[1] The name of the fishes of the genus Cyprinus is derived from the island of Cyprus, the ancient sanctuary of Venus; this name is supposed to have arisen from observations of the fecundity and vivacity of carp during the spawning period.
CARPACCIO, VITTORIO, or Vittore (c. 1465-c. 1522), Italian painter, was born in Venice, cf an old Venetian family. The facts of his life are obscure, but his principal works were executed between 1490 and 1519; and he ranks as one of the finest precursors of the great Venetian masters. The date of his birth is conjectural. He is first mentioned in 1472 in a will of his uncle Fra Ilario, and Dr Ludwig infers from this that he was born c. 1455, on the ground that no one could enter into an inheritance under the age of fifteen; but the inference ignores the possibility of a testator making his will in prospect of the beneficiary attaining his legal age. Consideration of the youthful style of his earliest dated pictures (“St Ursula” series, Venice, 1490) makes it improbable that at that time he had reached so mature an age as thirty-five; and the date of his birth is more probably to be guessed from his being about twenty-five in 1490. What is certain is that he was a pupil (not, as sometimes thought, the master) of Lazzaro Bastiani, who, like the Bellini and Vivarini, was the head of a large atelier in Venice, and whose own work is seen in such pictures as the “S. Veneranda” at Vienna, and the “Doge Mocenigo kneeling before the Virgin” and “Madonna and Child” (formerly attributed to Carpaccio) in the National Gallery, London. In later years Carpaccio appears to have been influenced by Cima da Conegliano (e.g. in the “Death of the Virgin,” 1508, at Ferrara). Apart from the “St Ursula” series, his scattered series of the “Life of the Virgin” and “Life of St Stephen,” and a “Dead Christ” at Berlin, may be specially mentioned.
For an authoritative and detailed account, see the Life and Works of Vittorio Carpaccio, by Pompeo Molmenti and Gustav Ludwig, Eng. trans, by R.H. Cust (1907); and the criticism by Roger Fry, “A Genre Painter and his Critics,” in the Quarterly Review (London, April 1908).
CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS[1] (Lat. Monies Sarmatici; Med. Lat. Montes Nivium), the eastern wing of the great central mountain system of Europe. With the exception of the extreme southern and south-eastern ramifications, which belong to Rumania, the Carpathians lie entirely within Austrian and Hungarian territory. They begin on the Danube near Pressburg, surround Hungary and Transylvania in a large semicircle, the concavity of which is towards the south-west, and end on the Danube near Orsova. The total length of the Carpathians is over 800 m., and their width varies between 7 and 230 m., the greatest width of the Carpathians corresponding with its highest altitude. Thus the system attains its greatest breadth in the Transylvanian plateau, and in the meridian of the Tatra group. It covers an area of 72,600 sq. m., and after the Alps is the most extensive mountain system of Europe. The Carpathians do not form an uninterrupted chain of mountains, but consist of several orographically and geologically distinctive groups; in fact they present as great a structural variety as the Alps; but as regards magnificence of scenery they cannot compare with the Alps. The Carpathians, which only in a few places attain an altitude of over 8000 ft., lack the bold peaks, the extensive snow-fields, the large glaciers, the high waterfalls and the numerous large lakes which are found in the Alps. They are nowhere covered by perpetual snow, and glaciers do not exist, so that the Carpathians, even in their highest altitude, recall the middle region of the Alps, with which, however, they have many points in common as regards appearance, structure and flora. The Danube separates the Carpathians from the Alps, which they meet only in two points, namely, the Leitha Mountains at Pressburg, and the Bakony Mountains at Vacz (Waitzen), while the same river separates them from the Balkan Mountains at Orsova. The valley of the March and Oder separates the Carpathians from the Silesian and Moravian chains, which belong to the middle wing of the great central mountain system of Europe. The Carpathians separate Hungary and Transylvania from Lower Austria, Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, Bukovina and Rumania, while its ramifications fill the whole northern part of Hungary, and form the quadrangular mass of the Transylvanian plateau. Unlike the other wings of the great central system of Europe, the Carpathians, which form the watershed between the northern seas and the Black Sea, are surrounded on all sides by plains, namely the great Hungarian plain on the south-west, the plain of the Lower Danube (Rumania) on the south, and the Galician plain on the north-east.
The Carpathian system can be divided into two groups: the Carpathians proper, and the mountains of Transylvania. The Carpathians proper consist of an outer wall, which forms the frontier between Hungary and the adjacent provinces of Austria, and of an inner wall which fills the whole of Upper Hungary, and forms the central group. The outer wall is a complex, roughly circular mass of about 600 m. extending from Pressburg to the valley of the Visó, and the Golden Bistritza, and is divided by the Poprad into two parts, the western Carpathians and the eastern or wooded Carpathians. Orographically, therefore, the proper Carpathians are divided into: (a) the western Carpathians, (b) the eastern or wooded Carpathians, and (c) the central groups.
(a) The western Carpathians, which begin at the Porta Hungarica on the Danube, just opposite the Leitha Mountains, and extend to the Poprad river, are composed of four principal groups: the Little Carpathians (also called the Pressburg group) Ranges. with the highest peak Bradlo (2670 ft.); the White Carpathians or Miava group, with the highest peak Javornik (3325 ft.), and the Zemerka (3445 ft.); the Beskid proper or western Beskid group, which extends from a little west of the Jablunka pass to the river Poprad, with the highest peaks, Beskid (3115 ft.), Smrk (4395 ft.), Lissa Hora (4350 ft.) and Ossus (5106 ft.); and the Magura or Arva Magura group, which extends to the south of Beskid Mountains, and contains the Babia Gora (5650 ft.), the highest peak in the whole western Carpathians.
(b) The eastern or wooded Carpathians extend from the river Poprad to the sources of the river Visó and the Golden Bistritza, whence the Transylvanian Mountains begin, and form the link between these mountains and the central groups or High Carpathians. They are a monotonous sandstone range, covered with extensive forests, which up to the sources of the rivers Ung and San are also called the eastern Beskids, and are formed of small parallel ranges. The northern two-thirds of this range has a mean altitude of 3250 ft., and only in its southern portion it attains a mean altitude of 5000 ft. The principal peaks are Rusky Put (4264 ft.), Popadjé (5690 ft.), Bistra (5936 ft.), Pop Ivan (6214 ft.), Tomnatik (5035 ft.), Giumaleu (6077 ft.) and Cserna Gora (6505 ft.), the culminating peak of the whole range. To the eastern Carpathians belongs also the range of mountains extending between the Laborcza and the Upper Theiss, called Vihorlat, which attains in the peak of the same name an altitude of 3495 ft. As indicated by its name, which means “burnt,” it is of volcanic origin, and plays an important part in the folklore and in the superstitious legends of the Hungarian people.
(c) The central groups or the High Carpathians extend from the confluence of the rivers Arva and Waag to the river Poprad, and include the highest group of the Carpathian system. They consist of the High Tatra group (see [Tatra Mountains]), where is found the Gerlsdorfer or Franz Josef peak (Hung. Gerlachfalvi-Csúcs), with an altitude of 8737 ft., the highest peak in the whole Carpathian Mountains. On its west are the Liptauer Magura, with the highest peak the Biela Szkala (6900 ft.), and on its east are the Zipser Magura, which have a mean altitude of 3000 ft. South of the central groups lies a widely extending mountain region, which fills the whole of northern Hungary, and is known as the Hungarian highland. It is composed of several groups, which are intersected by the valleys of numerous rivers, and which descend in sloping terraces towards the Danube and the Hungarian plain. The principal groups are: the Neutra or Galgóc Mountains (4400 ft.), between the rivers Waag and Neutra; the Low or Nizna Tatra, which extends to the south of the High Tatra, and has its highest peaks, the Djumbir (6700 ft.) and the Králova Hola (6400 ft.); this group is continued towards the east up to the confluence of the Göllnitz with the Hernad, by the so-called Carpathian foot-hills, with the highest peak the Zelesznik (2675 ft.). West of the Low Tatra extend the Fatra group, with the highest peak, the Great Fatra (5825 ft.), to the south and east of which lie the Schemnitz group, the Ostrowsky group, and several other groups, all of which are also called the Hungarian Ore Mountains, on account of their richness in valuable ores. South-east of the Low Tatra extend the Zips—Gömör Ore Mountains, while the most eastern group is the Hegyalja Mountains, between the Topla, Tarcza and Hernad rivers, which run southward from Eperjes to Tokaj. In their northern portion, they are also called Sóvár Mountains, and reach in their highest peak, Simonka, an altitude of 3350 ft., while their southern portion, which ends with the renowned Tokaj Hill (1650 ft.), is also called Tokaj Mountains. The smaller groups of the Hungarian highland are: on the south-west the Neograd Mountains (2850), whose offshoots reach the Danube; to the east of them extends the Matra group, with the highest peak the Saskö (3285 ft.). The Matra group is of volcanic origin, rising abruptly in the great Hungarian plain, and constitutes one of the most beautiful groups of the Carpathians; lastly, to its east extend the thickly-wooded Bükk Mountains (3100 ft.).