Page:EB1911 - Volume 18.djvu/127

 century. The poem, as a whole, is tedious; yet its dignified expression of patriotic spirit has won the admiration of Spaniards from Cervantes’ time to our own.

MENA, PEDRO DE (d. 1693), Spanish sculptor, was born in Adra. He was a pupil of his father as well as of Alonzo Cano. His first conspicuous success was achieved in work for the convent El Angel at Granada, including figures of St Joseph, St Antony of Padua, St Diego, St Pedro Meantara, St Franciscus and Santa Clara. In 1658 he signed a contract for sculptural work on the choir stalls of the cathedral at Malaga—this work extending over four years. Other works are, statues of the Madonna and child and of St Joseph in Madrid, the polychromatic figures in the church of St Isodoro, the Magdalena and the Gertrudis in the church of St Martin (Madrid), the crucifixion in the Nuestra Senora de Gracia (Madrid), the statuette of St Francis of Assisi in Toledo, and of St Joseph in the St Nicholas church in Murcia. Between 1673 and 1679 Mena worked at Cordova. About 1680 he was in Granada, where he executed a half-length Madonna and child (seated) for St Dominicos. Mena died in Malaga in 1693. He and (q.v.) may be regarded as artistic descendants of Montanes and Alonzo Cano, but in technical skill and the expression of religious motive his statues are unsurpassed in the sculpture of Spain. His feeling for the nude was remarkable. Like his immediate predecessors he excelled in the portrayal of contemplative figures and scenes; Mena’s drawing of Santiago leaping upon his charger is good, and the carving admirable, but the necessary movement for so spirited an action is lacking.

MENABREA, LUIGI FEDERICO, Marquis of Valdora (1809–1896), Italian general and statesman, was born at Chambéry on the 4th of September 1809. He was educated at the university of Turin, where he qualified as an engineer and became a doctor of mathematics. As an officer of engineers he replaced Cavour in 1831 at the fortress of Bardo. He then became professor of mechanics and construction at the military academy and at the university of Turin. King Charles Albert sent him in 1848 on diplomatic missions to secure the adhesion of Modena and Parma to Sardinia. He entered the Piedmontese parliament, and was attached successively to the Ministries of War and Foreign Affairs. He belonged to the right centre, and until the events of 1859 he believed in the possibility of a compromise between the Vatican and the state. He was major-general and commander-in-chief of the engineers in the Lombard campaign of 1859. He superintended the siege works against Peschiera, was present at Palestro and Solferino, and repaired the fortifications of some of the northern fortresses. In 1860 he became lieutenant-general and conducted the siege of Gaeta. He was appointed senator and received the title of count. Entering the Ricasoli cabinet of 1861 as minister of marine, he held the portfolio of public works until 1864 in the succeeding Farini and Minghetti cabinets. After the war of 1866 he was chosen as Italian plenipotentiary for the negotiation of the treaty of Prague and for the transfer of Venetia to Italy. In October 1867 he succeeded Rattazzi in the premiership, and was called upon to deal with the difficult situation created by Garibaldi’s invasion of the Papal States and by the catastrophe of Mentana. Menabrea disavowed Garibaldi and instituted judicial proceedings against him; but in negotiations with the French government he protested against the retention of the temporal power by the pope and insisted on the Italian right of interference in Rome. He was in the secret of the direct negotiations between Victor Emanuel and Napoleon III. in June 1869, and refused to entertain the idea of a French alliance unless Italy were allowed to occupy the Papal States, and, on occasion, Rome itself. On the eve of the assembly of the Oecumenical Council at Rome Menabrea reserved to the Italian government its right in respect of any measures directed against Italian institutions. He withdrew from seminary students in 1869 the exemption from military service which they had hitherto enjoyed. Throughout his term of office he was supported by the finance minister Count Cambray Digny, who forced through parliament the grist tax proposed by Quintino Sella, though in an altered form from the earlier proposal. After a series of changes in the cabinet, and many crises, Menabrea resigned in December 1869 on the election of a new chamber in which he did not command a majority. He was made marquis of Valdora in 1875. His successor in the premiership, Giovanni Lanza, in order to remove him from his influential position as aide-de-camp to the king, sent him to London as ambassador, where he remained until in 1882 he replaced General Cialdini at the Paris Embassy. Ten years later he withdrew from public life, and died at Saint Capin on the 24th of May 1896.

MÉNAGE, GILLES (1613–1692), French scholar, son of Guillaume Ménage, king’s advocate at Angers, was born in that city on the 15th of August 1613. A tenacious memory and an early enthusiasm for learning carried him speedily through his literary and professional studies, and he practised at the bar at Angers as early as 1632. In the same year he pleaded several causes before the parlement of Paris, but illness induced him to abandon the legal profession for the church. He became prior of Montdidier without taking holy orders, and lived for some years in the household of Cardinal de Retz (then coadjutor to the archbishop of Paris), where he had leisure for literary pursuits. Some time after 1648 he quarrelled with his patron and withdrew to a house in the cloister of Notre-Dame, where he gathered round him on Wednesday evenings those literary assemblies which he called “Mercuriales.” Chapelain, Pellisson, Conrart, Sarrazin and Du Bos were among the habitués. He was admitted to the Della Cruscan Academy of Florence, but his caustic sarcasm led to his exclusion from the French Academy. Ménage made many enemies and suffered under the satire of Boileau and of Molière. Molière immortalized him as the pedant Vadius in Les Femmes savantes, a portrait Ménage pretended to ignore. He died in Paris on the 23rd of July 1692.

MENAGERIE, a collection of wild animals kept for show or exhibition. The word is particularly applied to travelling exhibitions of wild animals, attached to a circus or other show, “” (q.v.) being the term generally applied to large stationary and permanent exhibitions, arranged on a scientific system. The French ménagerie (from ménage, O. Fr. mesnage, Lat. mansionaticum, mansio, house, cf. “manage”) originally meant the administration of a household or farm, with special reference to the live stock.

MENAHEM (Hebrew for “consoler”), a king of Israel. He was the son of Gadi (i.e. perhaps, a man of Gad), and during the disturbances at the death of Jeroboam II. seized the throne and reigned ten years (2 Kings xv. 14–18). The scene of his revolt was Tirzah, the old seat of the kings of Israel between Jeroboam I. and Omri (which period the present closely resembles), and it was only after perpetrating nameless cruelties at Tappuah on the border of Ephraim and Mannasseh that the counter revolt of Shallum, son of Jabesh (perhaps a Gileadite), was suppressed. Towards the end of his reign, Tiglath-Pileser IV. marched against north Syria, and among his tributaries mentions Menahem together with Rezin of Damascus, and kings of Tyre, Gebal, &c. (c. 738 ). According to the Old Testament account the Assyrian king even advanced against Israel, and only withdrew in consideration of a tribute amounting to about £400,000. A thousand talents (i.e. about 3,000,000 shekels) was raised by assessing every wealthy person at 50 shekels. The act was hardly popular, and the internal troubles which he had quelled