The life of Gerhardt has been written by Roth (1829), by Langbecker (1841), by Schultz (1842), by Wildenhahn (1845) and by Bachmann (1863); also by Kraft in Ersch u. Gruber’s Allg. Encycl. (1855). The best modern edition of the hymns, published by Wackernagel in 1843, has often been reprinted. There is an English translation by Kelly (Paul Gerhardt’s Spiritual Songs, 1867).
GÉRICAULT, JEAN LOUIS ANDRÉ THÉODORE (1791-1824), French painter, the leader of the French realistic school, was born at Rouen in 1791. In 1808 he entered the studio of Charles Vernet, from which, in 1810, he passed to that of Guérin, whom he drove to despair by his passion for Rubens, and by the unorthodox manner in which he persisted in interpreting nature. At the Salon of 1812 Géricault attracted attention by his “Officier de Chasseurs à Cheval” (Louvre), a work in which he personified the cavalry in its hour of triumph, and turned to account the solid training received from Guérin in rendering a picturesque point of view which was in itself a protest against the cherished convictions of the pseudo-classical school. Two years later (1814) he re-exhibited this work accompanied with the reverse picture “Cuirassier blessé” (Louvre), and in both subjects called attention to the interest of contemporary aspects of life, treated neglected types of living form, and exhibited that mastery of and delight in the horse which was a feature of his character. Disconcerted by the tempest of contradictory opinion which arose over these two pictures, Géricault gave way to his enthusiasm for horses and soldiers, and enrolled himself in the mousquetaires. During the Hundred Days he followed the king to Bethune, but, on his regiment being disbanded, eagerly returned to his profession, left France for Italy in 1816, and at Rome nobly illustrated his favourite animal by his great painting “Course des Chevaux Libres.” Returning to Paris, Géricault exhibited at the Salon of 1819 the “Radeau de la Méduse” (Louvre), a subject which not only enabled him to prove his zealous and scientific study of the human form, but contained those elements of the heroic and pathetic, as existing in situations of modern life, to which he had appealed in his earliest productions. Easily depressed or elated, Géricault took to heart the hostility which this work excited, and passed nearly two years in London, where the “Radeau” was exhibited with success, and where he executed many series of admirable lithographs now rare. At the close of 1822 he was again in Paris, and produced a great quantity of projects for vast compositions, models in wax, and a horse écorché, as preliminary to the production of an equestrian statue. His health was now completely undermined by various kinds of excess, and on the 26th of January 1824 he died, at the age of thirty-three.
Géricault’s biography, accompanied by a catalogue raisonné of his works, was published by M.C. Clément in 1868.
GERIZIM, a mountain in the hill-country of Samaria, 2849 ft. above the sea-level, and enclosing, with its companion Ebal, the valley in which lies the town of Nāblus (Shechem). It is the holy place of the community of the Samaritans, who hold that it was the scene of the sacrifice of Isaac—a tradition accepted by Dean Stanley but no other western writers of importance. Here, on the formal entrance of the Israelites into the possession of the Promised Land, were pronounced the blessings connected with a faithful observance of the law (Josh. viii. 33, 34; cf. Deut. xi. 29, 30, xxvii. 12-26), the six tribes, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin, standing here for the purpose while the remaining tribes stood on Ebal to accept the curses attached to specific violations thereof. Gerizim was probably chosen as the mount of blessing as being on the right hand, the fortunate side, of a spectator facing east. The counter-suggestion of Eusebius and Jerome that the Ebal and Gerizim associated with this solemnity were not the Shechem mountains at all, but two small hills near Jericho, is no longer considered important. From this mountain Jotham spoke his parable to the elders of Shechem (Judg. ix. 7). Manasseh, the son of the Jewish high-priest in the days of Nehemiah, married the daughter of Sanballat and, about 432 B.C., erected on this mountain a temple for the Samaritans; it was destroyed by Hyrcanus about 300 years afterwards. Its site is a small level plateau a little under the summit of the mountain. Close to this is the place where the Passover is still annually celebrated in exact accordance with the rites prescribed in the Pentateuch. On the summit of the mountain, which commands a view embracing the greater part of Palestine, are a small Moslem shrine and the ruins of a castle probably dating from Justinian’s time. There was an octagonal Byzantine church here, but the foundations alone remain. Josephus describes it as the highest of the mountains of Samaria, but Ebal and Tell Azur are both higher.
(R. A. S. M.)
GERLACHE, ÉTIENNE CONSTANTIN, Baron de (1785-1871), Belgian politician and historian, was born at Biourge, Luxemburg, on the 24th of December 1785. He studied law in Paris and practised there for some time, but settled at Liege after the establishment of the kingdom of the Netherlands. As member of the states-general he was an energetic member of the opposition, and, though he repudiated an ultramontane policy, he supported the alliance of the extreme Catholics with the Liberal party, which paved the way for the revolution of 1830. On the outbreak of disturbance in August 1830 he still, however, thought the Orange-Nassau dynasty and the union with the Dutch states essential; but his views changed, and, after holding various offices in the provisional government, he became president of congress, and brought forward the motion inviting Leopold of Saxe-Coburg to become king of the Belgians. In 1832 he was president of the chamber of representatives, and for thirty-five years he presided over the court of appeal. He presided over the Catholic congresses held at Malines between 1863 and 1867. That his early Liberal views underwent some modification is plain from the Conservative principles enunciated in his Essai sur le mouvement des partis en Belgique (Brussels, 1852). As an historian his work was strongly coloured by his anti-Dutch prejudices and his Catholic predilections. His Histoire des Pays-Bas depuis 1814 jusqu’en 1830 (Brussels, 2 vols., 1839), which reached a fourth edition in 1875, was a piece of special pleading against the Dutch domination. The most important of his other works were his Histoire de Liége (Brussels, 1843) and his Études sur Salluste et sur quelques-uns des principaux historiens de l’antiquité (Brussels, 1847).