text word for word, and for the most part accurately and exactly, and is by much the best of all this sort. It has therefore always been held in esteem among the Jews, much above all the other Targums; and, being set to the same musical notes with the Hebrew text, it is thereby made capable of being read in the same tone with it in their public assemblies. That it was accordingly there read alternately with the text (one verse of which being read first in the Hebrew, the same was read afterwards in the Chaldee interpretation) we are told by Levita; who, of all the Jews that have handled this argument, has written the most accurately and fully. He says, that the Jews, holding themselves obliged every week, in their synagogues, to read that parashah or section of the law which was the lesson of the week, made use of the "Targum" of Onkelos for this purpose; and that this was their usage even down to his time, which was about the first part of the 16th century. And for this reason; that though, till the art of printing was invented, there were of the other Targums scarce above one or two of a sort to be found in a whole country, yet then the "Targum" of Onkelos was every where among them.

From the excellence and accuracy of Onkelos's "Targum," Prideaux also concludes him to have been a native Jew; since, without being bred up from his birth in the Jewish religion and learning, and long exercised in all the rites and doctrines thereof, and also thoroughly skilled in both the Hebrew and Chaldee languages, as far as a native Jew could be, he can scarce be thought thoroughly adequate to that work which he performed; and that the representing him as a proselyte seems to have proceeded from the error of taking him to have been the same with Akilas, or Aquila, of Pontus, author of the Greek "Targum," or version on the prophets and Hagiographia, who was indeed a Jewish proselyte. The first Latin version of the Targum of Onkelos was by Zamora, and published in the Complutensian Polyglot, whence it was copied into others, and is in Walton's.'

ONOSANDER, a Greek author, and a Platonic philosopher, wrote commentaries upon Plato's "Politics," which are lost; but his name is still known by his treatise entitled "Stratageticus," on the duty and virtues of the

'Prideaux' Connections.-Wolfii Bibl. Heb.-Chaufepie.

general of an army, which has been translated into Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish. The first edition in Greek was published, with a Latin translation, by Nicolas Rigault, at Paris, 1599, 4to; but the reprint of this in 1600, 4to, with the notes of Æmilius Portus, is preferred. There is also a good edition by Schwebelius, Nuremberg, 1762, fol. The time when our author flourished is not precisely fixed, only it is certain that he lived under the Roman emperors. His book may determine the point, if Q. Veranius, to whom it is dedicated, be the same person of that name who is mentioned by Tacitus, who lived under the emperors Claudius and Nero, and died in the reign of the latter, being then Legatus Britanniæ: but this is not certain. 1

ONUPHRIUS. See PANVINIUS.

OPIE (JOHN), a very excellent artist and professor of painting in the Royal Academy, was born in May 1761, at St. Agnes in Cornwall, a village about seven miles distant from the town of Truro. In his earliest years he was remarkable for the strength of his understanding, and the rapidity with which he acquired all the learning that a village-school could afford him. When ten years old, he was not only able to solve several difficult problems in Euclid, but was thought capable of instructing others: and when he had scarcely reached his twelfth year, he established an evening school at St. Agues, and taught writing and arithmetic. His father, a carpenter, was desirous to bring him up in his own business; but this was by no means suitable to one whose mind had attained some glimpses of science, and still more of art. He was formed a painter by nature; and had not this been the case, he would probably have excelled in some branch of science or literature with much comprehension and acuteness, his thirst of information was insatiable, and his ambition to excel, unbounded. But painting was his destination, and after many early and rude efforts, he had hung his father's house with portraits of his family and friends in an improved style, when he became acquainted with Dr. John Wolcot, then residing at Truro, and since so well known by the name of Peter Pindar: who, having himself a taste for drawing, and a strong perception of character, saw the worth of our artist, and was well qualified to afford him instruction in many requisite points. He also recommended

1 Fabric. Bibl. Græca.-Saxii Onomast.

him so effectually that he commenced professed portraitpainter, and went about to the neighbouring towns with letters of introduction to the principal families resident in them, and henceforward entirely supported himself by his own exertions.

But his

At length, in 1781, he came to London, still under the auspicies of Dr. Wolcot, whose powerful pen was not silent in his cause; and his works becoming the theme of fashionable conversation, he was soon employed to paint the portraits of persons of the highest distinction, who were caught by the novelty, and struck with the force of his representations. His talent, however, being more solid than showy, was not calculated to insure him long that exclusive favour which his outset had promised: without taste for elegance and fashionable airs, he could not often. please the women; and the men, whom he could not supply with dignity or importance, soon became indifferent to one whom the women did no longer protect. Opie remained the painter of those only who sought characteristic resemblance, stern truth, and solidity of method. parts were not limited by portrait; he had long and often with felicity represented the incidents of rustic and common life, in picturesque groups; and the plans of historic painting, contrived by commerce at that period, called forth what was latent in him of historic power; the specimens which he had given in the Royal Exhibition were succeeded by a numerous series of religious and dramatic subjects, painted for the Boydell and Macklin galleries. By the establishment of the former, in 1786, Opie was first fully made known to the public, and the latent powers of his mind were called forth. For this gallery he painted five large pictures, of which the finest was from the Winter's Tale; Leontes administering the oath to Antigonus to take charge of the child. But he produced, about the same time, a work of far more excellent quality in effect and colour, viz. the assassination of James I. of Scotland, now in the Common Council room at Guildhall, a work which, for hué and colour, challenges competition with the best, and is wrought with the greatest boldness and force.

Of Opie's style, the more engaging characteristics are breadth, simplicity, and force; its defects are want of grace and variety of invention; and of elegance and refinement in expression and execution. The objects of his

choice were among the striking and terrible, rather than the agreeable and beautiful; and the materials he introduced were more accordant to his ideas of the picturesque than the proper. He frequently violated costume, not for want of knowledge, so much as from an insatiable desire of contrast; and sometimes from conveniency. His taste lay in the representation of natural objects with strong effect: he therefore made use of armour, or of draperies which he had in his study, and, like Rembrandt, adopted them as his antiques, and used them according as he felt they would best promote his immediate end. These defects are redeemed, to the well-informed eye, by the absolute truth of imitation in which they are wrought, by the expression of his heads, particularly of old men, or of strongly-marked characters, which are exceedingly impressive, by the energetic actions of his principal figures, by the broad and daring execution of his pencil, and by the magic force of his chiaro-scuro. In the latter point no artist ever excelled him. His figures project from the canvas in some of his best works; and if seen under favourable circumstances, would be absolutely illusive *.

* This character of Opie's paintings, we take from his biographer in the Cyclopædia. Mr. Fuseli's opinion, in his last edition of Pilkington's Dictionary, seems not less worthy of attention. Breadth, simplicity, and solidity of method, distinguish the style of Opie; but his breadth often degenerated to sheety emptiness, especially in drapery; rusticity oftener than naiveté attends his simplicity, and the solidity of his method is not seldom allied to coarseness. Not learned in design, reduced to what correctness he could discover in his model, he soon became a mannerist in forms; and to avoid being minute or meagre, often involved parts and outline in a doughy mass. Nature had endowed him with an exquisite eye for colour; the Tizianesque tone that distinguished his murder of James I. remains unrivalled among the productions of his contemporaries, and was not, perhaps, equalled by any of his subsequent performances; for the dictates of practice are seldom those of nature. His invention is less inspired by the most important moment of the subject than what appeared to him the most picturesque, and the likeliest to display contrasts of chiaro

scuro, in which he sometimes equals Caravaggio, and, like him too, frequently depends for expression and character on the versatility of features or feelings of one model. As the same face supplied the Italian with the features of S. John and of the executioner, of a pilgrim and a robber, so in the scenes of Opie, the assassin of James only throws off his plaid to assume the cowl of Friar Lawrence, or the fringe and scarlet of Wolsey. The same monotony marks their women: their Madonnas, Magdalens, flower-girls, Judiths, Juliets, and Hobnelias, generally resemble each other too closely, even for sisters. As the tide of historic commissions passed, his conception sunk again to those scenes of common life that had first attracted it; but, mot made to dandle a kid, he painted in large historic proportions, misses eloping, beggars, fortune-tellers, cottagevisits, and what commonly recommends itself to the cabinet or parlour by smallness of size and elaborate finish; an incongruity which it has since been found easier to adopt, than to imitate the master-traits and the felicity of execution, by which, like Murillo, he often redeemed a colossal trifle."

When the tide of historic commissions subsided, Opie employed himself in representing scenes of common life, as well as in portraits. Cottage visits, an old soldier at an ale-house door, fortune-tellers, and that class of materials which the Dutch and Flemish masters have recommended by high finish and convenient neatness of size, he painted upon a large scale. The reputation so justly due to his talents had now become steadily attached to him, and he had no longer to complain of the unfeeling caprice of fashion, for he enjoyed an uninterrupted source of employment, in portraiture at least, till his death, and generally disposed of the fancy pictures with which he chose to intersperse his labours. These were very numerous, for he was exceedingly industrious, and his principal delight was in the practice of his profession.

Opie having been admitted an associate of the Royal Academy in 1786, and an academician in the year following, upon the dismissal of Mr. Barry from the body, aspired to the honour of being professor of painting, but resigned his pretensions in favour of Mr. Fuseli, who was chosen. When that gentleman was appointed to the station of keeper in 1805, he again advanced his claim, and was unanimously received. He had previously tried his power in literary composition, with no slight degree of success; first in the life of sir J. Reynolds, in Dr. Wolcot's edition of Pilkington's dictionary, and again in the publication of a plan for the formation of a national gallery, "tending at once to exalt the arts of his country and immortalize its glories." He afterwards, in 1804, read two lectures on painting at the Royal Institution, which were fraught with instructions, and were received with applause; though it has been observed by a judicious critic, that the style in which they were composed was "abrupt, crowded, and frequently unmethodical; rather rushing forward himself, than leading his auditors to the subject." Nevertheless, his exertions on this occasion drew upon him respect, the more, perhaps, as he was not generally known to be a man fond of literature; and the world were the more surprised to hear refined sentiments in easy and even elegant language, from one who was not unfrequently represented as coarse and vulgar in mind and manner. In fact, Opie by no means merited such an unfavourable report; he was plain and unaffected, and spoke his mind freely; was manly and energetic, yielding little to folly or caprice,