guido, nor the Compendium of 

 John de Muris, by which it has been lately proved, tliat the 

 laws of harmony v<-ere unknown to Guido, and that de Muris 

 himfelf afiigns the invention of mufical charafters to Magif- 

 ter Franco, who flourifhed 1047, near 300 years before 

 •Tohn de Muris was born. (See Fkanco and De Ml'UIS.) 

 So much for fig. Antoniotto's hiftorical part. ■ 



When becomes to practical mufic, his definitions are fo 

 far from clear to readers in the firft ilages of cosnterpoint, 

 that they multiply the ftudent's doubts. His plates have 

 prima fade fo fcientifie an appearance as to frigliten a prhici- 

 pianle as much as teaching geometry or algebra would do. 

 His examples of notation are methodically ftated ; but the 

 joining the old and modern characters in the fame table will 

 tonfufe the ftudent's ideas. He begins with three charatteri . 

 no longer in ufe, and the femibreve, now the firll andlongeft 

 note, ranks onlv as the fourth. 



His general fcale and fyftem of intervals will terrify a, 

 young Undent by the maimer in which it is reprefented ; his ' 

 lyftem of harmonic combinations the fame. Plates 14 and 

 15 of tranfpofed fcales are clear and ufeful, as are the 

 fcalcsin the feveral clefs. 



The regie de I'oclave feems unknown to the author, 

 and his plain counterpoint is written entirely en a ferics 01 

 fcvenths to bafes rifing or falling by fourths and fifth.s totally 

 without modulation. No iiiftructions are given for tf.e uie 

 of difcords, but in examples /i due cori he gives difcords in- 

 difcriminately to every note, without informing the iludent 

 when and where to uie thcjn, or fptaking of aecmlcd or «/;- 

 accented 'Rial's, of a bar. 



At 



