Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/1004

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964
TIERNEY—TIERRA DEL FUEGO

order, though this early mastery of technique made him frequently neglect form and composition. The more solid qualities of Paolo Veronese — depth of thought and balance of design — are frequently wanting in his work, but he approaches the earlier master in richness of colour and in the management of difficult effects of lighting. He decorated many Venetian churches and palaces with ceilings and frescoes full of turbulent movement and rich colour, extending his operations to the near cities of the mainland and to Bergamo (Colleoni Chapel) and Milan (ceiling at Palazzo Chierici). In 1750 he proceeded to Würzburg to paint the magnificent ceilings and frescoes at the archbishop's palace. From 1753 to about 1763 he worked again at Venice and in the cities of north-east Italy, until he was summoned to Madrid by Charles III. to paint some frescoes for the royal palace. He died at Madrid in 1769. He was the last important figure in Venetian art, and at the same time the initiator of the baroque period.

Tiepolo's altarpieces and easel pictures show more clearly even than his frescoes how deeply he was imbued with the spirit of Paolo Veronese, for in these smaller works he paid more attention to the balance of composition, whilst retaining the luminosity of his colour harmonies. The majority of his works, both in fresco and in oils, are to be found in Venice in the churches of S. Aloise, SS. Apostoli, Gesuati, SS. Giovanni e Paolo, in the Scalzi, and the Scuola del Carmine, the Academy, and the Palazzi Labia, Rezzonico, and Quirini-Stampalia, and the Doge's Palace. Besides the cities already mentioned, Padua, Udine, Parma and Vicenza boast of fine examples of his work. At the National Gallery are two designs for altarpieces, a “Deposition from the Cross,” “Esther at the Throne of Ahasuerus,” and “The Marriage of Marie de Médicis.” Two versions of “Christ and the Adulteress” are in the collection of Dr L. Richter. Other easel pictures by Tiepolo are at the Louvre, and at the Berlin and Munich galleries. His paintings in Madrid belong to the closing years of his life and show signs of waning power. Tiepolo also executed some notable work with the etching-needle, the list comprising some fifty plates. His two sons, Giovanni Domenico (about 1726-1804) and Lorenzo, did not attain to his excellence.

See Les Tiepolo, by Henry de Chennevières (Paris, 1898); and Pompeo Molmenti, G. B. Tiepolo (Milan, 1910).


TIERNEY, GEORGE (1761-1830), English Whig politician, was born at Gibraltar on the 20th of March 1761, being the son of a wealthy Irish merchant of London, who was living there as prize agent. He was sent to Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took the degree of LL.B. in 1784, and was called to the bar; but he abandoned law and plunged into politics. He contested Colchester in 1788, when both candidates received the same number of votes, but Tierney was declared elected. He was, however, defeated in 1790. He sat for Southwark from 1796 to 1806, and then represented in turn Athlone (1806-1807), Bandon (1807-1812), Appleby (1812-1818), and Knaresborough (1818-1830). When Fox seceded from the House of Commons, Tierney became a prominent opponent of Pitt's policy. In 1797 Wilberforce noted in his diary that Tierney 's conduct was “truly Jacobinical”; and in May 1798 Pitt accused him of want of patriotism. A duel ensued at Putney Heath on Sunday, the 27th of May 1798; but neither combatant was injured. In 1803 Tierney, partly because peace had been ratified with France and partly because Pitt was out of office, joined the ministry of Addington as treasurer of the navy, and was created a privy councillor; but this alienated many of his supporters among the middle classes, and offended most of the influential Whigs. On the death of Fox he joined (1806) the Grenville ministry as president of the board of control, with a seat in the cabinet, and thus brought himself once more into line with the Whigs. After the death of George Ponsonby in 1817 Tierney became the recognized leader of the opposition in the House of Commons. In Canning's ministry he was master of the mint, and when Lord Goderich succeeded to the lead Tierney was admitted to the cabinet; but he was already suffering from ill-health and died suddenly at Savile Row, London, on the 25th of January 1830.

Tierney was a shrewd man of the world, with a natural aptitude for business. His powers of sarcasm were a cause of terror to his adversaries, and his presence in debate was much dreaded. His arguments were felicitous, and his choice of language was the theme of constant admiration. Lord Lytton, in his poem of St Stephen's, alludes to “Tierney's airy tread,” and praises his “light and yet vigorous” attack, in which he inflicted, “with a placid smile,” a fatal wound on his opponent.


TIERRA DEL FUEGO, an archipelago at the southern extremity of South America, from which it is separated by Magellan Strait, at the First Narrows and other points scarcely a mile wide. The group lies between 52° 40' and 55° 59' S. and 63° 30' and 74° 30' W. stretching nearly in a line with the Patagonian Andes for over 400 m. N.W. and S.E., between Capes Pillar (Desolation Island) and Horn, and for about 270 m. W. and E. from Cape Pillar to Catherine Point at the north of the main island of Tierra del Fuego. Southwards it tapers to 120 m. between Capes Horn and San Diego, east of which extends Staten Island, which terminates in Cape St John. The boundary between Argentina and Chile has been settled in such a manner that Argentina holds that part of the main island of Tierra del Fuego which is situated east of the meridian of Cape Espiritu Santo, the frontier striking the north shore of Beagle Channel about its centre; and Chile holds all the western part of the main island and the other numerous islands to the west and to the south of Beagle Channel. The Argentine side is known as the Territory of Tierra del Fuego (including Staten Island), and the Chilean forms part of the Territory of Magallanes. Although on ordinary maps this region presents to the eye a hopelessly confused aggregate of islands, channels and fjord-like inlets, it is nevertheless clearly disposed in three main sections: (1) the main island; (2) the islands to the south, from which it is separated by Beagle Channel; (3) the islands to the west, marked off from those to the south by the Brecknock Peninsula.

Knowledge of these lands increased considerably during the later years of the 19th century, and their reputation for dreariness has been favourably modified. The climate in the eastern and southern regions is not so rigorous as was believed, there are no barren lands, the soil is fertile and can support fruitful industries, and the aborigines are far from being so dangerous as they were once considered to be. The greater part of the main island of Tierra del Fuego is formed by the continuation of the Tertiary beds of the Patagonian tableland cut by the transversal depression of Magellan Strait and by the low land extending from Useless Bay on the west to San Sebastian Bay on the east, of so recent origin that there exist still some salt lakes, this depression being represented in the old charts as an inter-oceanic passage for small boats. Although in 1880 numerous prospectors discovered extensive deposits of alluvial gold, its exploitation was not generally successful, and farms took the place of mines. By the end of the 19th century 120 square miles had been occupied by cattle and sheep on the Argentine side, and about the same extent on the Chilean; and the cattle industry proved very profitable.

The undulating tableland has an average height of 300 ft. above the sea, and its climate, however cold in winter—in 1892 and 1893 the temperature reached 12.6° F.—allows of the cultivation of barley, oats and occasionally potatoes, which, however, grow better along Beagle Channel. To the south the tableland is higher and more broken, being drained by the Silva and Grande, among smaller rivers, the Grande being navigable in some parts by small craft. To the west and south-west the general character of the land changes; the ends of the Tertiary beds are raised in small hills and Mesozoic rocks appear, forming broken ridges of the Pre-Cordillera, a name given on the continent to the ridges which precede, to the east, the Andes. In this region appears the Antarctic forest in which predominates the Fagus antarctica and F. betuloides, Drymis Winteri, Berberis licifolia, Pernettia, Desfonteinia and Philesia buxifolia. Lake Solier and Lake Fagnano receive the waters of these mountains and hills. Lake Fagnano is only 180 ft. above the sea, and its depth reaches 700 ft. To the south of the lake rises the south-eastern prolongation of the Cordillera of the Andes, with ridges of a uniform height of 3500 ft., in which predominate crystalline schists which do not seem to be very old. Some peaks of Tertiary granite break the uniformity, such as Mt Sarmiento (7200 ft.), Mt Darwin, of which two peaks have been measured (6201 and 7054 ft.), and Mt Olivaia (4324 ft.). Sarmiento, the culminating point of