P I o 
P I o 
writers fpoken of with extreme delight, and called a 
divine performance, full of life and character. He finiffied 
his works with great care; folding his draperies with 
great felicity, and giving great truth and exabtnefs of ac¬ 
tion to the heads and hands. 
By the perfuafion of Agoftino Ghizi, a rich merchant 
of Sienna, he was induced to go to Rome; where the no¬ 
velty of his ftyle, and his fkill in execution, foon drew 
him into public notice. He there became an hiftorical 
painter, and wrought equally well in frefco and in oil. In 
the conteft of opinion which took place at that time con¬ 
cerning the fuperiority in merit of Raphael, or Michael 
Angelo, Sebaftian gave the preference to the latter, and 
gained his efteem and fupport. In confequence he was 
favoured by him on all occafions; and fo highly eltimated, 
that he ftimulated him to the rafh attempt of rivalling 
Raphael; particularly by painting a pi<Sture in competi¬ 
tion with that great man’s laft great work, the Transfi¬ 
guration ; which had juft been placed, with great eclat, 
in the church of St. Pietro a Montorio. The fubjedl 
Sebaftian chofe, was the Raifing of Lazarus; for which 
Michael Angelo is fuppofed to have furniflied the defign, 
or at leaft to have confidered and retouched it. The 
pidlure is of the fame flze as Raphael’s, and, when com¬ 
pleted, was placed in the fame confiftory, and was very 
highly applauded. The cardinal di Medici fent it to his 
bifhopric of Narbonne, and it became the property of the 
duke of Orleans. It is now in England; and was in 
poffeflion of J. Angerftein, efq. who gave 2000 guineas 
for it to the proprietors of the Orleans colledtion; but 
has been lately purchafed, with many others, of that gen¬ 
tleman, by the Britifh parliament, for the ufe of the 
nation: its dimenfions are—13 feet 6 inches in height, 
and 9 feet 5 inches wide ; and it is the largeft pidture in the 
Angerftein Colledtion, now exhibiting (June 1824) in 
Pall-Mall. Although it is a work of profound (kill, and 
highly preferves the reputation of its author, yet, in our 
opinion, it is not to be compared with the great work it 
was intended to rival, either in defign, in expreftion, or 
effedt; whatever may be faid of its execution. In fadt, 
though Piombo engaged much in hiftory, his real turn was 
to fingle figures and portrait. His Pietro Aretinoand pope 
Clement VII. were admirable likenefl'es, and finilhed with 
the greatell perfedlion of colouring. He was particularly 
patronifed by that pontiff, who conferred upon him the 
office of keeper of the papal fignet, which was the caufe 
of his furname of del Piombo , in allufion to the lead of the 
leal. This poll rendered it neceflary for him to affume 
the religious habit, and from that time he abandoned the 
profeffion of a painter. He wrote verfes, entertained 
learned men at his table, lived at his eafe, and only now 
and then painted a portrait upon a particular occafion. 
He obtained great praife for having difcovered a mode 
of preventing oil-colours, employed on plafter, from be¬ 
coming dark ; which he did, by applying, in the firft 
inftance, a mixture of rnaftic and Grecian pitch. Having 
palled through a life of great honour and emolument to 
the age of 62, he then fhared in the common fate of human 
nature, and died in the year 1547. 
PI ON, one of the defendants of Hercules, who built 
Pionia near the Caycus in Myfia. It is faid that fmoke 
illued from his tomb as often as facrifices were offered to 
him. Paufanias. 
PIONEE'R,^/; [pion, Fr. which, according to Scaliger, 
comes from peo tor pedito, a foot-foldier, who was formerly 
employed in digging for the army. A pioneer is in 
Dutch fpademer, from J'pade; whence Junius imagines 
that the French borrowed padenier, which was afterwards 
called pioneer. Dr. Johnfon — Pion, the old French word 
for a foot-foldier, may be from the Indian term peon. See 
Pawn and Peon. Our word was alio pioner, and was 
rather a contemptuous expreffion. “Such a one is to be 
difmiffed with punifhment, or to be made fome abjedt 
pioner .” Davies’s Art of War, 1619. “ They fiiall remain 
Vol. XX. No. 1385. 
489 
in qualitie of pioners, or fcavengers.” Laws and Ordn. of 
War, 1640. Todd.] A labourer employed in an army to 
fmootl) the roads, pafs the artillery along, and to dig lines 
and trenches, mines, and other works.—Moll of the 
foreign regiments of artillery have half a company of 
pioneers vieh inftrudled in their bufinefs. Our regiments 
of infantry and cavalry have three or four pioneers each, 
provided with aprons, hatchets, faws, fpades, and pick- 
axes. They have alfo a cap with a leather crown, and a 
black bear-fkin front, on which is the king’s creft in 
white on a red ground, and the number of the regiment 
on the back part of the cap. Chambers. —The Romans, 
after the death of Tiberius, fent thither an army of pio¬ 
neers to demolifh the buildings, and deface the beauties 
of the ifland. Addijon on Italy. 
Of labouring pioneers 
A multitude with fpades and axes arm’d, 
To lay hills plain, fell woods, or vallies fill. Milton. 
PI'ONING,/. Work of pioneers: 
With painefull pyonings 
From fea to fea he heap’d a mighty mound. Spenfer. 
PION'NAS, a town of France, in the department of the 
Creufe : fix miles eaft of Gueret. 
PIONSAT', a town of France, in the department of 
the Puy de Dome : feven miles fouth-weft of Montaigu, 
and twenty-two north-weft of Riom. 
PIONTEK', a town of the duchy of Warfaw : twenty 
miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Lencicz. 
PI'ONY, J] [pionie, Sax. pceonia, Lat.] A large flower. 
See Peony. < . 
PIO'RAS Fort and Village (Old), are fituated in 
the north-well territory of America, on the weft Ihore of 
Illinois river, and at the fouth end of Illinois lake ; 210 
miles from Miffiflippi river. The Itockaded fort commands 
a fine profpedt of the country to the eaftward of the lake, 
to the point where the river enters it at the north end ; 
to the vveftward are large meadows, and a level country 
full of lwamps, and containing abundance of cherry, 
plum, and other fruit trees. The lake, which is merely a 
dilatation of the river, nineteen and a half miles long, 
and three broad, contains plenty of filh, and particularly 
fturgeon and picannao. The Indians, at the treaty of 
Grenville, in 1795, ceded to the United States a tradl of 
twelve miles fquare at this fort. Lat. 40. 53. N. Ion. 
91. 12. 30. W. 
PIO'RIAS, a tradl of land in the Indiana territory, on 
the fouth-eaft fide of Illinois river, about forty miles 
above and north-eaft of the Great Cave, on the Miffiflippi, 
oppofite to the mouth of the Miflouri, and twenty-feven 
below the ifland of St. Pierre. On a meadow, eaft of the 
river, many miles long, and five or fix broad, are many 
fmall lakes, communicating with each other, and one of 
them with the Illinois river. 
PIO'RIAS, an Indian nation of the Indiana territory, 
who, with the Mitchigamias, could furnifh, about forty 
years ago, 300 warriors. They occupy the parts near the 
fettlements in the Illinois country.—Another tribe of 
this name inhabit a village on the Miffiffipi, a mile above 
tort Chartres. This tribe could furnifh, about the fame 
period, 170 warriors of the Piorias and Mit.chigamias, 
PIOSSAS'CO, a town of Italy : ten miles weft-fouth- 
weft of Turin, and feven north of Pignerolo. 
PI'OUS, adj. [pins, Lat. pienx, Fr.] Careful of the 
duties owed by created beings to God ; godly ; religious ; 
fuel) as is due to facred things. —Pious awe that fear’d 
to have offended. 1 Milton’s P. L. 
Learn patience, and to temper joy with fear 
And pious forrow. Miltons P. L. 
Careful of the duties of a near relation.—As he is not 
called a juft father, that educates his children well, but 
pious ; lo that prince, who defends and well rules his 
people, is religious. Bp. Taylor's Rule of Living Holy. 
6 1 W here 
