rich in originality and distinction. Every step he advanced, every new work he produced, made this fact more apparent. Freeing himself by degrees from the too conventional imitation of a hackneyed Grecism, he borrowed every day more direct from the book of nature those forms that, without strained effort or vicious application, were to embody and express his ideas in sculpture. His group of "Charity" illustrates the climax of his progress in this direction. Nothing can be more simple and more grand—more natural, and yet elegant—more unpretending in appearance and more impressive in effect, than this masterpiece produced by Bartolini when he had returned to Florence and established himself there. It is the real triumph of conception and form, in their inseparable and spontaneous coexistence and manifestation. Had Bartolini's worship of nature been limited in his after-works to the chaste and noble selection characteristic of this group, we should have had a period in sculpture equal to that of the Phidian era. But this was not to be the case. Without actually falling into materialism, there is no doubt that the Florentine sculptor submitted every day more and more to the influence of unreserved individuality of forms, to the great detriment of the importance of his conceptions. Form and conception were twin-sisters in the group of "Charity;" they are—the first the mistress, the other the attendant, in the statue of the "Faith in God" (la Fiducia in Dio), which exemplifies the extreme realism of Bartolini. Yet what depth of expression is contained in the simple and almost uncouth attitude of this kneeling figure! It seems as if the soul of the sculptor had secretly breathed a kiss upon the humble form of the theorist's submissive slave. And why? Because as long as the theorist is possessed of real genius, however strange and contradictory to its end be the principle he wants to enforce, he cannot help, in his own application of it, unconsciously to relieve its probable excess or extravagance by the stamp of his own geniality. When this wonderful statue made its appearance in the various exhibitions of Italy (especially in the north), the novelty of the style, the hidden pathos of the work, and, above all, the easy triumph that the imitation of nature will always command upon the masses (a triumph so universally neglected for the cold and all-levelling glory of conventional success), they called forth throughout the country a general outburst of admiration, and a subitaneous conversion towards the theory embodied in it. But when the enthusiastic proselyte, unaware of what really renders such theory not only palatable, but even attractive, rushes into servile and blind imitation, able only to reproduce all the worst characteristics eked out, we utterly miss the redeeming flame of the original mind. This, at first, proved to be the case with the impression that Bartolini's style created upon Italian sculptors. He adopted the unreserved imitation of nature as his general standard, and yet was grand. His followers—at least the many that possessed no individuality of their own, or renounced it too easily—fell into an aping of the more objectionable features and low details of nature, such as represented by the living models of the day, and they became ridiculous. Nevertheless, the mission of the great sculptor has not been fruitless. The exaggerated, narrow-minded fashion has nearly passed away; the justice of the principle, when properly viewed, and still more properly applied to the expressions demanded of modern art, has asserted itself; and the new school now flourishing in Italy (which that excellent authority in art, Mrs. Jameson, is pleased to call romantic and picturesque) ascribes its existence and success to the influence of the original genius of Bartolini. Before closing this notice, it is necessary to add, as a corollary of the tendency of this artist, that he particularly excelled in portraying individualities, and produced the largest and best collection of busts, especially of women, that has ever been produced by a single sculptor either in ancient or modern times.—R. M.
BARTOLO was born in 1356, and died in 1410. He still presented in his works all the stiffness of the Byzantine school. He had a son called Bartolo Taddeo, or otherwise Taddeo di Bartolo Battilori; this artist, who rose to great importance by his studies and progress, flourished about the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century. To a successful imitation of Giotto, he added more life and grace than his figures display. Many were his works at Siena, Pisa, Perugia, &c., several of which are still in existence—those at the town-hall of Siena being considered his last and best. Amongst his pupils there was Domenico Bartolo his nephew, who worked until the middle of the fifteenth century, and who, by the greater breadth of treatment and accuracy of design, especially of perspective, as exhibited in his pictures at the hospital of Siena, brought the reputation of his name to the climax, so much so as to deserve, in aftertimes, to be praised and studied by the divine Raphael himself—R. M.
BARTOLOCCI or BARTOLOCCIUS, Julius, an Italian monk of the order of St. Bernard, author of "Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica," 1675-1693; born 1613; died 1687.
BARTOLOMMEI, Girolamo, born at Florence in 1584. He had a great facility in versification, and wrote ten tragedies, contained in two volumes in 4to, which were published in 1655. He dedicated to Louis XIV. an epic poem entitled "L'America," in which he displays all the faults peculiar to the writers of that age, called by the Italians, Seicentisti. He wrote also some dramas for music, and a Latin work, entitled "Didascalia, sive Doctrina Comica," by far superior in style and language to his Italian compositions. He died in 1662.—A. C. M.
BARTOLOMMEO. Many Italian artists bear this name, amongst whom must be noticed Bartolommeo of Orvieto, and Bartolommeo di Martino of Siena, both painters of considerable merit, the last especially. They flourished at the beginning of the fifteenth century.—Bartolommeo of Urbino, pupil of Gentile; and Bartolommeo of Forli, scholar of Francia, painters about the end of that century.—Bartolommeo of Pola, proficient in the art of inlaying, about 1500; and Bartolommeo of Castiglione, a pupil and assistant of Giulio Romano, flourishing about 1540.—E. M.
BARTOLOMMEO, Fra. See Porta.
BARTOLOMMEO, Maestro, of Florence, one of the earliest painters of Italy, whose "Annunciation," painted in 1250, might, from its many beauties, be taken for a posterior rather than for an anterior production to the works of Giotto.—R. M.
BARTOLOMMEO, Maestro, a Venetian sculptor and architect of the fourteenth century, the artist that designed and erected the world-famed "Porta della Carta," between the cathedral of St. Mark and the doge's palace at Venice. He is also the sculptor of the bas-relief over the entrance of the Confraternita della Misericordia, representing the Virgin Mary receiving the prayers of the faithful—a work of exquisite beauty and nobleness.—R. M.
BARTOLOZZI, Francesco, an Italian artist of uncommon talent, was born at Florence in 1725. He studied painting under Ferretti, and engraving under Wagner, and so highly distinguished himself in the latter, that he almost entirely abandoned the former art. Bartolozzi treated every kind of engraving with equal skill, but particularly excelled in the dotted manner, so much so that ever since it has commonly been called after his name. He passed a great part of his life in England, where his reputation reached the highest point. It is beyond the limits of this work to quote all his masterpieces. His works are enumerated to upwards of seven hundred. They comprise copies from almost all the prominent masters, besides many subjects from his own drawings. In 1806 he accepted an invitation from the king of Portugal, and proceeded to Lisbon, where, after a few years of constant activity, he died in 1813.—R. M.
BARTON, Benjamin Smith, an American physician, was born in 1766 at Lancaster, a town of Pennsylvania, and died in December, 1815. His father was an episcopal clergyman, who was fond of natural history, and who unfortunately died when his son Benjamin was only fourteen years old, leaving his family very ill provided for. He prosecuted his early studies at Philadelphia. When about twenty-one years of age he repaired to Edinburgh, and spent two years there in attending medical classes. During his residence there, he gained the Harveian prize for an essay on the medical qualities of henbane. Subsequently he repaired to Göttingen where he graduated. On his return to Philadelphia he commenced practice as a physician, and at the same time continued to prosecute natural science. At the age of twenty-four he was appointed professor of natural history and botany in the college of Philadelphia. In 1802 he was chosen vice-president of the American Philosophical Society. He afterwards became professor of materia medica; and on the death of Dr. Rush he was chosen professor of practice of physic. In 1809 he was president of the Medical Society of Philadelphia. His labours produced an injurious effect on his health. He was attacked with symptoms of pulmonary consumption, for which he took a voyage to France. The disease however, speedily
