Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/738

* BAGTTLY. 650 RAHL. BAGTJ'LY. A term applied to an irregular line employed in heraldry (q.v.). RAGXrSA, r:i-goo'z:i (Slav. Diihrovnik). A lii>toric town and fortified seaport in the Crown- land of Dalmatia, Austria, situated at the foot of San Sergio, 50 miles south-southeast of 5Ios- tar (Map: Austria, F 5). It is a walled city v,-itli many towers and intersected by the Corso, once an arm of the sea, and now containing the most interesting features of the town, including the Palazzo Rettorale (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), the former residence of the rectors of the Republic, the old mint, the custom house, and the cathedral completed in 1713. Among other buildings may be mentioned the Palazzo Comnnuiale, the museum, and the theatre. The harbor is small and unprotected and most of the heavier vessels anchor at Gravosa. about four miles from the town. The chief products are oil, silk, leather, and liqueurs. There is some transit trade with Herzegovina, Population, in 1900, 13,174. Ragusa is believed to have been founded about the middle of the seventh century, by refugees from Ragusa Vecchia or Old Ragusa (the ancient EpUlaiirus), probably destroyed by the Slavs. Although successively subject to Constantinople, Venice, Hungary, Servia, and Bosnia, Ragusa enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy and repe'atedlv fought against e-ery encroachment on its independence. At the close of the Middle Ages it became tributary to Turkey, and under Turkish overlordship rose to the position of one of the principal centres of commerce in Southern Europe. Its territory embraced over .500 square miles. Its institutions were aristocratic. , The plagues during tlie sixteenth century, and the frequent earthquakes, especially that of 1007, when the town lost one-fifth of its inhabitants. put an end to the prosperity of the little Repub- lic. Seized by Napoleon in ISOO, it was deprived of its independence in ISOS and awarded to Aus- tria l)y the Congress of Vienna in 1814. From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century Ragusa was a great seat of South Slavic literature. The most famous of the Ragusan poets was Gun- dulii; (q.v.), who died in 1038. Consult Jackson, Dalmatia, vol. ii, (Oxford, 1887). RAGUSA. A city in the Province of Syra- cuse. Sicily, situated on a steep ridge, on the right bank of the Ragusa, 15 miles from the sea, and 32 miles bv rail west-southwest of Syracuse (Map: Italy, J 11), Around the town ancient tombs have" been dug out. The city has a Gothic church, a gymnasium, and a technical school. There are manufactures of silk, cotton, woolens, and furniture, and a trade in wine, oil, cattle, and cheese. Population (commune, includ- ing Ragusa Inferiore), in 1881, 30,721; in 1901, 31,022. RAGUSA, Dike of. See Marmont. RAHBEK, ra'bek, KxLti Lyne (1760-1830). A Danish poet and author, born in Copenhagen, He was educated at the University of Copen- hagen and was appointed professor of icsthetics there in 1790, From 1785 to 1809 he directed the Minerva, a literary periodical of great inlluence, and he also edited Den Danske Tilskurr (The Danish Spectator) in 1791-1808, and in 1815-22. His own works include numerous editions of the Scandinavian poets, particularly Holbcrg: the eritical Ludmg Holberg som Lystspildigter (1815-17) : Dansle Loesctog (1700) ; and, with Xyenip. liidraq til den danske Ditektmsts His- toric (1800-28). RAHL, ral, Kael (1812-65). An Austrian historical and portrait painter, born in Vienna, son of the engraver Karl Heinrich Rahl (1779- 1843). First instructed by his father, he entered the ^"ienna Academv in 1827, won a prize in 1831 with '-David in the Cave of Adullara," went to IMunich and Stuttgart, where he found a svmiiathetic adviser in Eberhard Wiichter. and after his return to Vienna (1834) painted "Krieinhild Declaring Hagen Siegfried's Mur- derer" (1835, Vienna Museum). In 1836 he went to Venice where he copied Titian and thence proceeded to Rome, where he lived in congenial intercourse with Koch. Thorwaldsen. Riepen- hausen, and Genelli and cultivated an eclecticism which liorrowed color and technique from the Venetians and composition from Raphael and Jlichelangelo. From this Roman sojourn date "Hagen and Volker at Kriemhild's Door" (1836). "Confederation on the Riltli, 1307," and "Charles of Anjou Finding Manfred's Body" ( 1838, Vienna Museum), He returned to Vienna in 1838, but by the end of 1839 was again in Rome, where he remained until 1847. The works executed in Rome during that period include a huge altar-piece with thirty figures "Saint Joseph of Calasanza" (1841. Piarist Church, Vienna); "Persecution of Christians in the Catacombs of Rome" (1844, Kunsthalle, Hamburg; replica, 1849, National Gallery, Berlin) ; and "Entrj' of Manfred into Lucera"' (1846, Vienna Museum), besides several genre scenes and various por- traits. The year 1848 found him as corrector at the Vienna Academy, which was, however, closed during the revolutionary disturl)ances, when Rahl' took up his abode" in Munich, until ap- pointed to a temporai-y professorship at the Vienna Academy, in 1850. He resigned after one term and opened a private school of painting, which was at once attended by twenty-five of his pupils and many more thereafter. For years underrated and slighted by those in authority, he won at last deserved recognition in 1856 through the patronage of Baron Sina, the Greek banker, who secured his .services for the decora- tion of the Greek church in Vienna, the composi- tion of a grand frieze, representing the "Develop- ment of the Sciences in Greece" (1860) for the University of Atliens, and whose palace in Vienna he adorned in 1861 with four superb easel paint- ings of "Episodes from the heroic Age of Greece" and the "Four Elements," The facade of the Heinrichshof he decorated in 1862 with twelve allegorical figures of "The Arts of Peace," and the stairca.se of the Arsenal in 1863 with the allegories of "War and Strategy-," "Fame and Honor," "Courage and Yisdom," and "Unity and Power," having shortly before been appointed professor at the academy. Among more than 400 portraits which he is said to have painted are those of many contemporary celebrities in art, literature, aiid science. Jlany admira))le de- signs for future decorative work remained unfin- ished at his death. Consult: Hottner. Karl Rahl (Vienna, 1863) ; George-Mayer, Erinneninger], an Karl Rahl (ib.. 1882); Reber, Geschichte der neneren deutschen Kunst, ii, (Leipzig, 1884) ; Bodenstein, in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, xxvii (ib., 1888); and Pecht, Deutsche Kunst-