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* CONSTABLE. 319 CONSTANCE. he found recognition in France. In 1823 three of his pictures were exliibitcd at the Salon, where they excited the greatest admiration, and were accorded the place of lionor in the exhibition. The King of Fiance sent Constable a gold medal, and the same lionor was accorded to him in the following year at Lille. At last, in 1820, came the tardy honor of membersliip in the Royal Academy, but accompanied by an ungracious re- mark on the part of the president, and too late to atl'ord satisfaction to the painter. Constable was a simple and noble character, wlio bore bravely discoui-agement and adversity, and never wavered in liis ideal of art. His other great passion in life was his love for his wife. Miss Maria Bicknell, to whom, after many diffi- culties, he was secretly wedded in 1810. With a family of seven children, he was sometimes hard pressed for money, until he was at length re- lieved by his own inlieritance and the ample inheritance of his wife. In 1827 he removed to his favorite Hampstead, where many of his best pictures were painted. He was greatly be- reaved by the death of his wife in 1828, and died unexpeetedl}' on ilarch 30, 1837. Constable ^^■as a great innovator in landscajje painting, and he msxy be justly termed the father of the modem school. The old Dutch masters gained their effects by giving the forms of ob- jects, placing more weight ui)on drawing than upon color, in which they achieved harmony by a uniform brown tone. Constable saw that land- scape is rather a problem of light and air, and that its eft'eet depends upon the light and shadow in which the objects are seen. He was the first to ])aint the subtle gradings of the atmosphere, and to show not only the objects themselves, but how he saw them. He laid on his colors fresh and fair, as they are in nature, applying to oil paintings the results of water-colors. His pictures are always hannohious in tone. He always gives the effect of a landscape, suppress- ing unimportant details — a tendency which in- creases with his later years. He frequently uses the palette knife, sometimes executing the entire picture by this means, as in the case of "Water- loo Bridge." In consequence of these teachings an able group of landscape painters arose in Eng- land in the forties and fifties, the most important of whom was David Cox (q.v.). But his greatest successors were the French painters of the Bar- bizon School, through wliom his work has been transmitted to the landscape of the present day. The National Gallerv in London contains three of his finest works. ' the "Cornfield" (1826): "Valley Farm" (1835): and "Hay Wain." In South Kensington ^luseum are eight of his works, among which are "Deadhani Mill" ( 1820) ; "Hamp.stead Heath" (1823); and "Water Meadows Xear Salisbury." The Louvre has three good examples : "The Cottage," " Wevmouth Bav" (1827), and the "Glebe Farm." Twenty of his chief works were published in 1833 in a series of tine and sympathetic etchings by his friend David Lucas, with an introduction hj Constable himself. Consult: IMuther. Bisicyry of Modern Painting (London. 1S06). vol. ii.; Leslie, C. R., Memoirs of Constable (London, 1845). containing Lucas's plates; Chesneau. La peinture anglaise (Paris, 1882); Brock-Arnold. Gainsborough and Con- stable (London, 1881); Wedmore, Studies in English Art (London, 1876-80). CON'STANCE (Cicr. Konstanz or Kostnitx). A city of the tirand Duchy of Baden, situ- ated on both banks of the Rhine, where it leaves Lake Constance, about 35 miles northeast of Zurich (^lap: Germany, C 5). Renuiins of its ancient fortifications are still extant in the two old city gates. The cathedral, founded in the eleventh ccntui'y, was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The carved oak portals and choir-stalls are fine s])ecimens of wood-carving. It was here that Huss was sentenced by the council to be burned at the stake. Other ecclesiastical build- ings of interest are the Church of Saint Stephen and the Dominican monastery, on an island, in which Huss was confined, and now used as a hotel. The notable secular buildings include the old Kaufluius, containing the hall in which the conclave of cardinals met to elect a pope at the time of the famous council in 1417; the Rosgar- ten, the former guildhall of the butchers, con- taining an interesting museum; and the town hall, with the city archives. Constance has manu- factures of linen and cotton, carpets, soap, and cliemicals. Topulation, in 1890, 16.235; in 1900, 21,345. Constance was known to the Romans at least as early as the third century. In 570 it was made the seat of a bishopric, "which existed as one of the most powerful in Ciermany until its secularization in 1803. In 780 Constance was given municipal rights, and in 1192 was made a free imperial city. For joining the Schmalkaldic League it was deprived of its imperial privileges in 1548 and presented to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. In 1800 it Ijecame a part of the Grand Duchy of Baden. Consult Geschichfe der Bi- schiifc von Kcmstunz (Innsbruck, 1894-90). CON'STANCE. (1) Daughter of the Em- peror and eventually the wife of King Alia, in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale. (2) The mother of Prince Arthur, in Shakespeare's King John. (3) Nonesuch's daughter, enamored of Lovely, in Dryden's Wild Gallant. (4) The heroine of Brome's The Northern Lass. (5) Fondlove's daughter and Wildrake's mistress, in Knowles's comedy The Love Chase. (6) The daughter of the Provost, later proved a serf, in G. W. Lovelies Provost of Bruges. CONSTANCE, or CUSTANCE, Dame Chris- TI.^•. A rich and beautiful widow in Udall's play Ralph Roister Doister. CONSTANCE, Council op. The sixteenth ecumejiical Church council (1414-18) called by Pope .John XXIIL, at the suggestion of the Emperor Sigismund, to attemiit to heal the Papal schism (see Schism, Western), the scan- dal of which was then at its height: to deal with the Hussite heresy; and to consider measures for the general reform of the Church. It was the most brilliant and numerously attended Church council ever held. Dignitaries of Church and State, with large retinues, attended from all the countries of Europe; and many merchants and artisans, with a miscellaneous crowd, including showmen, players, and harlots, were attracted by the occasion. It is said that more than 18,000 priests, and in all about 100.000 strangers, were gathered in the city. The predominating influence of Pope John was nullified by a decision to vote by nations rather than by individuals, and it was proposed that all the three rival popes should abdicate. John fled from the city and attempted to dissolve the Council,