Part 32

2. The Walachian branch starts afresh from the great ban Demetrius or Dumitru Ghica (1718-1803), who was twice married and had fourteen children (see RUMANIA: _History_). One of these, Gregory (Grigorie), prince of Walachia 1822-1828, starts a new era of civilization, by breaking with the traditions of the Phanariot (Greek) period and assisting in the development of a truly national Rumanian literature. His brother, Prince Alexander Ghica, appointed jointly by Turkey and Russia (1834-1842) as hospodar of Walachia, died in 1862. Under him the so-called _reglement organique_ had been promulgated; an attempt was made to codify the laws in conformity with the institutions of the country and to secure better administration of justice. Prince Demetrius Ghica, who died as president of the Rumanian senate in 1897, was the son of the Walachian prince Gregory.

3. Another Gregory Ghica, prince of Moldavia from 1775 to 1777, paid with his life for the opposition he offered when the Turks ceded the province of Bukovina to Austria.

4. Michael (Michail) (1794-1850) was the father of Elena (1827-1888), a well-known novelist, who wrote under the name of Dora d'Istria. Brought up, as was customary at the time, under Greek influences, she showed premature intelligence and literary power. She continued her education in Germany and married a Russian prince, Koltsov Mazalskiy, in 1849, but the marriage was an unhappy one, and in 1855 she left St Petersburg for Florence, where she died in 1888. In that city she developed her literary talent and published a number of works characterized by lightness of touch and brilliance of description, such as _Pelerinage au tombeau de Dante, La Vie monastique dans les eglises orientales_ (1844), _La Suisse allemande_, &c. One of her last works was devoted to the history of her own family, _Gli Albanesi in Roumenia: Storia dei Principi Ghika nei secoli XVII-XIX_ (Florence, 1873). Her sister was Sophia, Countess O'Rourke.

5. Scarlat Ghica (1750-1802) was twice prince of Walachia. His grandson John (Ioan) Ghica (1817-1897), a lifelong friend of Turkey, was educated in Bucharest and in the West, and studied engineering and mathematics in Paris from 1837 to 1840; returning to Moldavia he was involved in the conspiracy of 1841, which was intended to bring about the union of Walachia and Moldavia under one native prince (Michael Sturdza). The conspiracy failed and John Ghica became a lecturer on mathematics at the university which was founded by Prince Sturdza in Jassy. In 1848 he joined the party of revolution and in the name of a provisional government then established in Bucharest went to Constantinople to approach the Turkish government. Whilst there he was appointed Bey of Samos (1853-1859), where he extirpated piracy, rampant in that island. In 1859 after the union of Moldavia and Walachia had been effected Prince Cuza induced John Ghica to return. He was the first prime minister under Prince (afterwards King) Charles of Hohenzollern. His restless nature made him join the anti-dynastic movement of 1870-1871. In 1881 he was appointed Rumanian minister in London and retained this office until 1889. He died on the 7th of May 1897 in Gherghani. Besides his political distinction John Ghica earned a literary reputation by his "Letters to Alexandri" (2nd edition, 1887), his lifelong friend, written from London and describing the ancient state of Rumanian society, fast fading away. He was also the author of _Amintiri din pribegie_, "Recollections of Exile in 1848" (Bucharest, 1890) and of _Convorbiri Economice_, discussions on economic questions (Bucharest, 1866-1873). He was the first to advocate the establishment of national industry and commerce, and also, to a certain extent, principles of "exclusive dealing." (M. G.)

GHILZAI, a large and widespread Afghan tribe, who extend from Kalat-i-Ghilzai on the S. to the Kabul river on the N., and from the Gul Koh range on the W. to the Indian border on the E., in many places overflowing these boundaries. The popular theory of the origin of the Ghilzais traces them to the Turkish tribe of Kilji, once occupying districts bordering the upper course of the Syr Darya (Jaxartes), and affirms that they were brought into Afghanistan by the Turk Sabuktagin in the 10th century. However that may be, the Ghilzai clans now rank collectively as second to none in strength of military and commercial enterprise. They are a fine, manly race of people, and it is from some of their most influential clans (Suliman Khel, Nasir Khel, Kharotis, &c.) that the main body of povindah merchants is derived.

GHIRLANDAJO, DOMENICO (1449-1494), Florentine painter. His full name is given as Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi; it appears therefore that his father's surname was Curradi, and his grandfather's Bigordi. The painter is generally termed Domenico Bigordi, but some authors give him, and apparently with reason, the paternal surname Curradi. Ghirlandajo (garland-maker) was only a nickname, coming to Domenico from the employment of his father (or else of his earliest instructor), who was renowned for fashioning the metallic garlands worn by Florentine damsels; he was not, however, as some have said, the inventor of them. Tommaso was by vocation a jeweller on the Ponte Vecchio, or perhaps a broker. Domenico, the eldest of eight children, was at first apprenticed to a jeweller or goldsmith, probably enough his own father; in his shop he was continually making portraits of the passers-by, and it was thought expedient to place him with Alessio Baldovinetti to study painting and mosaic. His youthful years were, however, entirely undistinguished, and at the age of thirty-one he had not a fixed abode of his own. This is remarkable, as immediately afterwards, from 1480 onwards to his death at a comparatively early age in 1494, he became the most proficient painter of his time, incessantly employed, and condensing into that brief period of fourteen years fully as large an amount of excellent work as any other artist that could be named; indeed, we should properly say eleven years, for nothing of his is known of a later date than 1491.

In 1480 Ghirlandajo painted a "St Jerome" and other frescoes in the church of Ognissanti, Florence, and a life-sized "Last Supper" in its refectory, noticeable for individual action and expression. From 1481 to 1485 he was employed upon frescoes in the Sala dell' Orologio in the Palazzo Vecchio; he painted the apotheosis of St Zenobius, a work beyond the size of life, with much architectural framework, figures of Roman heroes and other detail, striking in perspective and structural propriety. While still occupied here, he was summoned to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV. to paint in the Sixtine chapel; he went thither in 1483. In the Sixtine he executed, probably before 1484, a fresco which has few rivals in that series, "Christ calling Peter and Andrew to their Apostleship,"--a work which, though somewhat deficient in colour, has greatness of method and much excellence of finish. The landscape background, in especial, is very superior to anything to be found in the works, which had no doubt been zealously studied by Ghirlandajo, of Masaccio and others in the Brancacci chapel. He also did some other works in Rome, now perished. Before 1485 he had likewise produced his frescoes in the chapel of S. Fina, in the Tuscan town of S. Gimignano, remarkable for grandeur and grace,--two pictures of Fina, dying and dead, with some accessory work. Sebastian Mainardi assisted him in these productions in Rome and in S. Gimignano; and Ghirlandajo was so well pleased with his co-operation that he gave him his sister in marriage.

He now returned to Florence, and undertook in the church of the Trinita, and afterwards in S. Maria Novella, the works which have set the seal on his celebrity. The frescoes in the Sassetti chapel of S. Trinita are six subjects from the life of St Francis, along with some classical accessories, dated 1485. Three of the principal incidents are "St Francis obtaining from Pope Honorius the approval of the Rules of his Order"; his "Death and Obsequies," and the Resuscitation, by the interposition of the beatified saint, of a child of the Spini family, who had been killed by falling out of a window. In the first work is a portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici; and in the third the painter's own likeness, which he introduced also into one of the pictures in S. Maria Novella, and in the "Adoration of the Magi" in the hospital of the Innocenti. The altar-piece of the Sassetti chapel, the "Adoration of the Shepherds," is now in the Florentine Academy. Immediately after disposing of this commission, Ghirlandajo was asked to renew the frescoes in the choir of S. Maria Novella. This choir formed the chapel of the Ricci family, but the Tornabuoni and Tornaquinci families, then much more opulent than the Ricci, undertook the cost of the restoration, under conditions, as to preserving the arms of the Ricci, which gave rise in the end to some amusing incidents of litigation. The frescoes, in the execution of which Domenico had many assistants, are in four courses along the three walls,--the leading subjects being the lives of the Madonna and of the Baptist. Besides their general richness and dignity of art, these works are particularly interesting as containing many historical portraits--a method of treatment in which Ghirlandajo was pre-eminently skilled.

There are no less than twenty-one portraits of the Tornabuoni and Tornaquinci families; in the subject of the "Angel appearing to Zacharias," those of Politian, Marsilio Ficino and others; in the "Salutation of Anna and Elizabeth," the beautiful Ginevra de' Benci; in the "Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple," Mainardi and Baldovinetti (or the latter figure may perhaps be Ghirlandajo's father). The Ricci chapel was reopened and completed in 1490; the altar-piece, now removed from the chapel, was probably executed with the assistance of Domenico's brothers, David and Benedetto, painters of ordinary calibre; the painted window was from Domenico's own design. Other distinguished works from his hand are an altar-piece in tempera of the "Virgin adored by Sts Zenobius, Justus and others," painted for the church of St Justus, but now in the Uffizi gallery, a remarkable masterpiece; "Christ in glory with Romuald and other Saints," in the Badia of Volterra; the "Adoration of the Magi," in the church of the Innocenti (already mentioned), perhaps his finest panel-picture (1488); and the "Visitation," in the Louvre, bearing the latest ascertained date (1491) of all his works. Ghirlandajo did not often attempt the nude; one of his pictures of this character, "Vulcan and his Assistants forging Thunderbolts," was painted for Lo Spedaletto, but (like several others specified by Vasari) it exists no longer. Two portraits by him are in the National Gallery, London. The mosaics which he produced date before 1491; one, of especial celebrity, is the "Annunciation," on a portal of the cathedral of Florence.

In general artistic attainment Ghirlandajo may fairly be regarded as exceeding all his precursors or competitors; though the names of a few,

## particularly Giotto, Masaccio, Lippo Lippi and Botticelli, stand higher

for originating power. His scheme of composition is grand and decorous; his chiaroscuro excellent, and especially his perspectives, which he would design on a very elaborate scale by the eye alone; his colour is more open to criticism, but this remark applies much less to the frescoes than the tempera-pictures, which are sometimes too broadly and crudely bright. He worked in these two methods alone--never in oils; and his frescoes are what the Italians term "buon fresco," without any finishing in tempera. A certain hardness of outline, not unlike the character of bronze sculpture, may attest his early training in metal work. He first introduced into Florentine art that mixture of the sacred and the profane which had already been practised in Siena. His types in figures of Christ, the Virgin and angels are not of the highest order; and a defect of drawing, which has been often pointed out, is the meagreness of his hands and feet. It was one of his maxims that "painting is designing." Ghirlandajo was an insatiate worker, and expressed a wish that he had the entire circuit of the walls of Florence to paint upon. He told his shop-assistants not to refuse any commission that might offer, were it even for a lady's petticoat-panniers: if they would not execute such work, he would. Not that he was in any way grasping or sordid in money-matters, as is proved by the anecdote of the readiness with which he gave up a bonus upon the stipulated price of the Ricci chapel frescoes, offered by the wealthy Tornabuoni in the first instance, but afterwards begrudged. Vasari says that Ghirlandajo was the first to abandon in great part the use of gilding in his pictures, representing by genuine painting any objects supposed to be gilded; yet this does not hold good without some considerable exceptions--the high lights of the landscape, for instance, in the "Adoration of the Shepherds," now in the Florence Academy, being put in in gold. Many drawings and sketches by this painter are in the Uffizi gallery, remarkable for vigour of outline. One of the great glories of Ghirlandajo is that he gave some early art-education to Michelangelo, who cannot, however, have remained with him long. F. Granacci was another of his pupils.

This renowned artist died of pestilential fever on the 11th of January 1494, and was buried in S. Maria Novella. He had been twice married, and left six children, three of them being sons. He had a long and honourable line of descendants, which came to a close in the 17th century, when the last members of the race entered monasteries. It is probable that Domenico died poor; he appears to have been gentle, honourable and conscientious, as well as energetically diligent.

The biography of Ghirlandajo is carefully worked out in Crowe and Cavalcaselle's book. A recent German work on the subject is that of Ernst Steinmann (1897). See also _Codex Escurialensis, ein Skizzenbuch aus der Werkstatt Domenico Ghirlandaios_ (texts and plates), by Chr. Hulsen, Adolf Michaelis and Hermann Egger in the _Sonderschriften des osterr. archaol. Instituts in Wien_ (2 vols., 1906), and cf. T. Ashby in _Classical Quarterly_ (April 1909). (W. M. R.)

GHIRLANDAJO, RIDOLFO (1483-1560), son of Domenico Ghirlandajo, Florentine painter, was born on the 14th of February 1483, and, being less than eleven years old when his father died, was brought up by his uncle David. To this second-rate artist he owed less in the way of professional training than to Granacci, Piero di Cosimo and perhaps Cosimo Rosselli. It has been said that Ridolfo studied also under Fra Bartolommeo, but this is not clearly ascertained. He was certainly one of the earliest students of the famous cartoons of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. His works between the dates 1504 and 1508 show a marked influence from Fra Bartolommeo and Raphael, with the latter of whom he was on terms of familiar friendship; hence he progressed in selection of form and in the modelling and relief of his figures. Raphael, on reaching Rome in 1508, wished Ridolfo to join him; but the Florentine painter was of a particularly home-keeping humour, and he neglected the opportunity. He soon rose to the head of the Florentine oil-painters of his time; and, like his father, accepted all sorts of commissions, of whatever kind. He was prominent in the execution of vast scenic canvases for various public occasions, such as the wedding of Giuliano de' Medici, and the entry of Leo X. into Florence in 1515. In his prime he was honest and conscientious as an artist; but from about 1527 he declined, having already accumulated a handsome property, more than sufficient for maintaining in affluence his large family of fifteen children, and his works became comparatively mannered and self-repeating. His sons traded in France and in Ferrara; he himself took a part in commercial affairs, and began paying some attention to mosaic work, but it seems that, after completing one mosaic, the "Annunciation" over the door of the Annunziata, patience failed him for continuing such minute labours. In his old age Ridolfo was greatly disabled by gout. He appears to have been of a kindly, easy-going character, much regarded by his friends and patrons.

The following are some of his leading works, the great majority of them being oil-pictures:--

"Christ and the Maries on the road to Calvary," now in the Palazzo Antinori, Florence, an early example, with figures of half life-size. An "Annunciation" in the Abbey of Montoliveto near Florence, Leonardesque in style. In 1504, the "Coronation of the Virgin," now in the Louvre. A "Nativity," very carefully executed, now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, and ascribed in the catalogue to Granacci. A "Predella," in the oratory of the Bigallo, Florence, five panels, representing the Nativity and other subjects, charmingly finished. In 1514, on the ceiling of the chapel of St Bernard in the Palazzo Pubblico, Florence, a fresco of the "Trinity," with heads of the twelve apostles and other accessories, and the "Annunciation"; also the "Assumption of the Virgin, who bestows her girdle on St Thomas," in the choir loft of Prato cathedral. Towards the same date, a picture showing his highest skill, replete with expression, vigorous life, and firm accomplished pictorial method, now in the gallery of the Uffizi, "St Zenobius resuscitating a child"; also the translation of the remains of the same Saint. The "Virgin and various saints," at S. Pier Maggiore, Pistoja. In 1521, the "Pieta," at S. Agostino, Colle di Valdelsa, life-sized. Towards 1526, the "Assumption," now in the Berlin Museum, containing the painter's own portrait. An excellent portrait of "Cosimo de' Medici" (the Great) in youth. In 1543, a series of frescoes in the monastery of the Angeli. In the National Gallery, London, is "The Procession to Calvary." A great number of altar-pieces were executed by Ghirlandajo, with the assistance of his favourite pupil, currently named Michele di Ridolfo. Another of his pupils was Mariano da Pescia. (W. M. R.)

GHOR, or GHUR, an ancient kingdom of Afghanistan. The name of Ghor was in the middle ages, and indeed locally still is, applied to the highlands east of Herat, extending eastward to the upper Helmund valley, or nearly so. Ghor is the southern portion of that great peninsula of strong mountain country which forms the western part of modern Afghanistan. The northern portion of the peninsula was in the middle ages comprehended under the names of _Gharjistan_ (on the west), and _Juzjana_ (on the east), whilst the basin of the Herat river, and all south of it, constituted Ghor. The name as now used does not include the valley of the Herat river; on the south the limit seems to be the declivity of the higher mountains dominating the descent to the lower Helmund, and the road from Farah to Kandahar. It is in Ghor that rise all those affluents of the closed basin of Seistan, the Hari-rud, the Farah-rud, the Khash-rud, besides other considerable streams joining the Helmund above Girishk.

Ghor is mentioned in the Shahnama of Firdousi (A.D. 1010), and in the Arab geographers of that time, though these latter fail in details almost as much as we moderns, thus indicating how little accessible the country has been through all ages. Ibn Hau[k.]al's map of Khorasan (c. 976) shows _Jibal-al-Ghur_, "the hill-country of Ghor," as a circle ring-fenced with mountains. His brief description speaks of it as a land fruitful in crops, cattle and flocks, inhabited by infidels, except a few who passed for Mahommedans, and indicates that, like other pagan countries surrounded by Moslem populations, it was regarded as a store of slaves for the faithful. The boundary of Ghor in ascending the valley of the Hari-rud was six and a half easy marches from Herat, at Chist, two marches above Obeh.

The chief part of the present population of Ghor are Taimanis, belonging to the class of nomad or semi-nomad clans called Aimak, intermingled with Zuris and Tajiks.

The people and princes of Ghor first become known to us in connexion with the Ghaznevid dynasty, and the early medieval histories of Ghor and Ghazni are so intertwined that little need be added on that subject to what will be found under GHAZNI (q.v.). What we read of Ghor shows it as a country of lofty mountains and fruitful valleys, and of numerous strongholds held by a variety of hill-chieftains ruling warlike clans whose habits were rife with feuds and turbulence,--indeed, in character strongly resembling the tribes of modern Afghanistan, though there seems no good reason to believe that they were of Afghan race. It is probable that they were of old Persian blood, like the older of those tribes which still occupy the country. It is possibly a corroboration of this that, in the 14th century, when one of the Ghori kings, of the Kurt dynasty reigning in Herat, had taken to himself some of the insignia of independent sovereignty, an incensed Mongol prince is said to have reviled him as "an insolent _Tajik_." Sabuktagin of Ghazni, and his famous son Mahmud, repeatedly invaded the mountain country which so nearly adjoined their capital, subduing its chiefs for the moment, and exacting tribute; but when the immediate pressure was withdrawn, the yoke was thrown off and the tribute withheld. In 1020 Masa'ud, the son of Mahmud, being then governor of Khorasan, made a systematic invasion of Ghor from the side of Herat, laying siege to its strongholds one after the other, and subduing the country more effectually than ever before. About a century later one of the princely families of Ghor, deriving the appellation of Shansabi, or Shansabaniah, from a certain ancestor Shansab, of local fame, and of alleged descent from Zohak, acquired predominance in all the country, and at the time mentioned Malik 'Izzuddin al Hosain of this family came to be recognized as lord of Ghor. He was known afterwards as "the Father of Kings," from the further honour to which several of his seven sons rose. Three of these were--(1) Amir Kutbuddin Mahommed, called the lord of the Jibal or mountains; (2) Sultan Saifuddin Suri, for a brief period master of Ghazni,--both of whom were put to death by Bahram the Ghaznevid; and (3) Sultan Alauddin Jahansoz, who wreaked such terrible vengeance upon Ghazni. Alauddin began the conquests which were afterwards immensely extended both in India and in the west by his nephews Ghiyasuddin Mahommed b. Sam and Mahommed Ghori (Muizuddin b. Sam or Shahabuddin b. Sam), and for a brief period during their rule it was boasted, with no great exaggeration, that the public prayer was read in the name of the Ghori from the extremity of India to the borders of Babylonia, and from the Oxus to the Straits of Ormus. After the death of Mahommed Ghori, Mahmud the son of Ghiyasuddin was proclaimed sovereign (1200) throughout the territories of Ghor, Ghazni and Hindustan. But the Indian dominion, from his uncle's death, became entirely independent, and his actual authority was confined to Ghor, Seistan and Herat. The whole kingdom fell to pieces before the power of Mahommed Shah of Khwarizm and his son Jelaluddin (c. 1214-1215), a power in its turn to be speedily shattered by the Mongol flood.