Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/890

Rh 856 R O S R O S pores and cavities. This happy invention secured the success of the casting of a solid 3-foot speculum in 1840, and encouraged Lord Rosse to make a speculum of 6 feet diameter, which he also succeeded in doing in 1842. In the beginning of 1845 this great reflector (which up to the present time has remained without a rival) was mounted and ready for work. The instrument has a focal length of 54 feet and the tube is about 7 feet in diameter ; owing to these large dimensions it cannot be pointed to every part of the heavens, but can only be moved a short distance from the meridian and very little to the north of the zenith ; these restric- tions have, however, hardly been felt, as there is almost at any moment a sufficient number of objects within its reach. From 1848 to 1878 it was with but few interruptions employed for observations of nebulte ; and many previously unknown features in these objects were revealed by it, especially the remarkable spiral configuration prevailing in many of the brighter nebula. A special study was made of the nebula of Orion, and the resulting large drawing gives an extremely good representation of this complicated object Since 1845 others have followed in Lord Rosse's footsteps and several 3- and 4-foot mirrors have been made, while the develop- ment of refracting telescopes has been so rapid that, whereas twenty- five years ago there were no object glasses larger than 15 inches in existence, a 30-inch glass has now actually been completed. But, though the refractors surpass the large reflectors in general con- venience of use and are very much better adapted to work of pre- cision (micrometer measures), Lord Rosse's great reflector is still unapproached in light-grasping power, and remains a noble monument of 'its maker, who (as beautifully expressed on a memorial tablet in the parish church of Birr) " revealed to mankind by the unrivalled creation of his genius a wider vision of the glory of God." Lord Rossc gave a detailed account of the experiments which step by step had led to the construction of the 3-foot speculum in the Philosophical Transactions for 1840. In the same publication for 1844 and 1850 he communicated short descriptions and drawings of some of the more interesting nebulae, and in the volume for 18C1 he published a paper On the Construction of Specula of 6 feet aperture, and a Selection from the Observations of Nebulae made with them, with numerous engravings. The accounts of the observations given in these papers were, however, of a very fragmentary character; but in 1879-80 a complete account of them was published by the present earl (" Observations of nebulas and clusters of stars made with the 6-foot and 3-foot reflectors at Birr Castle from 184S to 1878") in the Scient. Trans. K. Dublin Soc., vol. ii. The drawing of the nebula of Orion was published in the Phil. Trans, for 1868. ROSSELLI, COSIMO (1439-e. 1507), a Florentine painter, was born in 1439. At the age of fourteen he became a pupil of Neri di Bicci, and in 1460 he worked as assistant to his cousin Bernardo di Stefano Rosselli. The first work of Cosimo mentioned by Vasari still exists in S. Ambrogio, in Florence, over the third altar on the left. It is an Assumption of the Virgin, a youthful and feeble work of but little merit. In the same church, on the wall of one of the chapels, is a fresco by Cosimo which Vasari praises highly, especially for a portrait of the young scholar Pico of Mirandola. The scene, a procession bearing a miracle- working chalice, is painted with much vigour and les mannerism than most of this artist's work. A picture painted by Rosselli for the church of the Annunziata, with figures of SS. Barbara, Matthew, and the Baptist, is now in the Academy of Florence. Rosselli also spent some time in Lucca, where he painted several altar- pieces for various churches, none of any great importance. A picture attributed to him, taken from the church of S. Girolamo at Fiesole, is now in the National Gallery of London. It is a large retable, with, in the centre, St Jerome in the wilderness kneeling before a crucifix, and at the sides standing figures of St Damasus and St Eusebius, St Paolo and St Eustachia; below is a predella with small subjects. Though dry and hard in treatment, the figures are designed with much dignity. The Berlin Gallery possesses three pictures by Rosselli, the Virgin in Glory, the Entombment of Christ, and the Massacre of the Innocents. In 1480 Rosselli, together with the chiei painters of Florence, was invited by Sixtus IV. to Rome to assist in the painting of the frescos in the Sistine Chapel. Three of these were executed by him the Destruction of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea, Christ Preaching by the Lake of Tiberias, and the Last Supper The last of these is still well preserved, but is a very mediocre work. Vasari's story about the pope admiring his paintings more than those of his abler brother painters las probably but little foundation. Rosselli's Sistiue rescos were partly painted by his assistant Piero di Cosimo, who was so called after Cosimo Rosselli. His chief pupil was Fra Bartolommeo. According to Vasari, Rosselli died in 1484, but this is evidently a mistake, as lis will still exists dated November 25, 1506 (see Gayc, Car. ined., ii. 457, note). For an account of Rosselli's Sistine frescos, see Plainer and Bunsoii, Bcschreibung der Stadt Rom, ii. pt. i. ; and Rumohr, Italicn. Forscliiingcn, ii. 265. ROSSELLINO, ANTONIO (1427-c. 1479), one of the most skilful of Florentine sculptors, was the son of Matteo di Domenico Gamberelli, and had four brothers, who all practised some branch of the fine arts. Almost nothing is known about the life of Antonio, but many of his works Marble Relief by Antonio Rossellino. still exist, and are of the highest beauty, full of strong religious sentiment, and executed with the utmost delicacy 1 of touch and technical skill. The style of Antonio and his brother (see below) is a development of that of Donatello and Ghiberti ; it possesses all the refinement and soft sweetness of the earlier masters, but is not equal to them either in vigour or originality. Antonio's chief work, still in perfect preservation, is the very lovely tomb of a young cardinal prince of Portugal, who died in 1459, aged only twenty-six. It occupies one side of a small chapel on the north of the nave of San Miniato. 1 The recumbent effigy of the cardinal is very remarkable for the grace of its pose and the beauty of the portrait face. It rests on a handsome sarcophagus, and over it, under the arch which frames the whole, is a beautiful relief of the Madonna between two flying angels. The tomb was begun in 1461 and finished in 1466; Antonio received four hundred and twenty-five gold florins for it. A repro- duction of this tomb with slight alterations, and of course a different effigy, was made by Antonio for the wife of Antonio Piccolomini, duke of Amalfi, in the church of S. Maria del Monte at Naples, where it still exists. For the same church he also executed some delicate reliefs, which perhaps err in being too pictorial in style, especially in the treatment of the backgrounds. A fine medallion relief by him is preserved in the Bargello at Florence (see fig.), and the original terra cotta model for this is in the pos- session of Mr Drury Fortnum ; in some small matters of 1 Illustrated by Gonnelli, Mon. Sepol. della Toscana, Florence, 1819, plate xxiii.