JOVELLANOS
529
JOVIANUS
Lazarus" and the "Miraculous Draught of Fishes".
Attention has often been called to the fact that the
artist went to Dieppe expressly to prepare himself to
execute this last-named picture. We might point out
also that it is strongly reminiscent of the Rubens pre-
served in Mechlin. Louis XIV was so delighted with
these works that he had them reproduced in tapestry
by the Gobelins, and it was this tapestry that im-
pressed Tsar Peter the Great so much in 1717, that he
wished to take it away with him, believing it to be the
greatest of masterpieces. Meanwhile Jouvenet, who
was now the recognized head of the new school, was
selected to work at the two decorative groups which
express most accurately the characteristics of the new
tradition: the dome of the Hotel des Invalides (1700-
6) and the chapel of Versailles (1709). For the for-
mer he painted twelve colossal figures of the Apostles,
and for the latter, over the royal tribune, a " Descent
of the Holy Ghost".
Jouvenet was director of the Academy from 1705 till 1708. In 1713 he was stricken with apoplexy and his right hand became paralysed. Far from being dis- couraged by this, he actually acquired, though now seventy years of age, a facility for painting with his left hand, and thus executed his last two works, the ceiling in the Palais de Justice at Rouen (it has now- perished; there remains only a sketch of it preserved in the Louvre) and the '"Magnificat" in the choir of Notre-Dame. Jouvenet is far from being a great master, but he is a striking personality in the realms of art. His works, theatrical and often declamatory, but honest and powerful, do not excite emotion, though one can still easily understand their great his- toric importance. They taught painting to the French school which had forgotten it. The whole body of great decorators in the eighteenth century — men like Coypel, de Troy, Restout, Van Loo, and Doyen — follow in his footsteps, and Ingres was not mistaken in grouping them under the title of the "School of Jouvenet". His chief paintings outside the Louvre are in the galleries of Amiens, Rouen, Nancy, Grenoble, Nantes, Rennes, and Toulouse. We have still some admirable portraits by him, as that of Fagon, physician to Louis XIV (in the Louvre) and that of Bourdaloue — now only known by the en- graving, which has given rise to so much discussion as to whether the great orator preached with his eyes closed.
D'Argbnville, Abrege de la vie des plus fameux peintres, IV (Paris, 1762); Memoires inedits sur les Membres de I'Academie koyale de Peinture el de Sculpture, II (Paris, 1854): Blanc, Hist, des Peintres. Ecole Fran^aise, I (Paris. 1S65): Felibien, Description de Veglise royale des Invalides (Paris. 1706): Bel- LlER DE LA Chavignerie. Diet, generale des artistes de VEcole franfaise, I (Paris, 1882) ; Marcel. La Peinture francaise de 1890 a 1721 (Paris, 1905); Leroy, Hist, de Jouvenet (Paris, 1860). Louis Gillet.
Jovellanos (also written JovE-LuiNos), Gasp.ui Melchor de, Spanish statesman and man of letters, b. at Gijon, Asturias, .5 Jan., 1744; d. at Puerto de Vega on the borders of -\sturias, 27 Nov., 1811. In- tended at first for the Church, he received his prelimi- nary training at the University of Oviedo, whence he passed to the University of .\vila and later to that of Alcald. In the latter institution he spent two years, continuing his study of canon law. His uncle, the Duke of Losada, did not look with favour on the idea of the young man devoting himself to an ecclesiastical career, and advised him to direct his course towards the practice of law as a layman. This he did, after having already received the tonsure, and ere long he was made a judge in the criminal court of Seville, from which post he rose to higher places on the bench. W'hile at Seville, he interested himself in the develop- ment of the mechanical, agricultural, and general economic arts, and made earnest endeavours to im- prove the lot of the laliouring man. At the same time he commenced his literary career, writing docu- VIII.— 34
ments embodying his views as to social improvements
as well as some occasional lyric verse, his tragedy
" Pelayo", and his comedy "El delincuente honrado".
With the exception of the " El si de las niiias" of Mora-
tin, the last-named work was the best play that had
appeared in Spanish for many years. Written in prose,
it represents the introduction into Spain of that form
of the sentimental drama, or melodrama, which had
been developed in French, as the drame larmoyant or
drame bourgeois, by Diderot and La Chauss^e. The
"Pelayo" is a less meritorious work. In 1778 King
Carlos III transferred him to the courts in the capital.
Verse written at this moment shows the regret which
he felt at having to leave Seville for Madrid. Once in
the metropolis, he was promptly enrolled in the learned
societies, among which were the Academia de la His-
toria,and the Academia Espanola, and his association
with these led to the production by him of various
scientific and literary compositions. Carlos III died
in 1788. A month before that event, Jovellanos had
written his "Elogio de Carlos III", in which he did
justice to that enlightened monarch's attempts to
make the nation prosperous through the adoption of
progressive methods.
Like the king, Jovellanos had been deeply inter- ested in the encouraging and bettering of agricultural pursuits, and in his " Informe sobre la ley agraria " set forth the evils that confronted the willing husband- man and the necessary reforms. He had formed a friendship with the statesman Cabarrus, and, when in 1790the latter incurred disfavour, he was compelled to leave Madrid also. Going into virtual exile, he vis- ited liis own Asturian region with the ostensible mis- sion of a commissioner to examine the coal-mining facilities of the district. Remaining several j'ears at home, he there founded the " Real Instituto Astu- riano ", which still exists. Then, to his great surprise, he was appointed minister of justice, and proceeded to Madrid to take up his portfolio under Godoy. He held it during a good part of 1797-9, but with the fall of Godoy he lost his office and had to return to Gijon. There he was arrested in 1801 and carried olf to Ma- jorca where he was kept a prisoner until 1808, in which year he was released by order of Prince Ferdinand. Coming to the mainland, he was notified that Joseph Bonaparte had named him minister of the interior. He refused, accepting instead a place on the national Junta Central, as the representative of Asturias. After direct- ing for a while the operations of the Junta, he was obliged to flee before the advance of the French, and embarked at Cadiz on board of a vessel for his native province. He encountered many vicissitudes, and died of pneumonia at one of his landing-places, Puerto de Vega.
Obras publicadas e inediias in the Biblioteca de auiorea espauotes, XLVI, L: Morel-Fatio. La satire de Jovellanos contre la mauvaise education de la noblesse (Bordeaux, 1899); Merimee, Jovellanos in the Revue hispanique (1894); So.maza DE MoNTSORiu, Inventario de un Jovellanista (Madrid, 1901).
J. D. M. Ford.
JoTianuR, Flavius Claudius, Roman Emperor, 363-4. After the death of Julian the Apostate (26 June, 363), the army making war on Persia and then in re- treat from Assyria proclaimed Jovianus emperor, after the prefect of the guard, Sallustius, a confidant of Ju- han, had refused the dignity on account of his advanced age. Jovianus was a son of the distinguished Count {Come.s) Varronianus and a native of Pannonia. Though at that time less than thirty-three, he held the rank of captain in the imperial bodyguard. His elec- tion was hailed with joy by the Christians, since from him they could expect religious toleration. Although Jovianus had a warlike appearance, he lacked the spirit and decision of a soldier and leader of men. Therefore he accepted the conditions of peace offered bj' Shapur (Sapor), the crafty Persian king, and agreed to restore the boundaries of the empire as they
