Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

CHODOWIECKI, DANIEL NICOLAS (1726–1801)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 260 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

CHODOWIECKI, See also:DANIEL See also:NICOLAS (1726–1801) , See also:German painter and engraver of See also:Polish descent, was See also:born at See also:Danzig. See also:Left an See also:orphan at an See also:early See also:age, he devoted himself to the practice of See also:miniature See also:painting, the elements of which his See also:father had taught him, as a means of support for himself and his See also:mother. In 1743 he went to See also:Berlin, where for some See also:time he worked as clerk in an See also:uncle's See also:office, practising See also:art, however, in his leisure moments, and gaining a sort of reputation as a painter of miniatures for See also:snuff-boxes. The Berlin See also:Academy, attracted by a small en-graving of his, entrusted to him the See also:illustration of its yearly See also:almanac. After designing and See also:engraving several subjects from the See also:story of the Seven Years' See also:War, Chodowiecki produced the famous " I-Iistory of the See also:Life of Jesus See also:Christ," a set of admirably painted miniatures, which made him at once so popular that he laid aside all occupations See also:save those of painting and engraving. Few books were published in See also:Prussia for some years without See also:plate or See also:vignette by Chodowiecki. It is not surprising, therefore, that the See also:catalogue of his See also:works (Berlin, 1814) should include over 3000 items, of which, however, the picture of " See also:Jean See also:Calas and his See also:Family " is the only one of any reputation. He became director of the Berlin Academy in 1797. The See also:title of the German See also:Hogarth, which he sometimes obtained, was the effect of an admiration rather imaginative than See also:critical, and was disclaimed by Chodowiecki himself. The illustrator of See also:Lavater's Essays on See also:Physiognomy, the painter of the " See also:Hunt the Slipper " in the Berlin museum, had indeed but one point in See also:common with the See also:great Englishman—the practice of representing actual life and See also:manners. In this he showed skilful See also:drawing and grouping, and considerable expressional See also:power, but no tendency whatever The Perseis was at first highly successful and was said to have been read, together with the Homeric poems, at the See also:Panathenaea, but later critics reversed this favourable See also:judgment. See also:Aristotle (Topica, viii.

1) calls See also:

Choerilus's comparisons far-fetched and obscure, and the Alexandrians displaced him by See also:Antimachus in the See also:canon of epic poets. The fragments are artificial in See also:tone. G. See also:Kinkel, Epicorum Graecorum Frag.- i. (1877) ; for another view of his relations with See also:Herodotus see Muder in Klio (19o7), 29-44. (3) An epic poet of See also:lasus in See also:Caria, who lived in the 4th See also:century B.C. He accompanied See also:Alexander the Great on his See also:campaigns as See also:court-poet. He is well known from the passages in See also:Horace (Epistles, ii. 1, 232; Ars Poetica, 357), according to which he received a piece of See also:gold for every See also:good See also:verse he wrote in celebration of the glorious deeds of his See also:master. The quality of his verses may be estimated from the remark attributed to Alexander, that he would rather be the See also:Thersites of See also:Homer than the See also:Achilles of Choerilus. The See also:epitaph on See also:Sardanapalus, said to have been translated from the Chaldean (quoted in See also:Athenaeus, viii. p. 336), is generally supposed to be by Choerilus.

See G. Kinkel, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, L (1877); A. F. Nake, De Choerili Samii Aetate Vita et Poesi aliisque Choerilis (1817), where the above poets are carefully distinguished; and the articles in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie, iii. 2 (1899).

End of Article: CHODOWIECKI, DANIEL NICOLAS (1726–1801)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
CHODKIEWICZ, JAN KAROL (156o-1621) 		[next]
CHOERILUS

Site © 2006 - Net Industries