Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/369

 BARTOLOZZI

31 y

BARUCH

graded and so subdued that a heavenly peace illum- ines the group. Bartolommeo's masterpieces are to be found chiefly in Florence and Lucca.

Scott, Fra Bartolovimeo (London, 1881); Lcbke, Geschichte der italienUchen Maierei (Stuttgart, 1878). II; Frantz, Fra Bartolommeo delta Porta (Ratisbon, 1879); Idem, Getchichte der christlichen Maierei (Freiburg, 1894), II.

G. GlETMANN.

Bartolozzi, Francesco, an engraver, etcher, and painter, b. at Florence, 1727; d. at Lisbon. 1815. His father was a goldsmith of excellent family and early taught the use of the burin to his boy who, when ten years of age, engraved two heads which gave promise of his future powers. In the Florentine Academy he learned to work in oil, chalks, and aquarelle. Unsurpassed by any artist of his day in his knowledge of anatomy, and with a passion for the antique, young Bartolozzi became a master in depicting beauty of expression, movement, and form.

From 1745 until 1751 he studied with Wagner, the Venetian historical engraver. This apprentice- ship ended, he married Lucia Ferro and the young pair, on Cardinal Bottari's invitation, went to Rome. Returning to Venice, his fame grew very rapidly, and in 1764, Dalton, King George Ill's librarian, took him to England, where he was appointed En- graver to the King, and, four years later, Royal Academician. In London he engraved over two thousand plates, nearly all in stipple or the "red- chalk style", a method recently invented by the French, but brought into vogue and elevated into a distinct art by Bartolozzi. He devoted himself to the human figure, and his engravings abound in sweet and tender types of beauty, graceful in form and outhne. Everywhere are found deUcate modu- lations of Ught and shade with a roundness, finish, and suggestion of fiesh never before seen in engraved work.

Bartolozzi's drawing was superb; and although he was a reproductive artist he improved the work he copied, especially the drawing, even Sir Joshua Reynolds thanking him for such a service. His pupils called him the "god of drawing". His splen- did line work was obscured by the great popularity attained by his stippled prints, and his few etch- ings show a free, bold, and imfettered sweep of hne. They, too, were reproduced from pictures by others, but the translation always improved on the original. In 1S02 Bartolozzi went to Lisbon, where he was knighted, and where he worked and taught until his death. He was buried in the church of Saint Isabella. Among Bartolozzi's best productions are the " Royal Academy Diploma ", "The Marlborough Gems", the "Illustrations to Shakespeare", and some of his small "Tickets", all in stipple; and "The Silence" and " Clytie", en- graved in pure line.

TuER, Bartolozzi and Hin Works (London, 1881), 2 vols.

Leigh Hunt.

Barton, Elizabeth, b. probably in 1506; executed at Tyburn, 20 April, 1534; called the "Nun of Kent". The career of this visionary, whose prophecies led to her execution under Henry VIII, has been the source of a historical controversy which resolves itself into the question: Was she gifted with supernatural knowledge or was she an impo.stor? In 1525, when nineteen years of age, being then employed as a domestic servant at Aldington, Kent, she had an illness, during which she fell into frequent trances and told "wondrously things done in other places whilst she was neither herself present nor yet heard no report thereof". From the first her utterances as- sumed a religious character and were " of marvellous holiness in rebuke of sin and vice". Her parish priest, Richard Masters, convinced of her sincerity, reported the matter to the Archbishop of Canterbury,

who sent a commission of three Canterbury Bene- dictines, Bocking, Hadleigh, and Barnes, two Fran- ciscans, Hugh Rich and Richard Risby, a diocesan official, and the parish priest to examine her again. Shortly after tliis commission pronounced in her favour, her prediction that the Blessed Virgin would cure her at a certain chapel was fulfilled, when in presence of a large crowd she was restored to health. She then became a Benedictine nun. living near Can- terbury, with a great reputation for holiness. Her fame gradually spread until she came into wide pubUc notice. She protested "in the name and by the authority of God" against the king's projected divorce. To further her opposition, besides writing to the pope she had interviews with Fisher, Wolsey, and the king himself. Owing to her reputation for sanctity she proved one of the most formidable opponents of the royal divorce, so that in 1533 Crom- well took steps against her, and after examination by Cranmer she was in November, with Dr. Bocking, her confessor, and others, committed to the Tower. Subsequently all the prisoners were made to do public penance at St. Paul's and at Canterbury and to pub- lish confessions of deception and fraud.

In January, 1534, a bill of attainder was framed against her and thirteen of her sympathizers, among whom were Fisher and More. Except the latter, whose name was withdrawn, all were condemned imder this bill; seven including Bocking, Masters, Rich, Risby, and Elizabeth herself being sentenced to death, while Fisher and five others were condemned to imprisonment and forfeiture of goods. Elizabeth and her companions were executed at Tyburn on 20 April, 1534, when she is said to have repeated her confession. Protestant authors allege that these confessions alone are conclusive of her imposture, but Catholic writers, though they have felt free to hold divergent opinions about the nun, have pointed out the suggestive fact that all that is known as to these confessions emanates from Cromwell or his agents; that all available documents are on his side; that the confession issued as hers is on the face of it not her own composition; that she and her com- panions were never brought to trial, but were con- demned and executed unheard; that there is contem- porary evidence that the alleged confession was even then believed to be a forgery. For these reasons the matter cannot be considered as settled, and un- fortunately the difficulty of arriving at any satis- factory and final decision now seems insuperable.

Act of Attainder, 25 Henri/ VIII. cap. rii: Wright, Suppret- tion of the Monasteries; Gairdner. Letters and Papers of Henry VIII for ISSS-A: Lee in Diet. Nat. Biog., Ill, 343; Gasquet, Henry VIII and the Eng. Monasteries (1889). I, iii; Bridgett, Life of Fisher (1890), xi; Ide.m, Life of More (1892), XV ii.

Edwin Burton.

Baruch (Heb. 1^3, Barukh, blessed, Benedict; Sept. Sapoix), I. Baruch, the disciple of Jeremias, and the traditional author of the deutero-canonical book, which bears his name. He was the son of Nerias (Jer., xxxii, 12, 16; xxxvi, 4, 8, 32; Bar., i, 1), and most probably the brother of Saraias, chief cnamberlain to King Sedecias (Jer., xxxii, 12; li, 59; Bar., i, 1). After the Temple of Jerusalem had been plundered by Nabuchodonosor (599 B. c), he WTote under the dictation of Jeremias the oracles of that great prophet, foretelling the return of the Baby- lonians, and read them at the risk of his life in the hearing of the Jewish people. He WTOte also the second and enlarged edition of the prophecies of Jeremias after the first had been burned by the in- furiated king, Joakim (Jer., xxxvi). Throughout his life he remained true to the teachings and ideals of the great prophet, although he seems at times to have given way to feelings of despondency, and per- haps even of personal ambition (cf. Jer., xlv). He was with Jeremias during the last siege of Jerusalem.