Albert Cuyp, a true child of the Netherlands, does not seem to have wandered much beyond Rotterdam on the one hand or Nijmwegen on the other. His scenery is that of the Meuse or Rhine exclusively; and there is little variety to notice in his views of water and meadows at Dordrecht, or the bolder undulations of the Rhine banks east of it, except such as results from diversity of effect due to change of weather or season or hour. Cuyp is to the river and its banks what Willem Vandevelde is to calm seas and Hobbema to woods. There is a poetry of effect, an eternity of distance in his pictures, which no Dutchman ever expressed in a similar way. His landscapes sparkle with silvery sheen at early morning, they are bathed in warm or sultry haze at noon, or glow with heat at eventide. Under all circumstances they have a peculiar tinge of auburn which is Cuyp’s and Cuyp’s alone. Bürger truly says van Goyen is gray, Ruysdael is brown, Hobbema olive, but Cuyp “is blond.” The utmost delicacy may be observed in Cuyp’s manner of defining reflections of objects in water, or of sight from water on ship’s sides. He shows great cleverness in throwing pale-yellow clouds against clear blue skies, and merging yellow mists into olive-green vegetation. He is also very artful in varying light and shade according to distance, either by interchange of cloud-shadow and sun-gleam or by gradation of tints. His horses and cattle are admirably drawn, and they relieve each other quite as well if contrasted in black and white and black and red, or varied in subtler shades of red and brown. Rich weed-growth is expressed by light but marrowy touch, suggestive of detail as well as of general form. The human figure is given with homely realism in most cases, but frequently with a charming elevation, when, as often occurs, the persons represented are meant to be portraits. Whatever the theme may be it remains impressed with the character and individuality of Cuyp. Familiar subjects of the master’s earlier period are stables with cattle and horses (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Petersburg and Brussels museums). Occasionally he painted portraits in the bust form familiar to his father, one of which is dated 1649, and exhibited in the National Gallery, London. More frequently he produced likenesses of ladies and gentlemen on horseback, in which the life and dress of the period and the forms of horses are most vividly represented (Buckingham Palace, Bridgewater Gallery, Louvre and Dresden Museum). Later on we find him fondest of expansive scenery with meadows and cattle and flocks, or rivers and barges in the foreground and distances showing the towers and steeples of Dordrecht. Cuyp was more partial to summer than to winter, to noon than to night, to calm than to storm. But some of his best groups are occasionally relieved on dark and gusty cloud (Louvre and Robarts’s collection). A few capital pieces show us people sledging and skating or netting ice-holes (Yarborough, Neeld and Bedford collections). A lovely “Night on the Banks of a River,” in the Grosvenor collection, reminds us that Cuyp’s friend and contemporary was the painter of moonlights, Aart van der Neer, to whom he was equal in the production of these peculiar effects and superior in the throw of figures. Sometimes Cuyp composed fancy subjects. His “Orpheus charming the Beasts,” in the Bute collection, is judiciously arranged with the familiar domestic animals in the foreground, and the wild ones, to which he is a comparative stranger, thrown back into the distance. One of his rare gospel subjects is “Philip baptizing the Eunuch” (Marchmont House, Berwickshire), described as a fine work by Waagen. The best and most attractive of Cuyp’s pieces are his Meuse and Rhine landscapes, with meadows, cattle, flocks and horsemen, and occasionally with boats and barges. In these he brought together and displayed—during his middle and final period—all the skill of one who is at once a poet and a finished artist; grouping, tinting, touch, harmony of light and shade, and true chords of colours are all combined. Masterpieces of acknowledged beauty are the “Riders with the Boy and Herdsman” in the National Gallery; the Meuse, with Dordrecht in the distance, in three or four varieties, in the Bridgewater, Grosvenor, Holford and Brownlow collections; the “Huntsman” (Ashburton); “Herdsmen with Cattle,” belonging to the marquess of Bute; and the “Piper with Cows,” in the Louvre. The prices paid for Cuyp’s pictures in his own time were comparatively low. In 1750, 30 florins was considered to be the highest sum to which any one of his panels was entitled. But in more recent times the value of the pictures has naturally risen very largely. At the sale of the Clewer collection at Christie’s in 1876 a small “Hilly Landscape in Morning Light” was sold for £5040, and a view on the Rhine, with cows on a bank, for £3150.
(J. A. C.)
John Smith’s Catalogue raisonné of the Dutch and Flemish painters, in 9 vols. (1840), enumerated 335 of Albert Cuyp’s works, of which in 1877 Sir J. A. Crowe wrote in this encyclopaedia that “it would be difficult now to find more than a third of them.” In C. Hofstede de Groot’s Catalogue raisonné, vol. ii. (1909), revising Smith’s, the number is extended to nearly 850, but he accepts too readily the attributions of sale catalogues; the work is, however, the best modern authority on the painter.
CUZA (or Couza), ALEXANDER JOHN [Alexandru Joan] (1820-1873), first prince of Rumania, was born on the 20th of March 1820, at Galatz in Moldavia, and belonged to an ancient boiar, or noble, family. He was educated at Jassy, Pavia, Bologna and Athens; and, after a brief period of military service, visited Paris from 1837 to 1840 for a further course of study. In 1845 he married the daughter of another boiar, Elena Rosetti, who in 1862 founded the Princess Elena refuge for orphans, at Bucharest. Cuza was imprisoned by the Russian authorities for taking part in the Rumanian revolution of 1848, but escaped to Vienna. On his return, in 1850, he was appointed prefect of Galatz. In 1857 he rejoined the army, and within a few months rose to the rank of colonel. He became minister of war in 1858, and represented Galatz in the Assembly which was elected in the same year to nominate a prince for Moldavia. Cuza was a prominent speaker in the critical debates which ensued when the assembly met at Jassy, and strongly advocated the union of the two Danubian principalities, Moldavia and Walachia. In default of a foreign prince, he was himself elected prince of Moldavia by the assembly at Jassy (17th Jan. 1859), and prince of Walachia by the assembly at Bucharest (5th Feb.). He thus became ruler of the united principalities, with the title Prince Alexander John I.; but as this union was forbidden by the congress of Paris (18th Oct. 1858), his authority was not recognized by his suzerain, the sultan of Turkey, until the 23rd of December 1861, when the union of the principalities under the name of Rumania was formally proclaimed. For a full account of Cuza’s reign see Rumania. The personal vices of the prince, and the drastic and unconstitutional reforms which he imposed on all classes, alienated his subjects, although many of these reforms proved to be of lasting excellence. Financial distress supervened, and the popular discontent culminated in revolution. At four o’clock on the morning of the 22nd of February 1866, a band of military conspirators broke into the palace, and compelled the prince to sign his abdication. On the following day they conducted him safely across the frontier. Prince Alexander spent the remainder of his life chiefly in Paris, Vienna and Wiesbaden. He died at Heidelberg on the 15th of May 1873.
CUZCO, an inland city of southern Peru, capital of an Andean department of the same name, about 360 m. E.S.E. of Lima, in lat. 13° 31′ S., long. 73° 03′ W. The population, largely composed of Indians and mestizos, was estimated at 30,000 in 1896, but according to the official estimate of 1906, it was then about 25% less. The city stands at the head of a small valley, 11,380 ft. above sea-level, and is nearly enclosed by mountains of considerable elevation. The valley itself is 9 m. in length and extends S.E. to the valley of Vilcamayu. Overlooking the city from the N. is the famous hill of Sacsahuaman, crowned by ruins of the cyclopean fortress of the Incas and their predecessors, and separated from adjacent heights by the deep ravines of two streams, called the Huatenay and Rodadero. The principal part of the city lies between these two streams, with its great plaza in the centre. On the W. side of the Huatenay are two more fine squares, called the Cabildo and San Francisco. The houses of the city are built of stone, their walls commonly showing the massive masonry of the Incas at the bottom, crowned with a light modern superstructure roofed with red tiles. The streets cross each other at right angles and afford fine vistas on every side. The principal public buildings are the cathedral, which is classed among the best in South America, the convent of San Domingo, which partly occupies the site of the great Temple of the Sun of the Incas, the cabildo or government-house, a university founded in 1598, a college of science and arts, a public library, hospital, mint and museum of Incarial antiquities. Cuzco was made the see of a bishopric soon after it was occupied by the Spaniards. The Church has always exercised a dominating influence in this region, and the city has many churches and religious establishments. There are a number of small manufacturing industries in Cuzco, including the manufacture of cotton and woollen fabrics, leather, beer, embroidery and articles of gold and silver. Its trade is not large, however, owing to the costs of transportation. The climate is cool and bracing, and the products of the vicinity include many of the temperate zone. A railway from Juliaca (a station on the line from Mollendo to Puno) to Cuzco was virtually completed early in 1908. This railway gives Cuzco an outlet to the coast, and also direct connexion with La Paz, the Bolivian capital. A branch of the Callao & Oroya railway is also projected southward to Cuzco, and reached Huancayo in 1908. Cuzco was the capital of a remarkable empire ruled by the Incas previous to the discovery of Peru, and it was one of the largest and most civilized of the native cities of the New World. It was captured by Pizarro in 1533, and it is said that its size and the magnificence of its principal edifices filled the Spaniards with surprise. It was for many years an object of contention among the Spanish factions, but ultimately the greater attractions of Lima and its own isolation diminished its importance.
The department of Cuzco is the second largest in Peru, having an area of 156,317 sq. m., and a population, according to a reduced official estimate of 1906, of only 328,980. It occupies an extremely mountainous region on the frontier of Bolivia, E. of the departments of Junin, Ayacucho and Apurimac, and extends from Loreto on the N. to Puno and Arequipa on the S. Its area, however, includes a large district E. of the Andes which is claimed by Bolivia, and the settlement of the dispute may materially diminish its size. The elevation of a large part of the department gives it a temperate climate and permits the cultivation of cereals and other products of the temperate zone. Cattle and sheep are produced in large numbers in some of the provinces, while in others mining forms the chief industry. On the eastern forested slopes and in the lower valleys tropical conditions prevail. The population is chiefly composed of Indians who form a sturdy, docile labouring class, but are in great part strongly disinclined to accept the civilization of the dominant white race.
CYANAMIDE, NC·NH2, the amide of normal cyanic acid, obtained by the action of ammonia on cyanogen chloride, bromide or iodide, or by the desulphurization of thio-urea with mercuric oxide; it is generally prepared by the latter process. It forms white crystals, which melt at 40° C., and are readily soluble in water, alcohol and ether. Heated above its melting point it polymerizes to di-cyandiamide (CN2H2)2, which at 150° C. is transformed into the polymer n-tri-cyantriamide or melamine (CN2H2)3, the mass solidifying. Nascent hydrogen reduces cyanamide to ammonia and methylamine. It gives mono-metallic salts of the type NC·NHM when treated with aqueous or alcoholic solutions of alkalis. Di-metallic salts are obtained by heating cyanates alone, e.g. calcium, or cyanides in a current of nitrogen, e.g. barium.