Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/71

AGN he applied himself to its improvement, expending not less than £30,000. From 1830 to 1837 he sat in parliament as representative of Wigtonshire, and having been recommended by Sir Thomas Fowel Buxton as a fit leader in the agitation then being made against Sabbath traffic and recreation, he brought a Sabbath bill before four different sessions of the House of Commons. His motions for a second reading, however, were uniformly lost till 1837, when the second reading was carried by 110 against 66. But, notwithstanding this triumphant vote, the bill never passed into committee. The death of William IV. having led to a dissolution of parliament. Sir Andrew failed in securing his return, and no other member being equally zealous in the Sabbath question, nothing farther was done with his bill. In agitating the subject in parliament, he certainly displayed singular decision of character; and from the urbanity of his manners, and the meekness of his temper, he disarmed personal antipathy, and conciliated favour even where his politics were disliked. In almost every philanthropic and patriotic question of the day. Sir Andrew took a share, and was ever ready to contribute his personal advice and pecuniary assistance. As a landlord, he was highly popular among his tenantry, to whom he was invariably kind and considerate, especially in times of agricultural distress. He died April 12, 1849, and was interred in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh.—(Dr. M'Crie's Life of Sir Andrew Agnew.)—J. A.  A´GNOLO,, a Florentine sculptor and architect, born 1460; died 1543. Recommended by Michel Angelo, and employed by Clement VII., he went to Rome in 1530, and restored the statues of Apollo, Laocoon, and Hercules, in the Belvidere Museum.  A'GNOLO,, a Neapolitan architect, who died in 1510. The Gravina palace and the churches of St. Mary of Egypt and of St. Joseph at Naples, are amongst the public buildings erected by him.  AGNO´NIDES, a Greek orator, 300. He accused Theophrastus of impiety, and sought to have him burnt. Having been driven from Athens, he was permitted to return through the favour of Phocion, whom he ungratefully repaid by accusing him of betraying the Piræus to Nicanor. After the death of Phocion, the Athenians remembered his services, raised statues to his memory, and put Agnonides to death.—J. F.  AGNOSCIOLA or ANGUISCIOLA,, a famous female painter, sprung from a noble family at Cremona; died at Genoa, 1620, about ninety years of age. She was a disciple of Bernardino, and soon became famous, especially for her portraits. Philip II. invited her to Spain as court painter, where, besides the royal family, she painted Pope Pius IV., and many princes and nobles. Vandyck visited her when she was infirm and blind, and declared that he had learnt more from her than he had from any other painter. Her portraits are highly esteemed in Italy.—J. F.  AGOBARD, a celebrated archbishop of Lyons, born. 779; died 6th June, 840. He assisted Lotharius and Pepin in their rebellion against their father, Louis le Debonnaire, and took an active part in the events of his time. He stood high among the literary men of the period; wrote against the heresy of Felix, bishop of Urgella, and the practice of duels, and of trial by fire and water, exposed the absurdities of the Jewish opponents of Christianity, and zealously opposed in his famous book—"De Picturis et Imaginibus"—the worship and use of images. The first edition of his works, by Papirius Masson, appeared in 1405; another was edited by Baluze in 1666.—J. F.  AGORACRITES, a Greek sculptor and brass-caster of the school of Phidias, flourished 450 years. He was one of the best and most favourite pupils of that great master, who is said to have allowed several of his own works to pass as being the productions of Agoracrites. His most celebrated statue was that of Adrastia or Nemesis, which the Greeks erected at Ramnos in memory of the victory of Marathon. This statue was cut out of a block of Parian marble which the Persians had brought with them, intending to use it for the construction of a trophy of their expected triumph. Others relate that this statue originally represented Venus Aphrodites, and that Agoracrites had executed it for the city of Athens in competition with Alcamenes, another pupil of Phidias. The Athenians, however, preferred the work of their fellow-citizen, Alcamenes, and rejected that of Agoracrites, although superior in merit. The discarded artist avenged his slight by altering his Venus into a Nemesis, and placing it at Ramnos. Whichever be the correct version, all the ancient writers combine in praising this statue as one of the finest existing in Greece. Bronze statues of Jupiter and Minerva by Agoracrites were also in the temple of Delphi.—R. M.  AGOP,, a learned Armenian priest, who lived at Rome in the latter half of the seventeenth century. He published an "Armenian Grammar," 1674; a "Latin Grammar in Armenian," in 1675; and an "Italian Translation of the Correspondence of Constantine the Great and Pope Sylvester with Tiridates, king of Armenia," in 1683, at Venice. <section end="71H" /> <section begin="71I" />AGOSTI´NI,, an Italian antiquary of the seventeenth century, a native of Sienna. Pope Alexander VII. appointed him inspector of antiquities for the Roman states. He was the author of two valuable and now rare works. The first is entitled "La Sicilia di Filippo Paruta, descritta con medaglie, con la Giunta di Lionardo Agostini," Rome, 1649. The second, "Le Gemme Antiche figurate di Lionardo Agostini, con le annotazioni del Sig. Geo.-Pietro Bellori," Rome, 1636, 1657, 1670.—J. F. <section end="71I" /> <section begin="71J" />AGOSTI´NI,, a famous Spanish agriculturist, born about 1560, and died about 1630. Having served for some time, and distinguished himself, with the knights of Malta, he obtained the priory of St. John of Perpignan, and became a careful and zealous cultivator of the soil. He published the results of his experiments and observations in 1626, in a book which has been frequently reprinted, entitled "Libro de los Segretos de Agricultura, Casa de campo y pastoril:" Perpignan, 4to, with plates, 1626. <section end="71J" /> <section begin="71K" />AGOSTINO, and his brother ANGIOLO or ANGELO,, celebrated Italian sculptors and architects of the fourteenth century. They were pupils of Giovanni Pisano, whom they assisted in the execution of his works for the façade of the cathedral of Orvieto. Their masterpiece is the monument of Guido Tarlati, bishop of Arezzo, completed in 1330. It is said that Giotto gave the design for this work. It comprises a large number of bas-reliefs, illustrating the life of the bishop, executed with a peculiar but not unpleasant quaintness. An altar, formerly in the church of San Francesco at Bologna, is also attributed to them by several writers; although the character of its details, pointing to a more advanced period of art, may justify the assertion of others, that the altar is the production of the Venetian sculptors, Jacobello and Pietro Paolo, during the later part of the century. As architects they were employed for their native town, Siena, in erecting two of the city gates, and the church and convent of San Francesco.—R. M. <section end="71K" /> <section begin="71L" />AGOSTINO,, or AGOSTINO , an Italian artist, who died in 1525. He was a pupil of B. Sarti, and excelled in painting architectonic and prospective views. He worked chiefly at Bologna, where many of his works are still extant.—R. M. <section end="71L" /> <section begin="71M" />AGOSTINO,, a musician, who was born at Valerano in 1593. He was a pupil of Bernardino Nanino, whose daughter he married. He was successively organist of the churches of S. Maria Traste Vere and S. Lorenzo in Damaso, and finally he was appointed to succeed his fellow-pupil, Vincenzo Ugolini, in the same office at St. Peter's; some say because his predecessor refused to compete with him in a composition on a given subject, and was consequently displaced in his favour; but others deny the truth of the anecdote. He printed psalms, magnificats, and other canticles, and masses for several voices; but he is most renowned for his compositions for four, six, and eight choirs of four voices in each. Pope Urban VIII., on hearing the public performance of one of these dense masses of contrapuntal elaboration, a piece written in forty-eight real parts, was so impressed with its effect, that he bowed in acknowledgment before the author, in the sight of the assembled congregation. Padre Martini prints an "Agnus Dei" for eight voices of his, as a remarkable specimen of fluent melody, pure counterpoint, and close canonic imitation. Besides his printed works, he left many manuscripts, which are preserved in the library of the Vatican, and in that of the Casa Corsini alia Lungara. He died in 1629, but some writers have erroneously represented him as living till 1660. He was buried at Rome.—G. A. M. <section end="71M" /> <section begin="71Zcontin" />AGOUB,, an Egyptian scholar, born at Cairo, 1795. When about six years old, he was brought to France with the army, and in 1820 was made professor of Arabic at Paris. He died at Marseilles in October, 1832, in indigent circumstances. <section end="71Zcontin" />