Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/745

BOT BOTSCHILD, Samuel, a painter and engraver, born at Sangerhausen in Saxony, 1640. He was a respectable commonplace man, who, not being ambitious, got on and escaped envy. He became court painter of history to a court that had no history, and keeper of the Dresden electoral gallery. He established an academy—that supposed hotbed of genius, where, indeed, genius is too often overlaid. He died in 1707.—W. T.  BOTT,, an English divine, born at Derby in 1688, was educated among the dissenters, and for some time held a presbyterian charge at Spalding, but latterly joined the church of England, and obtained three benefices in Norfolk. He was a noted controversialist, and, among other works of theological criticism, published "Remarks on Bishop Butler's Doctrine of Necessity," and "An Answer to the first volume of Warburton's Divine Legation." Died at Norwich in 1754.—J. S., G.  BOTTA,, born at San Giorgio in Piedmont in the year 1768, is reputed one of the first historiographers of this century. At the breaking out of the French revolution he was practising as a physician in Turin. Having dared to express publicly his sympathy for the French nation struggling against despotism, he was, by order of the king of Sardinia, arrested in 1792, and thrown into a dungeon, where he was kept for two years. Recovering his liberty, he crossed over to France, entered the army as a physician, and went all through the Italian campaign. Having been employed on a scientific expedition to the Ionian islands, and to the east, he wrote an elaborate account of it, which was published in Paris by order of the government. His zeal and devotedness to the French interests in Italy won for him the friendship of General Joubert, who appointed him a member of the provisional government of Piedmont, in which capacity he contributed to the fusion of that country with France. After the battle of Marengo, Botta was appointed one of the privy council, and attached to the general administration of the 17th division of the army. In the year 1803 he came to Paris, where he was elected a member of the legislative body, and became its president in the year 1808. Had he not been disliked by Napoleon on account of his well-known republican principles, he would have reached the highest dignities in the state. During the hundred days of the first restoration, he was appointed president of the college of Nancy, and soon after he was transferred to that of Rouen, which appointment he lost at the second restoration. Wearied of public life, he fixed his residence in Paris, living on a moderate income, although he might have accumulated a large fortune. There he wrote the "History of the War and Independence of the United States of America," and continued the history of Italy from where Guicciardini had left it up to the year 1814. His style is considered terse, thoroughly Italian, and at times lofty. Gioberti considers this writer one of the reformers of the Italian language. Being an eminent French scholar, he has also left many works written in French, amongst which the following are the principal—"Souvenirs d'un voyage en Dalmatie;" "Precis historique de la Maison de Savoie;" "Memoire sur la nature des sons, et des tons." In his youth Botta was a suitor of the muses, and his sonnets and odes have eminently contributed to increase the fame which, as a historian, he has won for himself. This celebrated champion of liberty died at Paris in 1837.—A. C. M.  BOTTA,, son of the eminent historian, was born in 1800. Being appointed French consul at Mosul, he, in 1843, began those remarkable excavations which led to the discovery of Assyrian antiquities, since followed up by Mr. Layard, and of which the Paris Louvre and the British Museum afford such remarkable specimens. M. Botta had dwelt long in the East having previously been consul at Alexandria, and journeyed through Egypt and Arabia. His attention was first drawn to a mound on the opposite bank of the Tigris, which, according to tradition, marked a portion of the site of ancient Nineveh. While excavating in this direction, his notice was called to a village named Khorsabad, about fourteen miles distant, where pieces of sculpture such as he had already turned up, were said to have also been found. His labours at Khorsabad proved more fruitful than he could have expected, for he found that a wall which he had reached opened into a part of an Assyrian palace, containing those bulls with human heads, and those statues and sculptured slabs, and cruciform inscriptions with which the collection in the British Museum has made visitors to that institution familiar. The French government, with laudable zeal, not only aided M. Botta with money, but sent that admirable artist, Eugene Flandin, to make illustrations on the spot, and the result is a splendid work, their joint production, upon the monuments of Nineveh. We must add, however, that the assertion as to the actual site of Nineveh having been discovered, and that the monuments in question are remains of the Assyrian capital, is not generally accepted.—J. F. C.  BOTTALA,, a painter, born at Savara, near Genoa, in 1613. He came to Rome, studied under Pietro da Cortona, and was patronized by Cardinal Sachetti, for whom he painted pictures—enduring the foolish criticism of an ignorantly wise patron, just knowing enough to be more troublesome than one who knew nothing. He remained always an imitator, but was called "Raffaellino." "The meeting of Jacob and Esau" was one of his great tableaux. The other shreds of his life are in the churches of Genoa and Naples. He died at Milan 1644.—W. T.  BOTTANI,, a painter, born at Cremona in 1717. He studied at Rome under Agostino Masucci. He settled at Mantua, painting (O noble shopmanship!) Poussin landscapes and Maratti figures. He was made director of the Academy at Mantua—a sure proof of incompetence—and died 1784.—W. T.  BOTTAZZI,, an Italian poet, born about the year 1770. His prodigious memory enabled him to learn by heart the whole of Virgil; but although he is considered an eminent Latin poet, yet he has left nothing original, his ideas and conceptions being for the most part taken from Virgil. His translation in Latin hexameters of Monti's celebrated poem—Il Bardo della selva nera—is reputed very superior, and shows classic learning and a consummate knowledge of the Latin language and versification. This translation was so highly appreciated by Prince Eugene, then viceroy of Italy, that he' ordered that a costly edition should be brought out at the expense of government, and presented Bottazzi with the professorship of logic in the college of Brera, the first seat of learning in the kingdom of Lombardy. The duties, however, of his office interfering with his favourite studies, he sent in his resignation, and accepted a clerkship in the financial department of the state. On the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, Bottazzi lost his situation, and retired to his native city. His death has not been recorded.—A. C. M.  * BÖTTGER,, a voluminous German poet and translator, was born at Leipzig, May 21, 1815, and devoted himself to the study of philology and modern literature in his native town. He wrote—"Gedichte," 1846, 6th ed., 1850; "Agnes Bernauer," a tragedy, 3d ed., 1850; "Die Pilgerfahrt der Blumengeister," an epic poem; "Habana, epischlyrische Dichtung;" "Gedichte, neue Sammlung," 1854, &c. He translated the poetical works of Byron, Pope, Milton, Ossian, &c.—K. E. <section end="745H" /> <section begin="745Zcontin" />BOTTICELLI,, surnamed , a Florentine painter, born in 1447, a disciple and imitator of Filippo Lippi. He painted mythology at Rome and Florence, under pontifical patronage. He filled his works with figures and details; a type of his prodigal drift of mind, for he lived extravagantly, and died poor in 1515. Baldini engraved nineteen plates for Dante's Inferno from Botticelli's designs. He also engraved a set of twelve Sibyls and seven Planets. This was a long time thought to be the first book in which metal plates for engraving were used. Botticelli had much of Filippo Lippi's rough ardour and impetuous energy, modified by a fanciful conception and a more ideal mind. His Virgin's heads are from the same beautiful type. In one of his Nativities all is ardour. The angels kneel on the roof of the cow-shed—others crown the approaching shepherds or vehemently embrace them. In his myths and allegories, Botticelli runs wilder, in spite of the late flaming outbreak of Savanarola. Besides Squarcione, our friend was the only painter who treated such pretty vaguenesses with feeling. In one of his works there is a naked Venus floating on a shell, driven in a shower of roses towards the shore, where, under a laurel bush, a richly-dressed attendant holds a red mantle to receive her beautiful form. He is often, however, mannered: his naked Venus at Berlin is indeed, Kugler says, ugly and insipid. These small allegorical pictures are often neatly finished. The miracles of St. Zendid and the allegory of Calumny (after Apelles) are of this kind. About 1474 Sandro was chosen, with Ghirlandajo, Pietro Perugino, and Rosselli, to paint frescos in the Vatican chapel, built by Baccio Pintelli for Pope Sixtus IV. Those of Perugino over the altar were <section end="745Zcontin" />