Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/210

194 knots, round the limbs of the sick man, and this, with the further application of holy water, would, it was believed, infallibly produce a cure, while the same result might be brought about by fixing &quot; a sentence out of a good book on the sufferer s head as he lay in bed.&quot; Similar superstitions may yet be detected in the corners of our own land, and still more on the Continent, where the break with the traditions of the past has been less strongly felt. They form an important element in the history of the human intelligence, and the light thrown upon their origin and I early fortunes by the revelations of cuneiform discovery has opened a new chapter in the science of religion. 1em (Author:Archibald Henry Sayce)

 

 BACCARAT, a town of France, in the department of Meurthe and arrondissement of Luneville. It has a large export trade of timber, planks, wheelwright s work, and charcoal, and is celebrated for the products of its glassworks, which were established in 1765. Population, 4763.

 BACCHIGLIONE, a river of north-eastern Italy, which, j rising in the mountains eastward of Trent, passes by Vicenza and Padua, and, after a course of 90 s, falls into the lagune of Venice, south of Chioggia. It is navigable for large boats as far as Vicenza, and is connected with the Adige by means of a canal. The river is probably the ancient Togisonus.

 BACCHUS, the name of, the of. See.

 BACCHYLIDES, [ Greek ], a famous Greek lyric poet, born at lulis in Ceos, was the nephew of Simonides, and flourished about. He resided long at the court of Hiero of Syracuse with Simonides and Pindar, of whom he is said to have been the rival. His works consisted of odes, dithyrambs, and hymns. Two epigrams contained in the Greek Anthology ascribe to him peculiar softness and sweetness of style. The few remains of his writings are contained in the collections of Brunck, Bergk, Bland, and Hartung They have been published separately by Neue, Bacchylidis Cei frag., Berl., 1823.

 BACCIO DELLA PORTA, called, a celebrated historical and portrait painter, was born at Savignano, near Florence, in, and died in. He received the first elements of his artistic education from Cosimo Roselli; and after leaving him, devoted himself to the study of the great works of Leonardo da Vinci. Of his early productions, which are distinguished for their grace and beauty, the most important is the fresco of the Last Judgment, in which he was assisted by his friend, Mariotto Albertinelli. While he was engaged upon some pieces for the convent of the Dominican friars, he made the acquaintance of Savonarola, who quickly acquired great influence over him, and Baccio was so affected by his cruel death, that he soon after entered the convent, and for some years gave up his art He had not long resumed it, in obedience to his superior, when, the celebrated Raffaelle came to Florence and formed a close friendship with him. Bartolomineo learned from the younger artist the rules of perspective, in which he was so skilled, while Raffaelle owes to the frate the improvement in his colouring and handling of drapery, which was noticeable in the works he produced after their meeting. Some years afterwards he visited Rome, and was struck with admiration and a feeling of his own inferiority when he contemplated the masterpieces of Michel Angelo and Raffaelle. With the latter, however, he remained on the most friendly terms, and when he departed from Rome, left in his hands two unfinished pictures which Raffaelle completed, Bartolommeo's figures had generally been small and draped. These qualities were alleged against him as defects, and to prove that his style was not the result of want of power, hs painted the magnificent figure of St Mark, and the undraped figure of St Sebastian. The latter was so well designed, so naturally and beautifully coloured, and so strongly expressive of suffering and agony, that it was found necessary to remove it from the place where it had been exhibited in the chapel of a convent. The majority of Bartolommeo s compositions are altar-pieces, and few of them are to be met with out of Tuscany. They are remarkable for skill in the massing of light and shade, richness and delicacy of colouring, and for the admirable style in which the drapery of the figures is handled, Bartolommeo having been the first to introduce and use the lay-figure with joints.

 BACH,, was born at Eisenach in Thuringia, on March 21, 1685, the same year which gave birth to his great contemporary Handel. His father held a musical appointment from the town council, being himself descended from a musician. The family of the Bachs, like those of some of the great Italian painters, may be cited as one of the most striking instances of hereditary artistic genius. Through four consecutive generations they followed the same calling, counting among their number no less than fifty musicians of more or less remarkable gifts. Even of the first ancestor of the family known to us, a miller and baker, who, owing to religious persecutions, had to leave Pressburg in Austria for the Protestant north of Germany, we are told that in his leisure hours he was fond of playing the lute, the sounds of which, as the old family chronicle naively adds, must have mixed sweetly with the clattering of the wheels of his mill. The accumulated artistic gifts and traditions of his forefathers were at last brought to their highest development by the genius of our master, who again transmitted them to his numerous sons. Johann-Sebastian's parents died before he had reached his tenth year,. and he was left to the care of his elder brother, an organist at Ohrdruf, from whom he received his rudimentary musical education. According to a tradition the elder Bach was by no means pleased with the rapid progress of his more gifted brother, and even refused him access to the sources of knowledge available at that primitive period ; he was particularly anxious to withhold from him a certain collection of compositions for the pianoforte, by contemporary masters, which, however, the younger Bach contrived to obtain surreptitiously, and which he copied at night in the course of six months. By practising the music thus become his own on the pianoforte, he made himself master of the technique of an instrument, the capabilities of which he was destined to enlarge and develop by the works of his own genius. In 1698 his brother died, and Bach, at the age of fourteen, saw himself thrown on his own resources for his further means of support. He went to Liineburg, where his beautiful soprano voice obtained him an appointment as chorister at the school of St Michael. In this manner he became practically acquainted with the principal works of vocal music, continuing at the same time his practice on the organ and pianoforte. A special teacher of any of these instruments, or, indeed, of the theory of music, Bach seems never to have had, at least <section end="BACH" />