DAVID, JACQUES-LOUIS (French). 1748-1825. The reformer of modern French painting, and one of the greatest artists of the end of the eighteenth century and beginning ot the nineteenth. He was a pupil of Boucher, and studied also for five years at the French Academy in Rome, where he produced his first great picture, the “Plague of St Roch ". Returning to France soon after, he was received with all possible honour, admitted to the Academy, lodged at the Louvre, and surrounded by a host of admirers and pupils. During a second sojourn in Italy, the painter carried out a grand work, the " Horatii", and for Louis XVI., the companion picture to it ' Brutus". In 1790, he was called upon to record with his brush the famous meeting of the Jeu-de-Paume, and soon after elected to represent the city of Paris at the Convention. Once entangled in the Revolution, he shared in all the excesses of the regicide party, and lent his talent to the service and glorification of the bloody events of the First Republic. On the 26th of October 1792, Louis David recommended in the following terms before the " Convention nationale" the striking of medals to commemorate the glorious events of his country : " Je désire que des médailles soient frappées pour tous les événements glorieux ou heureux déjá arrivés et qui arriveront á la Republique, et cela á l'imitation des Grecs et des Romains, qui, par leurs suites métalliques, ont non seulement donné la connaissance des événements remarquables, celle des grands hommes, mais encore celle du progrés de leur art. " (Gazette nationale, 28. October 1792.) After having taken up Robespierre's cause and been more than once imprisoned for political reasons, he returned to the exclusive exercise of his art. Under the Empire, he became the first painter of France, and glorified Napoleon by a large number of drawings, and paintings, representing him in all possible ways. His last great work was the celebrated picture of the "Thermopylae". At the Restoration, David was banished from France, and his name struck off the rolls of the Institute, as a regicide. From 1815 to 1825, he resided at Brussels, and, adds one of his biographers, " the greatest consolation he experienced was the receipt from Paris of a medal struck in his honour by his former pupils and admirers. " David has exercised a vast influence upon medallic art, principally by reforming artistic taste in general, and also by taking under his protection Medallists, who, like P. J. David, Brenet, Droz, and many others, were trained in his school, and inspired by his compositions. Some medals were executed from designs by the great painter, such as Napoleon's passage over the St. Bernard, by Andrieu. Bibliography. — Imperial Dictionary of Biography. — Chavignerie et Auvray, op. cit. — Bolzenthal, op. cit.
Source: Biographical dictionary of medallists; coin, gem, and seal-engravers, mint-masters, ancient and modern, with references to their works B.C. 500-A.D. 1900; compiled by L. Forrer, London 1904
Source: Biographical dictionary of medallists; coin, gem, and seal-engravers, mint-masters, ancient and modern, with references to their works B.C. 500-A.D. 1900; compiled by L. Forrer, London 1904
CROES, FRÉDÉRIC
CROES, FRÉDÉRIC (Belg.). Seal-engraver of Antwerp. He is mentioned in contemporary documents between 1555 and 1557, and must have enjoyed some reputation, as important work was entrusted to him from Brussels and Malines. He engraved the seal and counter-seal which were used by the Council of Brabant after the accession of Philip II. to the Spanish throne, and was paid the sum of 152 Livres for this work. This artist is also the author of the seal of Malines, 1556, which was engraved on the same ...
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CROES, FRÉDÉRIC (Belg.). Seal-engraver of Antwerp. He is mentioned in contemporary documents between 1555 and 1557, and must have enjoyed some reputation, as important work was entrusted to him from Brussels and Malines. He engraved the seal and counter-seal which were used by the Council of Brabant after the accession of Philip II. to the Spanish throne, and was paid the sum of 152 Livres for this work. This artist is also the author of the seal of Malines, 1556, which was engraved on the same ...
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CROKER, JOHN
CROKER, JOHN, otherwise IOHANN CROCKER (Brit.). A distinguished Medallist, born at Dresden, 2st October 1670, died at London, 21st March, 1741. He was first apprenticed to a jeweller, but after visiting Germany and Holland, he came to England, in 1691, where he learnt die-sinking. In 1697, he was appointed Assistant-engraver to the London Mint, and in 1705, on the death of Harris, Chief-engraver, he succeeded him in this post, which he held until his death. The following biographical notes of th...
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CROKER, JOHN, otherwise IOHANN CROCKER (Brit.). A distinguished Medallist, born at Dresden, 2st October 1670, died at London, 21st March, 1741. He was first apprenticed to a jeweller, but after visiting Germany and Holland, he came to England, in 1691, where he learnt die-sinking. In 1697, he was appointed Assistant-engraver to the London Mint, and in 1705, on the death of Harris, Chief-engraver, he succeeded him in this post, which he held until his death. The following biographical notes of th...
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CRONIOS
CRONIOS (Greek). Historians record the name of this Gemengraver, of whom no work is known to exist. The signature KPONIOC appears on some modern gems by Natter and other artists, who signed their productions with antique names, such as those of Phrygillos, Pergamos, Olympios, Onatas, Pyrgoteles, Athenion, Dioscorides, Solon, Aspasios, Agathopus, Pamphiles, Eutyches, Hyllus, Aulus, Epitynchanus, Evodus, Tryphon, and other Greek and Roman glyptists, in order to deceive purchasers. With the signatu...
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CRONIOS (Greek). Historians record the name of this Gemengraver, of whom no work is known to exist. The signature KPONIOC appears on some modern gems by Natter and other artists, who signed their productions with antique names, such as those of Phrygillos, Pergamos, Olympios, Onatas, Pyrgoteles, Athenion, Dioscorides, Solon, Aspasios, Agathopus, Pamphiles, Eutyches, Hyllus, Aulus, Epitynchanus, Evodus, Tryphon, and other Greek and Roman glyptists, in order to deceive purchasers. With the signatu...
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CRONIUS
CRONIUS (Roman). Gem-engraver, apparently anterior to the time of Augustus. Pliny places his name between that of Pyrgoteles, Alexander's contemporary, and that of Dioscorides, who flourished under the reign of Augustus. King mentions that " the signature of Cronius appears at the side of a standing figure of Terpsichore, a design afterwards repeated by Onesas and Allion". It is possible that Cronius is only a fictitious signature used by a more modern engraver Vide CRONIOS. Bibliography. — King...
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CRONIUS (Roman). Gem-engraver, apparently anterior to the time of Augustus. Pliny places his name between that of Pyrgoteles, Alexander's contemporary, and that of Dioscorides, who flourished under the reign of Augustus. King mentions that " the signature of Cronius appears at the side of a standing figure of Terpsichore, a design afterwards repeated by Onesas and Allion". It is possible that Cronius is only a fictitious signature used by a more modern engraver Vide CRONIOS. Bibliography. — King...
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