Edward Armitage was an English historical painter. He was born in 1817 and died in 1896. He studied under Paul Delaroche at the L'Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, was one of the ablest pupils of that painter, and in 1842 exhibited at the Salon (in the Louvre) a picture of Prometheus Bound. At the exhibition of cartoons for historical pictures in Westminster Hall in 1843 he obtained a premium of 300 pounds for his design of Caesar's First Invasion of Britain. Other similar premiums were gained by his Spirit of Religion (1845), and Battle of Meeanee (1847). He then went to study at Rome, and exhibited at the Academy in 1848 his Henry VIII and Katherine Parr, and his Trafalgar (Death of Nelson). He had pictures in most of the subsequent Academy exhibitions up nearly to the time of his death. In 1867 he was elected an associate, and in 1872 a full academician. He did much for the restoration of fresco painting in England. A large number of his pictures were biblical in subject, such as Ahab and Jezebel, Esther's Banquet, The Remorse of Judas, Joseph and Mary, Herod's Birthday Feast, etc. As professor of painting to the Royal Academy he delivered lectures, which were published in 1883. Research Edward Armitage
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet. She was born in 1806 at Burn Hall, Durham and died in 1861. Her father, Edward Moulton, took the name of Barrett on succeeding to some property. She grew up at Hope End, near Ledbury, Herefordshire, where her father possessed a large estate. Her bodily frame was from the first extremely delicate, and she had been injured by a fall from her pony when a girl, but her mind was sound and vigorous, and disciplined by a course of severe and exalted study. She early began to commit her thoughts to writing, and in 1826 a volume, entitled An Essay on Mind, with other Poems, appeared of her authorship.
A money catastrophe compelled her father to settle in London, and her continued delicacy received a severe shock by the accidentaldrowning of her brother, causing her to pass years in the confinement of a sickroom. Her health was at length partially restored, and in 1846 she was married to Robert Browning, soon after which they settled in Italy, and continued to reside for the most part in the city of Florence. Her Prometheus Bound (from the Greek of Aeschylus) and Miscellaneous Poems appeared in 1833; the Seraphim and other Poems in 1838. In 1856 a collected edition of Elizabeth Browning's works appeared, including several new poems, and among others Lady Geraldine's Courtship. Casa Guidi Windows, a poem on the struggles of the Italians for liberty in 184S-49, appeared in 1851. The longest and most finished of all her works, Aurora Leigh, a narrative and didactic poem in nine books, was published in 1857. Poems before Congress appeared in 1860, and two posthumous volumes: Last Poems, 1862 and The Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets (prose essays and translations) 1863, were edited by her husband. Research Elizabeth Browning
Richard Hengist Horne was an English poet, dramatist, and miscellaneous writer. He was born in 1803 and died in 1884. He was educated for the army at Sandhurst, entered the Mexican navy, and served during the war between Mexico and Spain. In 1828 he began his literary career, and produced several tragi-comedies of an ironical and satirical kind, and a large quantity of miscellaneous work. In 1843 he made his historic appeal to public judgment by publishing his epicOrion at one farthing. In 1844 A New Spirit of the Age, a critical work in which he was assisted by Miss Barrett (Mrs Browning) and Robert Bell, appeared. In 1852 he took to gold-digging in Australia, still keeping in touch with his literary work. Of his many writings, the best known are Orion, Cosmo de Medici, The Death of Marlowe, and Prometheus. Research Richard Horne
In Greek mythology, Deucalion was the son of Prometheus. Warned by his father of a coming flood,
Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha built an ark. After the waters had subsided, they were instructed by a god to throw stones over their shoulders which then became men and women. Research Deucalion
Heroes was a name applied by the Greeks to mythical personages who formed an intermediate link between men and gods. They were demigods, whose mortal nature only was destroyed by death, while the immortal ascended to the gods. The heroic age of Greece is considered to have terminated with the return of the Heraclidae into the Peloponnesus in 1100 BC. There were six great heroic races, descended respectively from Prometheus and Deucalion, Inachus, Agenor, Danaus, Pelops or Tantalus, and Cecrops. Individual families, as, for instance, the AEacidioe, Atridoe, Heraclidoe, belong to one or another of these races. Great sacrifices were not offered to the heroes, as they were to the Olympian deities; but groves were consecrated to them, and libations poured out on their sepulchres. Research Heroes
Prometheus was a Greek hero. He was a son of the Titan Japetus and the sea nymph Clymene. Prometheus obtained fire for mankind from Zeus. Research Prometheus
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Aleksandr Scriabin
