BELLOY
418
BELLS
tance. By means of the action represented a greater
unity is obtained in this canvas than in the one just
mentioned, and much more still than in the Madonna
■of San Zaccaria, Venice (1505). In the latter the
enthroned Madonna holding the Child is surrounded
by Saints Catherine, Peter, Jerome, and Lucia. Each
•one of the saints is separately absorbed in devotion
wliile an angel at the foot of the throne softly touches
the strings of his instrument in accompaniment to
the spirit of adoration. Here also the feeling pro-
duced by the music creates the unity of the whole
composition and the painting is a wonderful ex-
Cression of adoring worship. The scene is laid in a eautiful renaissance structure the arches of which are adorned with mosaics.
One can perceive the unity of composition attained by means of this spirit of devotion and music of the angels even in those canvases where the surrounding saints stand in separate niches. Such, for example, is the picture where four saints are represented on the wings of an altar-piece in the church of Santa Maria ■dei Frari at Venice (1488). The Mother and Child are enthroned in the middle space; at their feet two boy-angels are plaj-ing cheerfully on the lute and
- flute. A lighter, although by no means a jarring im-
pression, is made by tins triptych. The separated positions of the saints, to whom an altar and a church had been consecrated, recalls the practice of the older painters. By uniting the saints in the same space and .gi%'ing them an outer as well as an inner relation to •one another Bellini created the so-called "Sacre Con- versazioni", or "the Societies of Saints". It was mot necessary that the personages should belong to the same historical time, as they receive in the altar- piece a new, ideal life. The spirit of devotion in- spired by the Madonna and her Divine Child unites them sufficiently but the more so when a new bond of union arises from the action indicated in the com- position, such as, in many cases, the beautiful music or even the effect produced by light and shade.
A couple of pictures should be mentioned in which Giovanni, whom time never robbed of the freshness of his imagination, set for himself problems in land- scape-painting. Ill 1501 he painted a "Baptism of ■Christ" in which the art of Giorgione and Titian seems to be apparent. The scene is laid in a roman- tic mountain-valley lighted by the evening sunshine. Three kneeling angels are the witnesses. The in- fluence of younger painters is verj* evident in a pict- ure having the same tone as the one just mentioned, the picture of St. Jerome. Giovanni continued to learn even when he was old, although he was prop- erly more often the teacher and never obscured his own individuahty of style. St. Jerome, in this pict- ure, is seated on a great rock in front of a mountain landscape and is absorbed in the study of the Script- ures. In the foreground, on an eminence, stands ■St. Augustine absorbed in thought, and on the other side is St. Christopher holding the Child Jesus. These three mighty men of Christianity may also be considered as bound together by an inner spiritual unity. In the "Death of Peter the Martj-r" there is 3. prospect to right and left from the forest out over a city and mountains. Such vistas are always impor- tant features in the genre pictures for which Giovanni had a strong liking. Giovanni had little taste for mythological scenes and liis few canvases of tliis kind do not need mention.
Beren-son, The Venetian Painters (New York and London, 1897); WoLTMANN AND WoERMANN, GeschicJite dcT Malcrei (Leipzig, 1879); Riehl, Kunstcharaktere (Frankfort, 18931; "WoERMANN, Geschichte dcr Kunst (Leipzig. 1900).
G. GlETM.iXN.
Belloy, Je.\x-B.\ptiste de, Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris, b. 9 October, 1709, at Morangles in the Diocese of Beauvais; d. in Paris, 10 June, ISOS. -Al- though of an ancient family of no mean miiitarv'
fame, young Belloy preferred an ecclesiastical career,
made his classical and theological studies at Paris,
where he was ordained priest, and received the degree
of Doctor in Theology in 1737. In the ministry he
shone more by his virtue than by his learning.
Sweetness of character, enlightened and moderate
zeal, unswerving fidelity to the principles and tradi-
tions of the Church, characterized him through
life, and rendered even his early ministry re-
markably fruitful. His bishop. Cardinal de Gevres,
appointed him ^near-general and archdeacon of his
cathedral. In 1751 he was consecrated Bishop of
Glandeves. At the famous Assembly of the French
Clergy of 1755, he took sides with the moderate party
and contributed to the restoration of tranquillity in
the Church of France. Dissensions occasioned by
the Bull "Unigenitus" had become so great in the
Diocese of Marseilles that, at the death of the saintly
Bishop de Belsunce, there was imminent danger of
schism. In this emergency a chief pastor of consum-
mate prudence and tact was needed, and Bishop de
Belloy was accordingly transferred to that see.
Without sacrifice of principle or duty, by gentleness,
tact, and justice, he gained the confidence of both
parties and restored peace. In July, 1790, the Na-
tional Assembly decreed the suppression of the Dio-
cese of Marseilles. The bishop withdrew, but sent
to the assembly a letter of protest against the sup-
pression of one of the oldest episcopal sees of France.
He retired to Chambly, a Uttle town near his native
place, where he remained during the most critical
period of the Revolution. When, in 1801, the sover-
eign pontiff decided that the French bishops should
tender their resignation in order to facihtate the
conclusion of the Concordat, he was the first to com-
ply, setting an example which exercised great in-
fluence over the other bishops. Napoleon, highly
pleased with this act of devotion to Church and State,
appointed the nonagenarian bishop to the See of
Paris. Notwithstanding liis extreme age he governed
his new diocese with astonishing vigour and intelli-
gence, reorganized the parishes, provided them with
good pastors, and visited his flock in person. He
restored the Crown of Thorns (10 August, 1806) to its
place of honour in the Sainte Chapelle. Napoleon
was so well satisfied that he asked and readily ob-
tained for him the cardinal's hat, which Pius VII
C laced on the prelate's venerable head in a consistory-
eld in Paris, 1 Februarj', 1805. At his death
Cardinal de Belloy had spent se^-enty-five years in
the holy ministrj' to the edification of all and the
evident satisfaction of both Napoleon and Pius VII,
then engaged in deadly conflict. He is buried in
Notre Dame, Paris, where the monument erected by
Napoleon in liis honour is one of the finest in the
cathedral.
FisQUET, La France pontificale (Paris), I, 542-556: Feller Biog. unir., II, 199.
Ch.^RLES B. ScHR.iNTZ.
Bells. — The subject will be treated under the following heads: I. Origin; II. Benediction; III. Uses: IV. Archseology and Inscriptions; V. Points of Law.
I. Origin. — That bells, at any rate hand-bells ol relatively small size, were familiar to all the chiel nations of antiquity is a fact beyond dispute. The archaeological evidence for this conclusion has beer collected in the monograph of Abbe Morillot and ij quite overwhelming. Specimens are still preservec of the bells used in ancient Babylonia and in Egj-pt as well as by the Romans and Greeks, while the bel ■undoubtedly figured no less prominently in such in- dependent civilizations as those of China and Hindu- stan. There is consequently no reason why the bell.' upon the high priest's ephod (Ex., xxxiii, 33) shoulc not have been tiny bells of normal shape. Further it may be inferred from the purposes for which thej were used that the tintinnabula of which we read ii
