Page:Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, 1887, vol 4.djvu/255

 SPERLING e.g., a Madonna in Casa Agosti at Belluno. Two altarpieces by him exist : one, a Virgin Enthroned, in S. Giorgio, Velo ; the other, an Assumption, in the gallery of Vicenza. Other specimens of his work are in S. Coro- na and S. Chiara, Vicenza, and in the Casa Piovene, Padua. C. & C., N. Italy, i. 420 ; Burckhardt, 604. SPERLING, JOHANN CHRISTIAN, born at Halle, Saxony, in 1691, died at Ans- pach in 1746. Portrait painter, son and pupil in Hamburg of the portrait painter Johaun Heinrich Sperling, then pupil of Leipsic Academy. Court painter in Ans- pach in 1710. Later went to Rotterdam ; became one of the best pupils of Adriaan van der Werff, many of whose pictures he copied. Works : Pomona and Vertumnus in the Form of an Old Woman (1719), Dres- den Gallery ; Head of a Persian (1743), Gotha Museum. Nagler, xvii. 138. SPERL, JOHANN, born at Buch near Nuremberg, Nov. 3, 1840. Genre painter, pupil at the Industrial Art School in Nu- remberg under Kreling, then of the Mu- nich Academy under Anschiltz and Ramberg. Works : The New Suit ; Looking for a Bride ; Going to Baptism ; Suabian Peas- ant Wedding ; On Furlough. Muller, 499. SPHINX, QUESTIONER OF THE, Eli- hu Vedder, Martin Brimmer, Boston. The Sphinx, covered to the chin with the desert sand, as it was before the excavations of Captain Caviglia ; an old Arab, bending for- ward and partly kneeling, has placed his ear to the imperturbable lips, as if he ex- pected the mystery of the ages to answer his questions. SPIELBERG (Spilberg), JOHANNES, born at Dttsseldorf, April 30, 1619, died there, Aug. 10, 1690. Dutch school. Por- trait and history painter, pupil of Govert Flinck in Amsterdam. Court painter in Cologne, where he portrayed many princes and princesses. Works : Archer's Banquet (1650), Amsterdam Museum ; Lady's Por- trait (1648), Darmstadt Museum ; Juno giv- ing lo to Argus, Liechtenstein Gallery, Vienna ; Portrait of Prince Johann Wilhelm of the Palatinate, and Portrait of a Lady (both attributed), Munich Gallery. Immer- zeel, iii. 104. SPIERINCKX, PEETER, born at Ant- werp, Aug. 30, 1635, died there, buried Aug. 30, 1711. Flemish school ; land- scape painter, mostly self-taught ; went in 1660 to Italy, and returned to Antwerp in 1666, having meanwhile painted also in France, for Louis XIV. Works : Two Land- scapes, St. Augustine's, Antweqj ; do., Mad- rid Museum ; View in Paris, Germanic Mu- seum, Nuremberg ; Landscapes with Fig- ures, etc. (2), Oriental Seaport, Schleissheim Gallery. Van den Branden, 1073. SPIES, RETURN OF THE (L'automne, Autumn), Nicolas Ponssin, Louvre, Paris ; canvas, H. 3 ft. 10 in. x 5 ft. 3 in. In a valley, with a height and fortifications of a city on right, a woman mounted upon a ladder gathers fruit from a tree ; in fore- ground, the two spies sent by Moses into Canaan bear suspended from a polo im- mense bunches of grapes as evidence of the fertility of the soil. One of a series of four painted in 1660-64 for the Due do Riche- lieu, whence passed to Louis XTV. En- graved by J. Pesne. Filhol, iv. PI. 238. SPIESS, HEINRICH, born in Munich, May 10, 1832 (1831), died there, Aug. 6 (8), 1875. History painter, pupil of Munich Academy under Voltz and Kaulbach. As- sisted Schwind in the Wartburg frescos ; with his brother August painted the Villa Feodora in Lieben stein after L. Richter's designs. Works : Two Scenes from Life of Henry the Lion, National Museum, Munich ; allegorical representations of the Sciences (with his brother August), in Arcades of Maximilianeum, ib. Dioskureu (1875), 262 ; Kunst-Chronik, x. 810. SPILNBERGER (Spielberger), HANS, bora at Kaschau, Hungary, in 1628, died in 1679. History painter, supposed to have studied in Italy. Court painter in Augs- burg, then in Vienna. Works : St. Peter's Pentecostal Sermon, Church of Holy Cross, 211