Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/951

CAR coastguard, he was arrested and detained for a short time, and when liberated, he discovered that the crew of the felucca had gone off with all his effects. He wandered despondingly along the coast, until he reached Porto Ercole, where he was seized with fever, brought on by vexation and exposure, and he died after a few days' illness in 1609, aged only forty.

Caravaggio introduced a new and forcible style, depending chiefly upon contrasts of light and shade, in which, however, the latter prevailed. His subjects were generally very ordinary, and his imitation exact; or, if his subject is not ordinary, the actors are sure to be so, but everything is rendered with great power. His followers were called "naturalisti," because they were opposed to the ideal principle of selection, copying literally what was set before them. He completely revolutionized the art of his time, and found a host of imitators among the younger painters; even Guido and Domenichino were not exempt from his influence for a period. Guercino was at one time a complete Caravaggiesco. His permanent followers were Spagnoletto, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Carlo Saracino, the French Valentin, and the Flemish Gerard Honthorst, known in Italy as Gherardo della Notte. He and his followers generally painted only half figures.—(Bellori, Vite de Pittori, &c., 1672.)—R. N. W.  CARAVAGGIO,, born at Milan in 1617; died in 1688. After receiving a careful education, he procured a place in the magistracy of his country; but abandoned this for the profession of arms. He afterwards taught Greek and mathematics; and from 1676 till his death was a sort of inspector of the castles belonging to the duchy of Milan. He wrote a number of works on various subjects, all of considerable merit; but his fame rests principally on his contributions to the art of military engineering.  CARAVAGGIO,, the name by which is commonly known. He was born at Caravaggio about 1495, and was originally a mason's labourer, in which capacity he was employed in the Vatican in 1512 among the workmen of Raphael. Maturino of Florence, one of Raphael's assistants, having discovered a peculiar ability in the Lombard labourer, undertook to teach him to draw, and Polidoro made such rapid progress that he became very useful to his master, and eventually attracted the notice of Raphael himself. He and Maturino executed many beautiful chiariscuri (designs in light and shade) in the Vatican chambers, such as friezes and other decorations in imitation of marble and bronze. Vasari says they copied all the remains of ancient art in Rome. Their compositions were conspicuous for their fine classical style and proportions. Few of these works remain, but some are preserved in the prints of Alberti, Bartoli, and Galestruzzi. The last engraved the "Niobe," painted on a house near the Palazzo Lancellotti at Rome, their masterpiece. The sack of Rome in 1527 by the soldiers of Bourbon, put an end to these and almost all other art-labours for a season. Polidoro went first to Naples, and afterwards to Messina, where he resided many years, and executed many pictures and other good works in the former style of decoration. Vasari mentions a "Christ led to Calvary" as a masterpiece. In 1543 Polidoro, having acquired a considerable fortune by his labours, determined to return to Rome; and having got everything ready, was prepared to set out on his journey the following morning, in company with an old servant who had lived with him many years. This wretch hired some assassins to murder his master, which they did during the night, and he shared the spoil with them. Having strangled and stabbed Polidoro, they placed the body at the door of the house of a lady he was in the habit of visiting. A friend of the painter, however, suspected this servant, and had him put to the rack: the whole infamous affair was confessed by the villain, and he was tortured to death. The gallery of Naples possesses some of the pictures painted by Polidoro at Messina. He etched a few plates in a good style, which are very scarce.—(Vasari, Vite de Pittori, &c.)—R. N. W.  CARBAJAL,, a Spanish artist, born in 1534. He was a native of Toledo, and became a pupil of Juan de Villoldo. He was employed by Philip II. in the decoration of the Escurial. Some scenes from the life of the Virgin in the principal cloister, were painted by Carbajal. Several of his works deck the churches of Madrid and Toledo. He died in 1591 at Madrid. Some statements, however, make him living in 1613, and employed on the Pardo.—W. T.  CARBO, a Roman family, of whom we notice:—

, a celebrated orator, born about 164; died about 119. Having undertaken the defence of Opimius, who was accused of the murder of Caius Gracchus, he became unpopular with all parties, and being himself accused, and fearing a sentence of condemnation, he terminated his existence by poison.

, son of the preceding, and, like his father, an orator. As a supporter of the aristocracy, he fell into popular disfavour, and was assassinated,. 82.

CARBO,, three times consul at Rome, was a leader of the Marian party, and fought against Sulla,. 82. He was afterwards taken prisoner and put to death by Pompey.  CARBON. See.  CARBONE,, an Italian orator and poet, born of a patrician family at Ferrara about 1436; died at Rome in 1483. He had scarcely attained the age of twenty when he was appointed to fill the chair of eloquence and poetry in the university of his native city. Pius II., whom he addressed in a splendid oration on the occasion of his passing through Ferrara, raised him to the dignity of count palatine. He recited more than two hundred orations, and, as he boasted to the Emperor Frederic III., composed upwards of ten thousand lines of Latin verse. Many of his orations were delivered at Bologna, where he long resided. He left some important historical works which are still in manuscript.—A. C. M.  CARBURIS,, Count, physician, brother of Marine, born at Cephalonia; died at Padua in 1801. Charles Emmanuel, desirous of reforming his medical schools, gave him a chair of medicine at Turin, which he filled twenty years. He was ultimately professor of physiology at Padua. Carburis was a member of the Royal Society of London. <section end="951H" /> <section begin="951I" />CARBURIS,, a celebrated Greek engineer, known also by the name, was born in Cephalonia early in the eighteenth century. The achievement in connection with which he is remembered, was the removal from Cronstadt of the large granite block which supports the equestrian statue of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg. The feat was accomplished in 1769. <section end="951I" /> <section begin="951J" />CARBURIS,, Count, brother of the preceding, born in 1731; died at Padua in 1808. The government of Venice appointed him to the chair of chemistry at Padua, and sent him to examine the mines of Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, and Germany. One of his discoveries was that pure crystals can be obtained from sulphuric acid. <section end="951J" /> <section begin="951Zcontin" />CARDANO,, born at Pavia in 1501, a celebrated philosopher, and one of the most learned men of the sixteenth century, remarkable both for his eccentricities and his extraordinary intellectual powers. Ill-treated during his childhood and early youth by his parents, he was left almost entirely to his own exertions in the acquisition of knowledge; whilst the leanings of his father towards magic, astrology, and apparitions of spirits, gave to his mind a superstitious turn. His writings bear the stamp of the contrast between this disposition and the subsequent work of his faculties of observation and reasoning. He studied medicine, first at Pavia, then at Padua, where in 1525 he took his doctor's degree. In 1538 we find him at Milan professor of mathematics and at the same time celebrated as a physician. He became famous throughout Europe, and received the offer of a professorship from Denmark, which, however, he refused. After a journey to Scotland—where he proceeded in compliance with the request of the bishop of St. Andrews, John Hamilton, who was suffering from asthma, and who derived benefit from his cure—and a short stay in London, where he was received with much honour by Edward VI., he returned to his native land, and resumed his occupations as a teacher and a writer. One of the most renowned mathematicians of that time, Luigi Ferrari, was his pupil. He went subsequently to Bologna, where he taught with great success until 1570. He was singularly afflicted throughout life with domestic misfortunes, which contributed in a great measure to the strangeness of his temper, and to his gloomy views of human destiny. In the latter part of his life he went to Rome, where he was received with hospitality, and made a member of the college of physicians. He died there in the year 1575.—(See Morley's Life of G. Cardano, London, 1854.) One of the most interesting books of Cardano is his autobiography. In this work the reader may trace out the growth of a powerful nature, developed almost entirely through its own native energies in spite of a false education, struggling with obstacles both external and internal, and conquering, amidst many difficulties and aberrations, <section end="951Zcontin" />