Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/381

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POZZONI


331


PRADES


panels ornamented with stucco work, painting was used not only to cover the domes and semi-domes but also the ceilings and vaultings. Michelangelo had painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but Bra- mante did not follow him in treating the main vault- ing of St. Peter's. It had begun to be customary to fill the sunken panels or large cartouches, and finally the entire vault, as, for example, the domes, with perspective paintings in the advanced style of Cor- reggio. Michelangelo's device of painting in archi- tectural framework to divide the different portions of the painting was no longer in vogue, nor even actual arcliitectural members. Pozzo was a master in this new style of painting; he gives full in.structions concerning this method in his manual. His frescoes on the ceiling, dome, and apse of the church of San Ignazio at Rome are greatly admired. By the skilful use of linear perspective, light, and shade, he made the great barrel-vault of the nave of the church into an idealized aula from which is seen the reception of St. Ignatius into the opened heavens. About the paint- ing there is a wonderful effect of .supernatural maj- esty, but the whole composition is more a feat of skill than a work of art. Only the Baroque era could regard it as a genuine devotional picture. Pozzo exe- cuted a similar work in San Bartolommeo at Modena. In the Abbey of the Cassinese at Arezzo and in the Pinacotheca at Bologna the magical effect is produced by the architectural perspective alone. Importance is laid on the profiles of the ornamental architectural members, not in the life and movement. According to his theorj', columns must be twisted; they can even be bent and cracked. Coloured stones and metals must also aid in securing the pictorial effect. An extraordinary increase in bulk, therefore, would be required to obtain the necessary constructive strength. In making the altar for the Jesuit church at Venice, he erected for the plastic work of the centre a temple of ten columns, with twisted entablature. He also constructed the high altar of Gli Scalzi at Venice. The altar of St. Ignatius in the Gesvl at Rome is an example of the greatest magnificence. His manual gives directions for making all kinds of church furni- ture. Pozzo's decorative work, logically systema- tized, shows his great talent which perfectly suited the characteristic taste of the period and the pomp then customary in religious services.

Pozzo, Perspectiva pictoTum et architectomm (2 vols., Rome, 1693; 1700), text in Italian and Latin and 226 plates; tr. into English, James (London. 1893); Lanzi, Storia pittorica delV Italia (Bassano, 17S9) ; de Quincy, Diet. d'architectuTe.

G. GlETMANN.

Pozzoni, DoMENico. See Hong-Kong, Vicariate Apostolic of.

Pozzuoli, Diocese of (Puteolana). — The city of Pozzuoli in the province of Naples, southern Italy, on the gulf of the same name, was founded by the Cuma?ans, whose port it became, under the name of Dicaearohia. It was used by the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War. The Romans took possession of it, fortified it, and gave it the name of Puteoli. Han- nibal sought in vain to take this place, which became a Roman colony in 194 B. c. and was thereafter the most important port of Italy, enjoying exceptional municii^al liberties. The harbour was set off from the sea by a line of pila.sters supporting a long arcade, which was restored later by Antonius Pius. Caligula connected the ports of Pozzuoli and of Baia; with a pontoon bridge. In the third century Pozzuoli fell into decadence. In 410, it was besieged and sacked by Alaric, in .54.5 by Totila, and in 71.5 by Grimoaldo II, Duke of Benevento, who, however, did not succeed in taking it from its Byzantine m.asters; in the tenth century, it was sever.al times the object of Saracen incursions. In 1014 Pozzuoli was taken by the Nea- politans, and later passed, with Naples, into the King-


dom of the Two Sicilies. In 1448 and 1538, it suffered from severe earthquakes; in 1550 the Turks landed and wrought frightful havoc in the town. Abundant ruins of villas and temples attest its ancient splendour. Among the temple ruins, the most important are those of the Temple of Serapis, which was at once a temple and an establishment of therapeutic baths; there re- main the cella and many of its columns, also sixteen bath-rooms for baths in the mineral water that flows near by. The work of excavation (1838) exposed the ruins of an amphitheatre that had a capacity of 30,000; there are also the ruins of a theatre, and of thermae or hot baths, where was found, among other objects, the Venus Anadyomene of the Naples Museum. The object of greatest interest at Pozzuoli, however, are the sulphur caves, the " forum Vulcani " of the an- cients, which, through crevices in the earth, exude sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphurous acid. In 1190 there was a severe volcanic eruption from these caves. There are also four mineral springs, and two caverns, known as the "Grotta del Cane", which exudes car- bonic acid, and the "Grotta dell' Ammoniaca".

On his voyage to Rome, St. Paul landed at Pozzuoli, where he met some "brothers" (Acts, xxviii, 13, 14), and among these Jews there may have been Chris- tians; no doubt the Apostle took advantage of the opportunity to preach to his countrymen the mystery of the Messiah already come. That St. Patrobas, a disciple of St. Paul, was first Bishop of Pozzuoli is a fabrication of the notorious Dositheos; on the other hand, the Bishops St. Celsus and St. Joannes governed the diocese before the fourth century. Proculus, Acutius, Eutyches, and St. Artemas were martyrs of Pozzuoli, and St. Januarius of Benevento and his com- panions suffered martyrdom here. In the fourth cen- tury the bishop of this see was Florentius, against whom Pope Damasus was compelled to seek the assist- ance of the emperors. Bishop St. Theodorus died in 435; Julianus was pontifical legate to the Robber Council of Ephesus in 449; the Bishop Stephanus, whom Cappelletti names at this period, should be re- ferred to the seventh century, or later. Other bishops were Gaudiosus (680); St. Leo (about 1030), later a hermit; Ludovico di Costanzo, who, with the assist- ance of Alfonso of Aragon, was at first a usurper of this see, but was later recognized by Nicholas V; Carlo Borromeo (1537), a relative of the saint of the same name; Gian Matteo Castaldi (1542), who rebuilt t he cathedral ; Lorenzo Mongevio ( 1 61 7 ), a good orator, formerly Auxiliary Bishop of Salzburg and of Va- lencia (he was a Franciscan), unjustly accused, and held prisoner in Castel Sant' Angelo; Martin Leon y Cardenas (1619), to whom apubhc monument was erected, in recognition of his many merits. The cathedral rises on the ruins of the Temple of Augustus; it contains some good pictures, among them the Martirio di San Gennaro by Guido Reni. The churches of Santa Maria delle Grazie and of Santa Croce are worthy of note. The diocese is a suffragan of Naples; has 10 parishes, with 57,100 inhabitants, 1 religious house of men, and 3 of women, and 1 educational establishment for girls. Cappelletti, Le Chiese d' Italia, XX.

U. Benigni.

Prades, Jean-Martin de, theologian, b. about 1720 at Castelsarrasin (Diocese of Montauban), d. in 1782 at Glogau, famous through an irreligious thesis. Having finished his preliminary studies, he went to Paris, where he lived in many seminaries, especially in that of St-Sulpice. He very soon be- came acquainted with the principal publishers of the "Encyclopedic", and supplied them with the article on "Certitude". About the end of 1751, he presented himself for the doctorate, driven, as a memoire of that time says, "by the incredulous, who, in order to justify his blasphemies, wanted to have his doc-