Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings - Volume I.djvu/44

 Essentially an imitator, and an eclectic whose style was a mixture of the Corre- gesque and Roman schools, Niccolo had a great reputation, and is mentioned by Agos- tino Caracci in a famous sonnet, as combin- ing in his style all the qualities most desir- able for a painter to possess. Of his Italian frescos, several from the Palazzo Scandiano transfeiTed to canvas are in the gallery at Modena, the best of which represent singers and players on musical instruments. Twelve subjects are taken from the Mneid. In the University, also, there is a frieze of men and maidens. Of the joint works of Prima- ticcio and Niccolo at Fontainebleau little is distinguishable, and of that of Niccolo, nothing, as the Great Gallery .where he painted the Gods of Olympus and the story of Ulysses was destroyed in 1738. "Whether the life-size Diana in the chateau is by the master or the pupil is uncertain. Among Niccolo's few authentic paintings are the Rape of Proserpine, Stafford House, London ; and a Holy Family in his Corre- gesque manner, at Kedleston Hall, near ^ .^ Derb}^, the JSTA auo' / J^ kAj'O^' seat of Lord ' Scarsdale. — Vasari, ed. Le Mon., xi. 241 ; xiii. 5 ; Meyer, Kunst. Lex., i. 4 ; Burckhardt, 682 ; Miind- ler, Essai (Paris, 1850).

ABBATI, GIUSEPPE, born in Naples in 1836, died in Florence, Feb. 20, 1868. Genre and landscape painter ; son and pupil of Vincenzo A., of Naples ; studied also at Venice Academy until 1852. In 1860 and 1866 he joined the volunteers under Garibaldi, and then retu'ed to the Tuscan coast to paint nature and peasant life, in the treatment of which he resembles Jules Breton. Scarcely had he reached a prominent place among modern Italian painters, when he died of a bite from his dog. — Meyer, Kiinst. Lex., i. 10.

ABBEY, EDWIN AUSTIN, born in Philadelphia, United States, in 1852. Genre painter, pupil of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Best known as an illustrator of periodicals, but has done good work in water colours. Studio in New York until 1883, when he removed to London. Mem- ber of New York Water Colour Society and of London Institute of "Water Colours. Works : Stage Office (1876), R. G. Dun, New York ; Evil Eye (1877), Lady in a Gar- den (1878), J. W. Harper, ib. ; Rose in Oc- tober (1879), J. P. Townsend, ib. ; the Wid- ower (1883); Reading the Bible (1884), Andrew Carnegie, ib.

ABBOTT, FRANCIS LEMUEL, born in Leicestershire, England, in 1760, died in London in 1803. Pupil of Fz'ank Hayman ; went to London in 1780, and occasionally ex- hibited portraits at the Academy from 1788 to 1800. Among his best works are Viscount Bridport, Earl Macartney, Sir George Staunton, Nelson, Nollekens, and Vancouver in the National Portrait Gallery ; Admiral Sir Peter Parker, Nelson, Green- wich Hospital. — Redgrave ; Catalogue Na- tional Portrait Gallery, 408.

ABD-EL-KADER, CAPTURE OF THE SMALA OF, Horace Vernet, Versailles Museum ; canvas, H. 16 ft. x 71 ft. The smala, consisting of his camp, court, harem, and treasury, was taken by surprise, May 16, 1843, by Due d'Aumale at the head of two cavalry regiments. Booty of immense value and 5,000 prisoners were captured. Abd-el-Kader was absent at the time. ABEL, DEATH OF (Genesis iv. 8), An- drea Schiavone, Palazzo Pitti, Florence ; can- vas, H. 7 ft. X 6 ft. 2 in. Cain in the act of striking Abel, who, prostrate, tries to ward off the blow ; background, a wooded land- scape, with a dead goat. Baldinucci calls it Samson killing a Philistine. — Catalogue Pal- azzo Pitti.

By Tintoretto, Venice Academy ; canvas. Ruskin says this picture and its companion piece, Adam and Eve, are the "best possible examples of what, in absolute power of painting, is supremest work, so far as I know, in all the world." One of four sub- jects from Genesis, painted for the former Scuola della Trinita. — Lavice, 462.