CARPET-KNIGHT, properly one who has been knighted in time of peace on the carpet before the king’s throne, and not on the field of battle as an immediate reward for valour. It is used as a term of reproach for a soldier who stays at home, and avoids active service and its hardships, with a particular reference to the carpet of a lady’s chamber, in which such a sainéant soldier lingers.
CARPI, GIROLAMO DA (1501-1556), Italian historical and portrait painter, born at Ferrara, was one of Benvenuto Garofalo’s best pupils. Becoming infatuated with the work of Correggio, he quitted Ferrara, and spent several years in copying that master’s paintings at Parma, Modena and elsewhere, succeeding in aping his mannerisms so well as to be able to dispose of his own works as originals by Correggio. It is probable that not a few pictures yet attributed to the great painter are in reality the work of his parasite. Da Carpi’s best paintings are a Descent of the Holy Spirit, in the church of St Francis at Rovigo; a Madonna, an Adoration of the Magi, and a St Catharine, at Bologna; and the St George and the St Jerome, at Ferrara.
CARPI, UGO DA, Italian 15th-century painter, was long held the inventor of the art of printing in chiaroscuro, afterwards brought to such perfection by Parmigiano and by Baltasar Peruzzi of Siena. The researches of Michael Huber (1727-1804) and Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf (1719-1794) have proved, however, that this art was known and practised in Germany by Johann Ulrich Pilgrim (Wächtlin) and Nikolaus Alexander Mair (1450-c. 1520), at least as early as 1499, while the date of the oldest of Da Carpi’s prints is 1518. Printing in chiaroscuro is performed by using several blocks. Da Carpi usually employed three—one for the outline and darker shadows, another for the lighter shadows, and a third for the half-tint. By means of them he printed engravings after several pictures and after some of the cartoons of Raphael. Of these a Sybil, a Descent from the Cross, and a History of Simon the Sorcerer are the most remarkable.
CARPI, a Dacian tribe established upon the lower Danube from the 1st century b.c. They rose to considerable power during the 3rd century a.d., and claiming to be superior to the Goths accordingly demanded that their incursions into Roman territory likewise should be bought off by tribute. When this was refused they invaded in force, but were beaten back by the emperor Philip. After this they joined with the Goths in their successful inroads until both nations were defeated by Claudius Gothicus. Later, after repeated defeats under Diocletian and Galerius, they were taken under Roman protection and the greater part established in the provinces of Pannonia and Moesia; some were left beyond the Danube, and they are last heard of as allies of the Huns and Sciri in the time of Theodosius I. Ptolemy speaks of Harpii and a town Harpis. This was no doubt the form the name assumed in the mouths of their Germanic neighbours, Bastarnae and Goths.
(E. H. M.)