KALCKREUTH, LEOPOLD, Count von (1855- ), German painter, a direct descendant of the famous field-marshal (see above), was born at Düsseldorf, received his first training at Weimar from his father, the landscape painter Count Stanislaus von Kalckreuth (1820-1894), and subsequently studied at the academies of Weimar and Munich. Although he painted some portraits remarkable for their power of expression, he devoted himself principally to depicting with relentless realism the monotonous life of the fishing folk on the sea-coast, and of the peasants in the fields. His palette is joyless, and almost melancholy, and in his technique he is strongly influenced by the impressionists. He was one of the founders of the secessionist movement. From 1885 to 1890 Count von Kalckreuth was professor at the Weimar art school. In 1890 he resigned his professorship and retired to his estate of Höckricht in Silesia, where he occupied himself in painting subjects drawn from the life of the country-folk. In 1895 he became a professor at the art school at Karlsruhe. The Munich Pinakothek has his “Rainbow” and the Dresden Gallery his “Old Age.” Among his chief works are the “Funeral at Dachau,” “Homewards,” “Wedding Procession in the Carpathian Mountains,” “The Gleaners,” “Old Age,” “Before the Fish Auction,” “Summer,” and “Going to School.”
See A. Ph. W. v. Kalckreuth, Gesch. der Herren, Freiherren und Grafen von Kalckreuth (Potsdam, 1904).
KALEIDOSCOPE (from Gr. καλός, beautiful, εἶδος, form, and σκοπεῖν, to view). The article [Reflection] explains the symmetrical arrangement of images formed by two mirrors inclined at an angle which is a sub-multiple of four right angles. This is the principle of the kaleidoscope, an optical toy which received its present form at the hands of Sir David Brewster about the year 1815, and which at once became exceedingly popular owing to the beauty and variety of the images and the sudden and unexpected changes from one graceful form to another. A hundred years earlier R. Bradley had employed a similar arrangement which seems to have passed into oblivion (New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, 1710). The instrument has been extensively used by designers. In its simplest form it consists of a tube about twelve inches long containing two glass plates, extending along its whole length and inclined at an angle of 60°. The eye-end of the tube is closed by a metal plate having a small hole at its centre near the intersection of the glass plates. The other end is closed by a plate of muffed glass at the distance of distinct vision, and parallel to this is fixed a plate of clear glass. In the intervening space (the object-box) are contained a number of fragments of brilliantly coloured glass, and as the tube is turned round its axis these fragments alter their positions and give rise to the various patterns. A third reflecting plate is sometimes employed, the cross-section of the three forming an equilateral triangle. Sir David Brewster modified his apparatus by moving the object-box and closing the end of the tube by a lens of short focus which forms images of distant objects at the distance of distinct vision. These images take the place of the coloured fragments of glass, and they are symmetrically multiplied by the mirrors. In the polyangular kaleidoscope the angle between the mirrors can be altered at pleasure. Such instruments are occasionally found in old collections of philosophical apparatus and they have been used in order to explain to students the formation of multiple images.
(C. J. J.)
KALERGIS, DIMITRI (Demetrios) (1803-1867), Greek statesman, was a Cretan by birth, studied medicine at Paris and on the outbreak of the War of Greek Independence went to the Morea and joined the insurgents. He fought under Karaiskakis, was taken prisoner by the Turks before Athens and mulcted of an ear; later he acted as aide de camp to the French philhellene Colonel Fabvier and to Count Capo d’Istria, president of Greece. In 1832 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. In 1843, as commander of a cavalry division, he was the prime mover in the insurrection which forced King Otto to dismiss his Bavarian ministers. He was appointed military commandant of Athens and aide de camp to the king, but after the fall of the Mavrocordato ministry in 1845 was forced to go into exile, and spent several years in London, where he became an intimate of Prince Louis Napoleon. In 1848 he made an abortive descent on the Greek coast, in the hope of revolutionizing the kingdom. He was captured, but soon released and, after a stay in the island of Zante, went to Paris (1853). At the instance of the Western Powers he was recalled on the outbreak of the Crimean War and appointed minister of war in the reconstituted Mavrocordato cabinet (1854). He was, however, disliked by King Otto and his consort, and in October 1855 was forced to resign. In 1861 he was appointed minister plenipotentiary in Paris, in which capacity he took an important part in the negotiations which followed the fall of the Bavarian dynasty and led to the accession of Prince George of Denmark to the Greek throne.
KALEWALA, or Kalevala, the name of the Finnish national epos. It takes its name from the three sons of Kalewa (or Finland), viz. the ancient Wäinämöinen, the inventor of the sacred harp Kantele; the cunning art-smith, Ilmarinen; and the gallant Lemminkäinen, who is a sort of Arctic Don Juan. The adventures of these three heroes are wound about a plot for securing in marriage the hand of the daughter of Louhi, a hero from Pohjola, a land of the cold north. Ilmarinen is set to construct a magic mill, the Sanpo, which grinds out meal, salt and gold, and as this has fallen into the hands of the folk of Pohjola, it is needful to recover it. The poem actually opens, however, with a very poetical theory of the origin of the world. The virgin daughter of the atmosphere, Luonnotar, wanders for seven hundred years in space, until she bethinks her to invoke Ukko, the northern Zeus, who sends his eagle to her; this bird makes its nest on the knees of Luonnotar and lays in it seven eggs. Oat of the substance of these eggs the visible world is made. But it is empty and sterile until Wäinämöinen descends upon it and woos the exquisite Aino. She disappears into space, and it is to recover from his loss and to find another bride that Wäinämöinen makes his series of epical adventures in the dismal country of Pohjola. Various episodes of great strangeness and beauty accompany the lengthy recital of the struggle to acquire the magical Sanpo, which gives prosperity to whoever possesses it. In the midst of a battle the Sanpo is broken and falls into the sea, but one fragment floats on the waves, and, being stranded on the shores of Finland, secures eternal felicity for that country. At the very close of the poem a virgin, Mariatta, brings forth a king who drives Wäinämöinen out of the country, and this is understood to refer to the ultimate conquest of Paganism by Christianity.
The Kalewala was probably composed at various times and by various bards, but always in sympathy with the latent traditions of the Finnish race, and with a mixture of symbolism and realism exactly accordant with the instincts of that race. While in the other antique epics of the world bloodshed takes a predominant place, the Kalewala is characteristically gentle, lyrical and even domestic, dwelling at great length on situations of moral beauty and romantic pathos. It is entirely concerned with the folk-lore and the traditions of the primeval Finnish race. The poem is written in eight-syllabled trochaic verse, and an idea of its style may be obtained from Longfellow’s Hiawatha, which is a pretty true imitation of the Finnish epic.