Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/11

Rh ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. PKU-PEU PRUDENTIUS, ATJRELIUS CLEMENS, a Christian verse- writer, apparently a native of Spain, who flourished during the latter half of the 4th century and in the begin- ning of the 5th. According to the meagre and vague auto- biographical notices given by himself in the preface to his poems he was born in the year 348, and, after receiving a liberal education, practised at the bar and subsequently held judicial office in two important cities. At the time of the publication of his poems in 405 he held from the emperor a high military appointment at court. Of his subsequent history nothing is known. His extant works, besides the preface already referred to and an epilogue, are the following: (1) Cathemerinon Liber, a series of twelve hymns (KaOrj/j-epiViov vfu>un>) in various metres to be repeated or sung at particular periods of the day or seasons of the year ; (2) Apotheosis, a poem of 1085 hexameter verses on the divinity of Christ ; (3) Hnmartigenia (967 hexameter verses) on the origin of evil and sin ; (4) Psychomachin, or the conflict between virtue and vice for the soul (915 hexameter verses) ; (5) Contra Symmachum, two books, of 658 and 1131 hexameter verses respectively, directed against the petition of Symmachus to the emperor for the restora- tion of the altar and statue of Victory which Gratian had cast down ; (6) Peristephanon Liber, fourteen poems in various metres, in honour of certain saints who had won the crown of martyrdom (hence the name, irepl y.vuv}, these, which are often vigorous and graphic, are generally considered to show Prudentius at his best ; (7) Diptychon or Dittochseon, a series of forty-nine hexameter tetrastichs on various events and characters mentioned in Scripture. The editio princeps appeared at Deventer in 1472 ; among modern editions may be named those of Faustus Arevalus (2 vols., Rome, 1788-89), Obbarius (Tubingen, 1845), and Dressel (Leipsic, 1860). PRUD'HON, PIERRE (1758-1823), French painter, born at Cluny on the 4th of April 1758, was the thfrd son of a mason. The monks of the abbey undertook his education. The paintings which decorated the monastery excited his emulation, and by the aid of Moreau, bishop of Macon, he was placed with Devosges, director of the art school at Dijon. In 1778 Prud'hon went to Paris armed with a letter to Wille, the celebrated engraver, and three years later he obtained the triennial prize of the states of Burgundy, which enabled him to go to Rome, where he became intimate with Canova. He returned to Paris in 1787, and led for some time a precarious existence, paint- ing portraits and making designs for booksellers. The illustrations which he executed for the Daphnis and CMoe published by Didot brought him into notice, and his reputation was extended by the success of his decorations 108 in the Hotel de Landry (now Rothschild), his ceiling paint- ing of Truth and Wisdom for Versailles (Louvre), and of Diana and Jupiter for the Gallery of Antiquities in the Louvre. In 1808 he exhibited Crime pursued -by Venge- ance and Justice (Louvre, engraved by Royer), which had been commissioned for the assize courts, and Psyche carried off by Zephyrs (engraved by Massard). These two remark- able compositions brought Prud'hon the Legion of Honour ; his merit was widely recognized ; he received innumerable orders, and in 1816 entered the Institute. Easy as to fortune, and consoled for the misery of his marriage by the devoted care of his excellent and charming pupil, Mademoiselle Mayer, Prud'hon's situation seemed enviable ; but Mademoiselle Mayer's tragical suicide on 26th May 1821 brought ruin to his home, and two years later (16th February 1823) Prud'hon followed her to the grave. The classic revival which set in towards the close of the 18th century, and of which Louis David was the academic chief, found in Prud'hon an interpreter whose gifts of grace and naivete tempered by seriousness atoned by the personal charm which they imparted to all he did for the want of severity and correctness in his execution. Mademoiselle Mayer (1778-1821) was his ablest pupil. Her Aban- doned Mother and Happy Mother are in the Louvre. Voiart, Notice historique de la vie et ceuvres de P. Prud'hon ; Arch, de Tart franqais ; Qu. de Quincy, Discours prononce sur la tombe de Prud'hon, Fev. 1823 ; Eugene Delacroix, Rev. des Deux Mondcs, 1846 ; Charles Blanc, Hist, des peintrcs franqais. PRUSSIA (Ger., Preussen Lat., orussia), a kingdom Plate I. of northern Europe and by far the most important mem- ber of the German empire, occupies almost the whole of northern Germany, between 5 52' and 22 53' E. long, and 49 7' and 55 53' N. lat. It now forms a tolerably compact mass of territory, with its longest axis from south- west to north-east ; but within the limits just indicated lie the "enclaves" Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Brunswick, and other small German states, while beyond them it possesses Hohenzollern, in the south of Wiirtemberg, and other " exclaves " of minor importance. On the N. Prussia is bounded by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic ; on the E. by Russia and Poland; on the S. by Austrian Silesia, Moravia, Bohemia, Saxony, the Thuringian states, Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt, the Rhenish Palatinate, and Lorraine ; and on the W. by Luxemburg, Belgium, and XX. i