Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/300

284: REYNOLDS Gen. Elliot (Lord Heathfield), Lord Ligonier on horseback, Sterne, Goldsmith, Dr. John- son, Burke, Boswell, Wyndham, Earl Camden, Fox, Erskine, George III. and his queen, Hor- ace Walpole, Beattie, John Hunter, Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy (for which in 1762 he received 300 guineas), Mrs. Siddons as the tragic muse (a picture which he valued at 1,000 guineas), the celebrated Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire, the earl and countess of Bute, and himself. His productions in his- tory are generally admitted to be much infe- rior to his portraits, though many of them have been greatly admired. Among the most remarkable are his " Count Ugolino and his Sons," painted in 1773, and purchased by the duke of Dorset for 400 guineas ; the designs of the cardinal and Christian virtues and the Nativity for the window of New college chap- el, Oxford; the "Infant Hercules strangling the Serpents" (1784), now in St. Petersburg, for which the empress Catharine paid his ex- ecutors 1,500 guineas ; the " Cauldron Scene from Macbeth," " Puck," and the " Death of Cardinal Beaufort," for which he received re- spectively 1,000, 100, and 600 guineas; the " Holy Family," in the British national gal- lery ; and " Cymon and Iphigenia," and the " Death of Dido," both in the queen's private collection. His " Strawberry Girl," formerly in the collection of Samuel Rogers, " Samuel Kneeling in Prayer," the portrait piece in the national gallery representing three ladies as the Graces decorating a terminal statue of Hymen, and the "Puck" above mentioned, illustrate very happily his taste and fancy in painting women and children. But many of these pictures are hastening to decay, owing to the introduction of wax and other incongru- ous mixtures, and the use of asphaltum glazes. Burnet says : " So anxious was he to combine the luminous qualities of the Venetian style with the rich transparency of Correggio and Rembrandt, that half his life was spent in try- ing experiments on the various modes of pro- ducing this union, and which has occasioned the decay and destruction of many of his works;" and Northcote tells us that he deliberately scraped away and destroyed Venetian paint- ings of value in order to discover their tech- nical secrets. On the foundation of the royal academy in 1768, Reynolds was chosen its president and knighted. He retained this of- fice until the close of his life, delivering within that period 15 annual discourses on art, which have been translated into various languages. A complete edition of his literary works forms vols. Ixviii. and Ixx. of Bonn's " Standard Li- brary," and contains his lectures, some contri- butions to the " Idler," remarks upon the works of Dutch and Flemish painters during a tour through the Netherlands in 1781, and other miscellaneous pieces, together with a life of the painter by Beechey. In private life Sir Joshua was remarkable for amiability and his varied and instructive conversation. Johnson, Gold- RH^TIA i smith, Burke, Garrick, and other distinguished literary men were his intimate associates, and he was one of the founders of the " Literary Club," of which they were prominent mem- bers. In the latter part of 1791 he was threat- ened with loss of sight in consequence of a tu- mor over his left eye, and at once resigned the practice of his art, the last effort of his pencil being a portrait of Fox. He died, af- ter a painful illness, of a disease of the liver. He was never married, and his fortune, es- timated at 80,000, was bequeathed to his niece, Miss Palmer, subsequently marchioness of Thomond. There is a life of him by North- cote, valuable as a record of his conversation and aphorisms, and 'one by "William Cotton. A biography left unfinished by C. R. Leslie was completed and published under the edito- rial supervision of Tom Taylor (2 vols., Lon- don, 1864-'o). See also " English Children as painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds," by F. G. Stephens (1866) ; " Sir Joshua Reynolds as a Portrait Painter," illustrated with autotype reproductions from engravings by Green, Wat- son, and others, by J. Churton Collins (fol., 1873); and "A Catalogue Raisonne of the Engraved Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, from 1765 to 1820," by Edward Hamilton (1874). Illl It; IMS. See RABANCS. KH U)AM wnil'S. in Greek mythology, one of the three infernal "judges, the others being Minos and ^Eacus. Rnadamanthus judged the people of Asia and Africa, ^Eacus those of Eu- rope, and the judgments of both were revised by Minos. Rhadamanthus was reputed the son of Jupiter, and sometimes of Vulcan, and was said to have been born at Cnossus in Crete, and to be the brother of Minos I., king of that island. At Thebes he married Alcme- na, the widow of Amphitryon, and subsequent- ly made a descent upon the Cyclades, which he conquered and over which he reigned. Itll TI t, a province of the Roman empire, which in the reign of Augustus was bounded N. by Vindelicia, E. by Noricum, S. by Gallia Cisalpina, and W. by the country of the Hel- vctii. Later Vindelicia was added to it, and the province extended as far N. as the Danube. At a still later period it was divided, the origi- nal province being called Rhtetia Prima, and Vindelicia, Rhsetia Secnnda. Rhrotia proper corresponded to the modern Grisons, Tyrol, and some of the northern parts of Lombardy. The valleys formed by the rivers Athesis (now Adige) and (Enus (Inn) furnished fine lands for cultivation ; but the inhabitants were en- gaged chiefly in the raising of flocks. They were a mountain race, fond of freedom, fight- ing, and plunder. They were subdued by the Romans under Drusus and Tiberius in 15 B. C. T although they fought with desperate courage. Two roads were made through the province, the one leading from Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg) to Comum (Como), and the other from the same place to Verona. Their chief city was Tridentum (Trent), and the inhab-