General Schuyler, he did take the command-in-chief in the northern department with Benjamin Lincoln, Stark, and Benedict Arnold, officers far more efficient than himself, under him. He was able, in November, 1776, to announce to congress the retreat of Sir Guy Carleton from Crown Point; but the achievement for which he has won the greatest glory, was the receiving General Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga. His own part in effecting this result was certainly not that of an active soldier, whatever may have been the skill displayed by him in concerting the blockade; for he remained in the rear on both occasions of the struggle for the possession of Behmus' Heights, which closed the English army's road to Albany; in the second, the final success was really due to Arnold, who, in opposition to the orders of his superior, who was jealous of him, directed the attack. Gates, however, had the glory of receiving the surrender on the 17th October, 1777. The reputation gained by him was now so great, that he was induced to rival and thwart Washington. He had not even the courtesy to address his despatches to him, but only to congress; and the commander-in-chief learnt the news of Saratoga at second hand. In the same spirit he used his credit with the eastern districts to resist his superior's call for a detachment of troops from his army to join the main body. Nevertheless, in a few months he was appointed a member of the board of war. In June, 1778, we find him posted at White Plains; and in June, 1779, ordered to the southern department. There, at Camden, the glory of Sarotaga was terribly tarnished by a battle he lost in August, 1780, to Lord Cornwallis; having brought on an engagement, when otherwise in a short time the enemy must have been starved out of the country. Such was the clamour against his conduct that he had to supplicate the countenance of Washington, whom he had always depreciated. This one failure ever after clouded his prospects. Yet no direct censure was passed on his conduct; and a resolution of congress in October, 1780, directing a court of inquiry to be held on that matter, was repealed by a subsequent resolution of August 14th, 1782. He was even requested to resume his command in the army, and came forth again very readily. In 1790 he freed his slaves, and retired for the rest of his life to New York, where he died 10th April, 1806. General Gates was vain, rashly ambitious, intriguing, and, as a commander, never passed mediocrity; he was wanting even in personal energy. Still the encouragement given to the Americans by the early adhesion to their cause of one who had fought with reputation in the English army, cannot be well overrated.— (Correspondence of the American Revolution by T. Sparks; W. Irving's Life of Washington.—W. S., L.
GATISDEN. See Gaddesden.
GATTA-MELATA, Stefano Giovanni, born at Narni; died at Venice in 1443. A condottiere of great renown in that century, he served first under Pope Eugenius IV., then for the rest of his life under the Venetian republic, to which he remained faithful, when in 1438 Francesco, marquis of Gonzaga, the general at the head of its forces, passed with his men to the camp of Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan. Gatta-Melata saved a portion of the Venetian army, and fought successfully with it against Gonzaga and the Visconti. When, soon afterwards, an alliance was entered into between Venice and Florence, and the general command of the allied forces was conferred upon the celebrated captain, Francesco Sforza, Gatta-Melata modestly consented to serve as second under him, and in this subordinate capacity displayed his old energy and talent. Struck by paralysis in 1440, he was no longer able to act as a soldier, and after having languished for three years in Venice, he died much lamented by the Venetians, who honoured his memory with monuments and other public tributes.—A. S., O.
* GATTEAUX, Jacques-Edouard, son of Nicolas Marie Gatteaux, born at Paris, September 1, 1788, besides inheriting the genius of his father as a medal engraver, has secured an honourable place as a sculptor. Jacques Gatteaux, having obtained the first prize for medal engraving in 1809, proceeded to Rome, where he studied sculpture as well as medals, and produced some works in each branch of art. Returning to Paris in 1813, he executed a large portrait of Philibert Delorme as the prize medal of the école d'architecture, and several models for the prizes of the école des beaux-arts. For the governments of Louis XVIII. and Charles X. he executed medals commemorative of the peace of 1814; of the Holy Alliance; and of other public occurrences and royal ceremonials. For the Galerie Numismatique des Grands Hommes Français, of which he was one of the founders, Jacques Gatteaux engraved several medals. Of late years he has been most devoted to sculpture. M. Gatteaux received the cross of the legion of honour in 1833, and succeeded Galle as member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts (section de gravure) in 1845.—J. T—e.
GATTEAUX, Nicolas-Marie, an eminent French medal engraver, was born at Paris, August 2, 1751. Having learned intaglio engraving under a gem engraver, he obtained admission into the royal medal office, where he soon acquired much skill as a medallist. A model which he prepared in wax from Le Brun's Battles of Alexander, a marvel of skill and patience, first brought him into notice. The first medal executed on his own account was a portrait of Louis XV., for the series of medals of the kings of France. He completed it in 1773, and from that time he was never unemployed. When he resigned the graver in his sixty-eighth year, he had executed nearly three hundred medals, dies, and seals, besides various other things. Nicolas Gatteaux excelled in portraiture, and a large proportion of the medals issued in France during the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries, in commemoration of distinguished personages, were executed by him. His strength lay in execution. He had little invention, but all his works display artistic taste, and are admirably finished. He possessed considerable mechanical ingenuity; he improved the mechanism for medal engraving; invented a plan for rapidly registering notes and for increasing the difficulty of forging assignats; and constructed a new pointing machine for the use of sculptors. He died of cholera at Paris, June 24, 1832.—J. T—e.
GATTERER, Johann Christoph, a prolific German historian, was born at Lichtenau, near Anspach, 13th July, 1727, and completed his education at Nuremberg and Altdorf. From 1759 till his death on the 5th April, 1799, he filled the chair of history at Göttingen. He did not so much distinguish himself by original research, as by methodical arrangement and a comprehensive knowledge of all branches of history. He left a large number of historical works.—K. E.
GATTI, Bernardino, a Lombard painter, commonly called Solaro, from the occupation of his father, it is said; but what that was has been left to conjecture. He was born at Cremona about 1493, and is said to have been the scholar of Correggio; if not his scholar he was his imitator. Gatti painted the cupola of the Steccata at Parma in a similar style to the cupolas of Correggio. He was employed also to complete the unfinished tribune of Pordenone in the church of Santa Maria di Campagna at Piacenza; and he executed many works at Cremona, especially in the cathedral there, where he died in 1575, aged upwards of eighty. Although Gatti was intrusted with great works, and appears to have been esteemed in his time, his being so completely an imitator of Correggio, has rendered a great name for him with posterity an impossibility. He was great only as an imitator; his continuations of Pordenone are exactly in the manner of that painter. Gatti, or Il Solaro, as he often signed his name, is claimed also by Vercelli and Pavia; but Cremona seems to have the best right to him, not only from the abundance of his works there, but from documentary evidence.—(Zaist, Pittori Crem.; Pungileoni, Mem. istoriche, &c.)—R. N. W.
GATTI, Giovanni Andrea, born at Messina in 1420, was one of the most learned scholastic philosophers of his time. He had an extensive knowledge of languages, and gave lessons at Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Ferrara. He died, in 1477, bishop of Cefalu in Sicily, leaving several Latin orations and other papers, which were preserved in the convent of S. Domenico, at Salerno.—A. S., O.
GATTI, Olivieri, Italian engraver, born at Parma in 1598. A pupil of G. L. Valesio, he learnt from him to imitate the manner of Agostino Caracci, whence it has been suggested by Bryan that "he was probably instructed in engraving by that master;" though as Agostino died, according to Bryan's own dates, within three years of Gatti's birth, it is not easy to see at what time the lessons were given. Gatti was elected into the Academy of Bologna, in which city he had settled in 1626. The date of his death is not recorded. Several of his engravings are from his own designs, and he painted as well as engraved, but his pictures are of little account. Among the most esteemed of his plates are a "St. Jerome," after Agostino Caracci; "The Creation," and three other Old Testament subjects after Pordenone, and a set of studies by Guercino.—J. T—e.
