Page:EB1911 - Volume 13.djvu/226

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
  
HEIM—HEINE
213

of Bamberg in 1132, and continued to exist till 1555. Its sepulchral monuments, many of which are figured by Hocker, Heilsbronnischer Antiquitätenschatz (Ansbach, 1731–1740), are of exceptionally high artistic interest. It was the hereditary burial-place of the Hohenzollern family and ten burgraves of Nuremberg, five margraves and three electors of Brandenburg, and many other persons of note are buried within its walls. The buildings of the monastery have mostly disappeared, with the exception of the fine church, a Romanesque basilica, restored between 1851 and 1866, and possessing paintings by Albert Dürer. The “Monk of Heilsbronn” is the ordinary appellation of a didactic poet of the 14th century, whose Sieben Graden, Tochter Syon and Leben des heiligen Alexius were published by J. F. L. T. Merzdorf at Berlin in 1870.

See Rehm, Ein Gang durch und um die Münster-Kirche zu Kloster-Heilsbronn (Ansbach, 1875); Stillfried, Kloster-Heilsbronn, ein Beitrag zu den Hohenzollernschen Forschungen (Berlin, 1877); Muck, Geschichte von Kloster-Heilsbronn (Nördlingen, 1879–1880); J. Meyer, Die Hohenzollerndenkmale in Heilsbronn (Ansbach, 1891); and A. Wagner, Über den Mönch von Heilsbronn (Strassburg, 1876).


HEIM, ALBERT VON ST GALLEN (1849–  ) , Swiss geologist, was born at Zürich on the 12th of April 1849. He was educated at Zürich and Berlin universities. Very early in life he became interested in the physical features of the Alps, and at the age of sixteen he made a model of the Tödi group. This came under the notice of Arnold Escher von der Linth, to whom Heim was indebted for much encouragement and geological instruction in the field. In 1873 he became professor of geology in the polytechnic school at Zürich, and in 1875 professor of geology in the university. In 1882 he was appointed director of the Geological Survey of Switzerland, and in 1884 the hon. degree of Ph.D. was conferred upon him at Berne. He is especially distinguished for his researches on the structure of the Alps and for the light thereby thrown on the structure of mountain masses in general. He traced the plications from minor to major stages, and illustrated the remarkable foldings and overthrust faultings in numerous sections and with the aid of pictorial drawings. His magnificent work, Mechanismus der Gebirgsbildung (1878), is now regarded as a classic, and it served to inspire Professor C. Lapworth in his brilliant researches on the Scottish Highlands (see Geol. Mag. 1883). Heim also devoted considerable attention to the glacial phenomena of the Alpine regions. The Wollaston medal was awarded to him in 1904 by the Geological Society of London.


HEIM, FRANÇOIS JOSEPH (1787–1865), French painter, was born at Belfort on the 16th of December 1787. He early distinguished himself at the École Centrale of Strassburg, and in 1803 entered the studio of Vincent at Paris. In 1807 he obtained the first prize, and in 1812 his picture of “The Return of Jacob” (Musée de Bordeaux) won for him a gold medal of the first class, which he again obtained in 1817, when he exhibited, together with other works, a St John—bought by Vivant Denon. In 1819 the “Resurrection of Lazarus” (Cathédral Autun), the “Martyrdom of St Cyr” (St Gervais), and two scenes from the life of Vespasian (ordered by the king) attracted attention. In 1823 the “Re-erection of the Royal Tombs at St Denis,” the “Martyrdom of St Laurence” (Notre Dame) and several full-length portraits increased the painter’s popularity; and in 1824, when he exhibited his great canvas, the “Massacre of the Jews” (Louvre), Heim was rewarded with the legion of honour. In 1827 appeared the “King giving away Prizes at the Salon of 1824” (Louvre—engraved by Jazet)—the picture by which Heim is best known—and “Saint Hyacinthe.” Heim was now commissioned to decorate the Gallery Charles X. (Louvre). Though ridiculed by the romantists, Heim succeeded Regnault at the Institute in 1834, shortly after which he commenced a series of drawings of the celebrities of his day, which are of much interest. His decorations of the Conference room of the Chamber of Deputies were completed in 1844; and in 1847 his works at the Salon—“Champ de Mai” and “Reading a Play at the Théâtre Français”—were the signal for violent criticisms. Yet something like a turn of opinion in his favour took place at the exhibition of 1851; his powers as a draughtsman and the occasional merits of his composition were recognized, and toleration extended even to his colour. Heim was awarded the great gold medal, and in 1855—having sent to the Salon no less than sixteen portraits, amongst which may be cited those of “Cuvier,” “Geoffroy de St Hilaire,” and “Madame Hersent”—he was made officer of the legion of honour. In 1859 he again exhibited a curious collection of portraits, sixty-four members of the Institute arranged in groups of four. He died on the 29th of September 1865. Besides the paintings already mentioned, there is to be seen in Notre Dame de Lorette (Paris) a work executed on the spot; and the museum of Strassburg contains an excellent example of his easel pictures, the subject of which is a “Shepherd Drinking from a Spring.”


HEIMDAL, or Heimdall, in Scandinavian mythology, the keeper of the gates of Heaven and the guardian of the rainbow bridge Bifrost. He is the son of Odin by nine virgins, all sisters. He is called “the god with the golden teeth.” He lives in the stronghold of Himinsbiorg at the end of Bifrost. His chief attribute is a vigilance which nothing can escape. He sleeps less than a bird; sees at night and even in his sleep; can hear the grass, and even the wool on a lamb’s back grow. He is armed with Gjallar, the magic horn, with which he will summon the gods on the day of judgment.


HEINE, HEINRICH (1797–1856), German poet and journalist, was born at Düsseldorf, of Jewish parents, on the 13th of December 1797. His father, after various vicissitudes in business, had finally settled in Düsseldorf, and his mother, who possessed much energy of character, was the daughter of a physician of the same place. Heinrich (or, more exactly, Harry) was the eldest of four children, and received his education, first in private schools, then in the Lyceum of his native town; although not an especially apt or diligent pupil, he acquired a knowledge of French and English, as well as some tincture of the classics and Hebrew. His early years coincided with the most brilliant period of Napoleon’s career, and the boundless veneration which he is never tired of expressing for the emperor throughout his writings shows that his true schoolmasters were rather the drummers and troopers of a victorious army than the masters of the Lyceum. By freeing the Jews from many of the political disabilities under which they had hitherto suffered, Napoleon became, it may be noted, the object of particular enthusiasm in the circles amidst which Heine grew up. When he left school in 1815, an attempt was made to engage him in business in Frankfort, but without success. In the following year his uncle, Solomon Heine, a wealthy banker in Hamburg, took him into his office. A passion for his cousin Amalie Heine seems to have made the young man more contented with his lot in Hamburg, and his success was such that his uncle decided to set him up in business for himself. This, however, proved too bold a step; in a very few months the firm of “Harry Heine & Co.” was insolvent. His uncle now generously provided him with money to enable him to study at a university, with the view to entering the legal profession, and in the spring of 1819 Heine became a student of the university of Bonn. During his stay there he devoted himself rather to the study of literature and history than to that of law; amongst his teachers A. W. von Schlegel, who took a kindly interest in Heine’s poetic essays, exerted the most lasting influence on him. In the autumn of 1820 Heine left Bonn for Göttingen, where he proposed to devote himself more assiduously to professional studies, but in February of the following year he challenged to a pistol duel a fellow-student who had insulted him, and was, in consequence, rusticated for six months. The pedantic atmosphere of the university of Göttingen was, however, little to his taste; the news of his cousin’s marriage unsettled him still more; and he was glad of the opportunity to seek distraction in Berlin.

In the Prussian capital a new world opened up to him; a very different life from that of Göttingen was stirring in the new university there, and Heine, like all his contemporaries, sat at the feet of Hegel and imbibed from him, doubtless, those views which in later years made the poet the apostle of an outlook upon life more modern than that of his romantic predecessors.