Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/184

* SIENESE SCHOOL OF PAINTING. 146 SIERRA LEONE. Florentine, in the later thirteentli and four- teenth centuries ; during the fifteenth it declined. As compared with the Florentine school (q.v.) it was more detailed in finish, brighter in color, and more refined in sentiment, but inferior in line and dramatic action, and less naturalistic. It appealed to sentiment rather than understand- ing; its subjects were the ideals and feelings of the Middle Age, and it retained more of the By- zantine elements than did the Florentine. Its founder was Duccio (active 1282-1339), whose pupil Simone jNIartini ranked with Giotto in the estimation of contemporaries. Among his followers the infiuence of the school of Giotto makes itself felt, but while gaining in re- ligious earnestness, they retained the essentially Sienese qualities. This combination appears in the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the principal followers of Simone". Others, like the Bartoli brothers and Sano di Pietro, carried the antiquated style far into the fifteenth century. The true sticcessor of the Sienese was the Um- brian school (q.v.), which expressed the same sentiment in the forms of the Renaissance. During the sixteenth century a new school arose in Siena, by Sodoma (q.v.) (1477-1599), a pupil of Leonardo. Its art, however, was a transplanting of the Lombard manner rather than anything specifically Sienese. The chief representatives of the school are Girolamo della Paccliia, . the architect Peruzzi. and Domenico Beecafvimi. Consult: Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Historij of Painlinri in Itali/ (London, 1860) ; Berenson. Genirul Italian Painters of the Ren-ais- sancp (New York, 1897) ; and the general histo- ries referred to under Painting. SIENKIEWICZ, syen-kye'vech, Henrtk (1840—). A famous Polish novelist, born in Wola Okrzejska, Government of Siedlce. On graduating from the Realgymnasium at War- saw he studied philosopliy at the tmiversity of that city and made his literary dgbut in 1872 with a humorous story. Nobody is a Prophet in Bis Own Countri/. In 1876 he visited California and described his experiences in a series of letters to the Polish Gazette (of War- saw) under the pseudonym "Litwos." They at- tracted much attention by their keen observation, quaint humor, and generally attractive .style. His drama. On. a Card, dealing with the party struggles in Galicia (1S79), as well as his stories. From the Note-Booh of a Posen Teacher, Ennja, and Yanl'o the Musician, increased his popularity. In 1880 he produced the novel The Tatar Bondage. Its success induced him to con- tinue work in the same line, and the great novel With Fire and Sword (1884). with its sequels. The Deluge (1880) and Pan Michael (1887-88), followed. Beyond any doubt they are the great- est novels dealing with the struggle of the Poles and Cossacks. The characters are often untrue to history, but the Dumas-like power of evoking an historical personage and surrounding it with a halo of romanticism places Sienkiewiez's works among the most enjoyable of historical novels. His Without Dogma (1890) is a study in pathological psychology. The Children, of the Soil (1894) is a novel of contemporary Po- lish manners. Quo Tadis (189,5) brought its atithor greater fame than all his previous elTorts. He sagaciously saw and fully exploited the dramatic possibilities of the remarkable epoch of Nero's reign for an historical novel. Its success as a novel was enormous, and it has several times been dramatized. His Knights of the Cross takes the reader back to the time of the struggles be- tween the Poles and the Teutonic Order. Sienkie- wicz was editor-in-chief of the periodical Slowo {The Word) for many years. His works have been translated into several European languages. There are at least three different translations in English, the one by Jeremiah Curtin being sanctioned by the author. SIERO, se-a'ro. A town of Northern Spain, in the Province of Oviedo, situated 10 miles east of Oviedo. There are coal mines in the neighbor- hood, and the town has considerable manufac- tures of leather, as well as soap and cloth. Pop- ulation, in 1887, 22,218; in 1900, 22,657. SIERRA LEONE, se-er'rft le-6'n^. _ A colonial possession of Great Britain on the west coast of Africa. The colony proper comprises a narrow strip along the coast from the Great Scarcies River (the boundary line of French Guinea) to the Mano River (the boundary line of Liberia), including also the islands of Sherbro, Banana, Turtle, the Los group farther north, and a num- ber of other islets, having an estimated area of about 4000 square miles (Map: Africa, C 4). The protectorate extends inland for about 180 miles. Total area, about 30,000 square miles. The coast is low and marshy and lined with sand banks and lagoons. The peninsula is traversed Ijy a range of hills reaching in the Sugar Loaf an altitude of about 3000 feet. The interior is usually described as hilly and rising toward the north. The region is well watered by the Great and the Little Scarcies, the Rokelle, the .Jongor Bampanna, and the Great Bum, all flowing into the Atlantic, and some of them navigaVile in the lower course. Sierra Leone has long been known as the 'white man's grave' on account of its dead- ly climate. This characterization, however, is true only of the low coast region, the climate of the interior being less unhealthful. The dry season in the coast region lasts from the beginning of January to the end of March, and the real wet season sets in at the end of May and continues to the end of October. The dry season is char- acterized by a persistent dry northeast wind. The rainfall is very llea^'y, ranging at Freetown on the coast from about 140 to over 200 inches per annum. The mean annual temperature at Freeto^^^l is about 80° F. The principal products are kola nuts, palm kernels and oil, and gum copal. The output of groundnuts and hides is gradually declining. The imports of the colony are constantlv increasing, while the exports show a slight falling off", the total trade in 1901 amounted to over $4,150,000, of which the im- ports represented about .'p2, 700, 000. There are a number of good roads in the coast region and over 70 miles of railway lines leading from Freetown into the interior. The Colonial Gov- ernor is assisted by nominated executive and leg- islative councils. The capital is FreetoAvn. The protectorate is divided into five districts, each in charge of a European commissioner. There are about 80 primary schools, with an enrollment of about 8000, maintained by various missionary or- ganizations, and also a number of Mohammedan schools maintained by the Government. The reve- nue and expenditure of the colony amniinted in 1901 to $910,242 and .$844,735 resbectively. The