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See also: Roman orator and poet, tribune of the See also: people (66 B.C.), friend of Lucretius and Catullus
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At first a strong supporter of See also: Pompey, he quarrelled with him, and went over to Caesar, whom he had previously attacked
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In S4, as See also: candidate for the consulship, he lost Caesar's support by revealing a scandalous transaction in which he and his See also: fellow candidate had been implicated (Cic
.
Ad AU. iv
.
15—18)
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Being subsequently condemned for illegal practices at the election, he withdrew to Athens, and afterwards to Mytilene
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He died about the See also: year 49
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He is remembered chiefly because it was to him that Lucretius addressed the De rerum natura, perhaps with the idea of making him a convert tee the doctrines of See also: Epicurus
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It appears from See also: Cicero (Ad Fam. xiii
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1) that he possessed an estate on which' were the ruins of Epicurus' See also: house, and that he had determined to build on the site a house for himself
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According to Ovid (Trist. ii
.
433) he was the author of erotic poems
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He possessed considerable oratorical abilities, but his contempt for Latin letters and preference for See also: Greek See also: models impaired his efficiency as an advocate (Cic
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But the latter is more interesting than the former, because it tells how See also: Memlinc, long after See also: Rogier's See also: death and his own See also: settlement at Bruges, preserved the traditions of sacred See also: art which had been applied in the first See also: part of the century by Rogier See also: van der See also: Weyden to the " Last See also: Judgment " of See also: Beaune
.
All that Memlinc did was to purge his master's manner of excessive stringency, and add to his other qualities a See also: velvet softness of pigment, a delicate transparence of See also: colours, and yielding See also: grace of slender forms
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That such a beautiful See also: work as the " Last judgment " of See also: Danzig should have been bought for the See also: Italian market is not surprising when we recollect that picture-fanciers in that country were See also: familiar with the beauties of Memlinc's compositions, as shown in the preference given to them by such purchasers as See also: Cardinal Grimari and Cardinal See also: Bembo at Venice, and the heads of the house of See also: Medici at Florence
.
But Memlinc's reputation was not confined to See also: Italy or See also: Flanders
..
The " Madonna and See also: Saints " which passed oat of the Duchatel collection into the gallery of the Louvre, the " Virgin and See also: Child " painted for See also: Sir See also: John
See also: Donne and now at See also: Chatsworth, and other See also: noble specimens in See also: English and See also: Continental private houses, show that his work was as widely known and appreciated as it could be in the See also: state of See also: civilization of the 16th century
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It was perhaps not their See also: sole attraction that they gave the most See also: tender and delicate possible impersonations of the " See also: Mother of Christ " that could suit the taste of that age in any See also: European country
.
But the portraits of the donors, with which they were mostly combined, were more characteristic, and probably more remarkable as likenesses, than any that Memlinc's contemporaries could produce
.
Nor is it unreason-able to think that his success as a portrait painter, which is manifested in isolated busts as well as in altarpieces, was of a kind to react with effect on the Venetian school, which undoubtedly was affected by the partiality of Antonello da See also: Messina for trans-Alpine t pes studied in Flanders in Memlinc's See also: time
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The portraits of Sir John Donne and his wife and See also: children in the Chatsworth altarpiece are not less remarkable as models of See also: drawing and finish than as refined presentations of persons of distinction; nor is any difference in this respect to be found in the splendid See also: groups of See also: father, mother, and children which fill the noble altarpiece of the Louvre
.
As single portraits, the busts of Burgomaster Moreel and his wife in the museum of Brussels, and their daughter the " Sibyl Zambetha " (according to the added description) in the hospital at Bruges, are the finest and most interesting of specimens
.
The " Seven Griefs of Mary " in the gallery of See also: Turin, to which we may add the " Seven Joys of Mary " In the Pinakothek of See also: Munich, are illustrations of the habit which clung to the art of Flanders of representing a See also: cycle of subjects on the different planes of a single picture, 'where a wide expanse of ground is 'covered with incidents from the Passion in the See also: form See also: common to the See also: action of sacred plays
.
The masterpiece of Memlinc's later years, a shrine containingSee also: relics of St See also: Ursula in the museum of the hospital of Bruges, is fairly supposed to have been ordered and finished in 1480
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The delicacy of finish See also: nish in its See also: miniature figures, the variety of Its landscapes and See also: costume, the marvellous See also: patience with which its details are given, are all matters of enjoyment to the spectator
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There is later work of the master in the " St Christopher and Saints " of I484 in the See also: academy, or the Newenhoven " Madonna " in the hospital of Bruges, or a large " Crucifixion," with scenes from the Passion, of 1491 in the See also: cathedral of See also: Lubeck
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But as we near the close of Memlinc's career we observe that his practice has become larger than he can compass alone; and, as usual in such cases, the labour of disciples is substituted for his own
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The registers of the painters' corporation at Bruges give the names of two apprentices who served their time with Memlinc and paid dues on See also: admission to the gild in 148o and 1486
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These subordinates remained obscure
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The trustees of his will appeared before the See also: court of wards at Bruges on the loth of See also: December 1495, and we gather from records of that date and place that Memlinc See also: left behind several children and a considerable See also: property
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(J
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