Reared in an environment dominated by the great personalities of French Romantic painting, he witnessed the triumph of Impressionist theories. Yet his art acquires meaning precisely because, together with that of Gustave Moreau, it may also appear—and in fact did appear—as a solemn protest against Impressionism.
His paintings in the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, the Sorbonne, the Panthéon, as well as his canvases in the museums of Amiens, Lyons, Rouen, and Marseilles, reveal his resolve to reaffirm the primacy of drawing over color. This is evident in compositions executed with juxtaposed brushstrokes, sometimes of dazzling luminosity, which clearly show the influence of Piero della Francesca, whom he considered the greatest Italian artist of the Renaissance.
The qualities of P. de C. are essentially those of a great decorative painter. He infused his images with an idyllic sense of peace and an unmistakable nobility of pose and gesture, arranging them in simple harmony within the spaces allotted to pictorial decoration in architecture. This is especially evident in his paintings in the Paris Panthéon depicting the Stories of St. Elizabeth, which he completed between 1876 and 1898.
EPILOGUE
ADDIS. - A Jewish liturgical prayer in Aramaic. The “Sanctification” of the Name of God, whose essential formula (“May His Holy Name be blessed for ever and ever”) derives from Dan. 2:20 and Ps. 113:2. The first to mention this important eulogy was José ben Hala-phitá (c. A.D. 150). Originally the q. was recited in view of its messianic content at the end of haggadic lessons (v. AGGADA). The sanctification of the Name and the coming of the Kingdom are invoked. The connection with Ezek. 36–38 (especially 38:23) is evident. The affinity with the Pater noster (Matt. 6:9–10) has often been noted.
The q. was composed in Palestine and spread widely among Babylonian Jews. During the 6th century A.D. (Sáphériim tractate), the q. already appears as a liturgical text and was originally recited after the Pentateuchal pericope; over time it came to be said at the end of the entire public prayer, and also at the end of its individual parts. Later, mourners began to recite the q. after the death of a relative. The important prayer cycle Mah-zôr Vitry does not at all know the custom of having orphans recite the q. during the year of mourning. It is only Jisjáq (O'zara?) ben Môséh of Vienna who speaks (1220) of such a usage that arose in Bohemia. The dominant note of the q. is the coming of the Kingdom “in the life of our community,” as is evident from fragments found in the Cairo genizah “during the lifetime of our exilarch N.N.” The Jewish communities of Yemen inserted the name of Maimonides (v.).