Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings (IA cyclopediaofpain04cham).pdf/231

 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. Corona 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 Anspach in 1746. Portrait painter, son and pupil in Hamburg of the portrait painter Johann Heinrich Sperling, then pupil of Leipsic Academy. Court painter in Anspach 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), Dresden 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 Nuremberg under Kreling, then of the Munich Academy under Anschütz and Ramberg. Works: The New Suit; Looking for a Bride; Going to Baptism; Suabian Peasant Wedding; On Furlough.—Müller, 499.

SPHINX, QUESTIONER OF THE, Elihu 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 forward and partly kneeling, has placed his ear to the imperturbable lips, as if he expected the mystery of the ages to answer his questions.

SPIELBERG (Spilberg), JOHANNES, born at Düsseldorf, April 30, 1619, died there, Aug. 10, 1690. Dutch school. Portrait 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 Portrait (1648), Darmstadt Museum; Juno giving Io to Argus, Liechtenstein Gallery, Vienna; Portrait of Prince Johann Wilhelm of the Palatinate, and Portrait of a Lady (both attributed), Munich Gallery.—Immerzeel, iii. 104.

SPIERINCKX, PEETER, born at Antwerp, Aug. 30, 1635, died there, buried Aug. 30, 1711. Flemish school; landscape 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 Landscapes, St. Augustine's, Antwerp; do., Madrid Museum; View in Paris, Germanic Museum, Nuremberg; Landscapes with Figures, etc. (2), Oriental Seaport, Schleissheim Gallery.—Van den Branden, 1073.

SPIES, RETURN OF THE (L'automne, Autumn), Nicolas Poussin, Louvre, Paris; canvas, H. 3 ft. 10 in. × 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 foreground, the two spies sent by Moses into Canaan bear suspended from a pole immense bunches of grapes as evidence of the fertility of the soil. One of a series of four painted in 1660-64 for the Duc de Richelieu, whence passed to Louis XIV. Engraved by J. Pesne.—Filhol, iv. Pl. 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. Assisted Schwind in the Wartburg frescos; with his brother August painted the Villa Feodora in Liebenstein 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.—Dioskuren (1875), 262; Kunst-Chronik, x. 810.

SPILNBERGER (Spielberger), HANS, born at Kaschau, Hungary, in 1628, died in 1679. History painter, supposed to have studied in Italy. Court painter in Augsburg, then in Vienna. Works: St. Peter's Pentecostal Sermon, Church of Holy Cross,