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<mask> ( ; 11 January 347 –  17 January 395), also called <mask> the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two civil wars, and was instrumental in establishing the creed of Nicaea as the orthodoxy for Christianity. <mask> was the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire before its administration was permanently split between two separate courts (one western, the other eastern). Born in Hispania, Theodosius was the son of a high-ranking general under whose guidance he rose through the ranks of the Roman Army. Theodosius held independent command in Moesia in 374, where he had some success against the invading Sarmatians. Not long afterwards, he was forced into retirement, and his father was executed under obscure circumstances. Theodosius soon regained his position following a series of intrigues and executions at the emperor Gratian's court.In 379, after the eastern Roman emperor Valens perished at the Battle of Adrianople against the Goths, Gratian appointed <mask> as a successor with orders to take charge of the current military emergency. The new emperor's resources, and depleted armies, were not sufficient to drive the invaders out; in 382 the Goths were allowed to settle south of the Danube as autonomous allies of the Empire. In 386, <mask> signed a treaty with the Sasanian Empire which partitioned the long-disputed Kingdom of Armenia and secured a durable peace between the two powers. <mask> was a strong adherent of the Christian doctrine of consubstantiality and an opponent of Arianism. He convened a council of bishops at Constantinople in 381 which confirmed the former as orthodoxy and the latter as a heresy. Although Theodosius interfered little in the functioning of traditional pagan cults and appointed non-Christians to high offices, he failed to prevent or punish the damaging of several Hellenistic temples of classical antiquity, such as the Serapeum of Alexandria, by Christian zealots. During his earlier reign, Theodosius ruled the eastern provinces, while the west was overseen by the emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, whose sister he married.Theodosius sponsored several measures to improve his capital and main residence, Constantinople, most notably his expansion of the Forum Tauri, which became the biggest public square known in antiquity. <mask> marched west twice, in 388 and 394, after both Gratian and Valentinian had been killed, to defeat the two pretenders, Magnus Maximus and Eugenius, that rose to replace them. <mask>'s final victory in September 394 made him master of the Empire; he died a few months later and was succeeded by his two sons, Arcadius in the eastern half of the empire and Honorius in the west. <mask> was said to have been a diligent administrator, austere in his habits, merciful, and a devout Christian. For centuries after his death, Theodosius was regarded as a champion of Christian orthodoxy who decisively stamped out paganism. Modern scholars tend to see this as an interpretation of history by Christian writers more than an accurate representation of actual history. He is fairly credited with presiding over a revival in classical art that some historians have termed a "Theodosian renaissance".Although his pacification of the Goths secured peace for the Empire during his lifetime, their status as an autonomous entity within Roman borders caused problems for succeeding emperors. Theodosius has also received criticism for defending his own dynastic interests at the cost of two civil wars. His two sons proved weak and incapable rulers, and they presided over a period of foreign invasions and court intrigues which heavily weakened the Empire. The descendants of Theodosius ruled the Roman world for the next six decades, and the east–west division endured until the fall of the Western Empire in the late 5th century. Background
Flavius <mask> was born in Hispania on 11 January, probably in the year 347. His father, also called <mask>, was a successful and high-ranking general (magister equitum) under the western Roman emperor Valentinian I, and his mother was called Thermantia. The family appear to have been minor landed aristocrats in Hispania, although it is not clear if this social status went back several generations or if <mask> the Elder was simply awarded land there for his military service.Their roots to Hispania were nevertheless probably long-standing, since various relatives of the future emperor <mask> are likewise attested as Spanish, and <mask> himself was ubiquitously associated in the ancient literary sources and panegyrics with the image of fellow Spanish-born emperor Trajan – though he never again visited the peninsula after becoming emperor. Very little is recorded of the upbringing of Theodosius. The 5th-century author Theodoret claimed the future emperor grew up and was educated in his Spanish homeland, but his testimony is unreliable. One modern historian instead thinks Theodosius must have grown up among the army, participating in his father's campaigns throughout the provinces, as was customary at the time for families with a tradition of military service. One source says he received a decent education and developed a particular interest in history, which Theodosius then valued as a guide to his own conduct throughout life. Career

Theodosius is first attested accompanying his father to Britain on his expedition in 368–369 to suppress the "Great Conspiracy", a concerted Celtic and Germanic invasion of the island provinces. After probably serving in his father's staff on further campaigns, Theodosius received his first independent command by 374 when he was appointed the dux (commanding officer) of the province of Moesia Prima in the Danube.In the autumn of 374, he successfully repulsed an incursion of Sarmatians on his sector of the frontier and forced them into submission. Not long afterwards, however, under mysterious circumstances, <mask>'s father suddenly fell from imperial favor and was executed, and the future emperor felt compelled to retire to his estates in Hispania. Although these events are poorly documented, historians usually attribute this fall from grace to the machinations of a court faction led by Maximinus, a senior civilian official. According to another theory, the future emperor <mask> lost his father, his military post, or both, in the purges of high officials that resulted from the accession of the 4-year-old emperor Valentinian II in November 375. <mask>'s period away from service in Hispania, during which he was said to have received threats from those responsible for his father's death, did not last long, however, as Maximinus, the probable culprit, was himself removed from power around April 376 and then executed. The emperor Gratian immediately began replacing Maximinus and his associates with relatives of Theodosius in key government positions, indicating the family's full rehabilitation, and by 377 <mask> himself had regained his command against the Sarmatians. Theodosius's renewed term of office seems to have gone uneventfully, until news arrived that the eastern Roman emperor, Valens, had been killed at the Battle of Adrianople in August 378 against invading Goths.The disastrous defeat left much of Rome's military leadership dead, discredited, or barbarian in origin, to the result that <mask>, notwithstanding his own modest record, became the establishment's choice to replace Valens and assume control of the crisis. With the begrudging consent of the western emperor Gratian, Theodosius was formally invested with the purple by a council of officials at Sirmium on 19 January 379. Reign

War against the Goths (379–382)
The immediate problem facing <mask> upon his accession was how to check the bands of Goths that were laying waste to the Balkans, with an army that had been severely depleted of manpower following the debacle at Adrianople. The western emperor Gratian, who seems to have provided only little immediate assistance, surrendered to Theodosius control of the prefecture of Illyricum for the duration of the conflict, giving his new colleague full charge the war effort. Theodosius implemented stern and desperate recruiting measures, resorting to the conscription of farmers and miners. Punishments were instituted for harboring deserters and furnishing unfit recruits, and even self-mutilation did not exempt men from service. Theodosius also admitted large numbers of non-Roman auxiliaries into the army, even Gothic deserters from beyond the Danube.Some of these foreign recruits were exchanged with more reliable Roman garrison troops stationed in Egypt. Throughout the second half of 379, Theodosius and his generals, based at Thessalonica, won some minor victories over individual bands of raiders, but suffered at least one serious defeat in 380, which was blamed on the treachery of the new barbarian recruits. During the autumn of 380, a life-threatening illness, from which Theodosius recovered, prompted him to request baptism. Some obscure victories were recorded in official sources around this time, however, and, in November 380, the military situation was found to be sufficiently stable for Theodosius to move his court to Constantinople. There, the emperor enjoyed a propaganda victory when, in January 381, he received the visit and submission of a minor Gothic leader, Athanaric. By this point, however, Theodosius seems to have no longer believed that the Goths could be completely ejected from Roman territory. After Athanaric died that very same month, the emperor gave him a funeral with full honors, impressing his entourage and signaling to the enemy that the Empire was disposed to negotiate terms.During the campaigning season of 381, reinforcements from Gratian drove the Goths out of Macedonia and Thessaly into Thrace, while, in the latter sector, <mask> or one of his generals repulsed an incursion by a group of Sciri and Huns across the Danube. Following negotiations which likely lasted at least several months, the Romans and Goths finally concluded a settlement on 3 October 382. In return for military service to Rome, the Goths were allowed to settle some tracts of Roman land south of the Danube. The terms were unusually favorable to the Goths, reflecting the fact that they were entrenched in Roman territory and had not been driven out. Namely, instead of fully submitting to Roman authority, they were allowed to remain autonomous under their own leaders, and thus remaining a strong, unified body. The Goths now settled within the Empire would largely fight for the Romans as a national contingent, as opposed to being fully integrated into the Roman forces. 383–384
According to the Chronicon Paschale, Theodosius celebrated his quinquennalia on 19 January 383 at Constantinople; on this occasion he raised his eldest son Arcadius to co-emperor (augustus).Sometime in 383, Gratian's wife Constantia died. Gratian remarried, wedding Laeta, whose father was a consularis of Roman Syria. Early 383 saw the acclamation of Magnus Maximus as emperor in Britain and the appointment of Themistius as praefectus urbi in Constantinople. On the 25 August 383, according to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Gratian was killed at Lugdunum (Lyon) by Andragathius, the magister equitum of the rebel emperor during the rebellion of Magnus Maximus . Constantia's body arrived in Constantinople on 12 September that year and was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles on 1 December. Gratian was deified as . <mask>, unable to do much about Maximus due to ongoing military inadequacy, opened negotiations with the Persian emperor Shapur <mask> () of the Sasanian Empire.According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Theodosius received in Constantinople an embassy from them in 384. In an attempt to curb Maximus's ambitions, Theodosius appointed Flavius Neoterius as praetorian prefect of Italy. In the summer of 384, Theodosius met his co-emperor Valentinian II in northern Italy. Theodosius brokered a peace agreement between Valentinian and Magnus Maximus which endured for several years. <mask> I was based in Constantinople, and according to Peter Heather, wanted, "for his own dynastic reasons (for his two sons each eventually to inherit half of the empire), refused to appoint a recognized counterpart in the west. As a result he was faced with rumbling discontent there, as well as dangerous usurpers, who found plentiful support among the bureaucrats and military officers who felt they were not getting a fair share of the imperial cake." Middle reign: 384–387
Theodosius's second son Honorius was born on 9 December 384 and titled nobilissimus puer (or nobilissimus iuvenis).The death of Aelia Flaccilla, <mask>'s first wife and the mother of Arcadius, Honorius, and Pulcheria, occurred by 386. She died at Scotumis in Thrace and was buried at Constantinople, her funeral oration delivered by Gregory of Nyssa. A statue of her was dedicated in the Byzantine Senate. In 384 or 385, <mask>'s niece Serena was married to the magister militum, Stilicho. In the beginning of 386, <mask>'s daughter Pulcheria also died. That summer, more Goths were defeated, and many were settled in Phrygia. According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, a Roman triumph over the Gothic Greuthungi was then celebrated at Constantinople.The same year, work began on the great triumphal column in the Forum of Theodosius in Constantinople, the Column of Theodosius. The Consularia Constantinopolitana records that on 19 January 387, Arcadius celebrated his quinquennalia in Constantinople. By the end of the month, there was an uprising or riot in Antioch (modern Antakya). The Roman–Persian Wars concluded with the signing of the Peace of Acilisene with Persia. By the terms of the agreement, the ancient Kingdom of Armenia was divided between the powers. By the end of the 380s, Theodosius and the court were in Milan and northern Italy had settled down to a period of prosperity. Peter Brown says gold was being made in Milan by those who owned land as well as by those who came with the court for government service.Great landowners took advantage of the court's need for food, "turning agrarian produce into gold", while repressing and misusing the poor who grew it and brought it in. According to Brown, modern scholars link the decline of the Roman empire to the avarice of the rich of this era. He quotes Paulinus of Milan as describing these men as creating a court where "everything was up for sale". In the late 380s, Ambrose, the bishop of Milan took the lead in opposing this, presenting the need for the rich to care for the poor as "a necessary consequence of the unity of all Christians". This led to a major development in the political culture of the day called the “advocacy revolution of the later Roman empire". This revolution had been fostered by the imperial government, and it encouraged appeals and denunciations of bad government from below. However, Brown adds that, "in the crucial area of taxation and the treatment of fiscal debtors, the late Roman state [of the 380s and 390s] remained impervious to Christianity".Civil war: 387–388
The peace with Magnus Maximus was broken in 387, and Valentinian escaped to the east with Justina, reaching Thessalonica (Thessaloniki) in summer or autumn 387 and appealing to <mask> for aid; Valentinian II's sister Galla was then married to the eastern emperor at Thessalonica in late autumn. <mask> may still have been in Thessalonica when he celebrated his

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 decennalia on 19 January 388. <mask> was consul for the second time in 388. Galla and <mask>'s first child, a son named Gratian, was born in 388 or 389. In summer 388, <mask> recovered Italy from Magnus Maximus for Valentinian, and in June, the meeting of Christians deemed heretics was banned by Valentinian. The armies of <mask> and Maximus fought at the Battle of Poetovio in 388, which saw Maximus defeated. On 28 August 388 Maximus was executed.Now the de facto ruler of the Western empire as well, <mask> celebrated his victory in Rome on June 13, 389 and stayed in Milan until 391, installing his own loyalists in senior positions including the new magister militum of the West, the Frankish general Arbogast. According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Arbogast killed Flavius Victor (), Magnus Maximus's young son and co-emperor, in Gaul in August/September that year. Damnatio memoriae was pronounced against them, and inscriptions naming them were erased. Massacre and its aftermath: 388–391

The Massacre of Thessalonica (Thessaloniki) in Greece was a massacre of local civilians by Roman troops. The best estimate of the date is April of 390. The massacre was most likely a response to an urban riot that led to the murder of a Roman official. What most scholars, such as philosopher Stanislav Doleźal, see as the most reliable of the sources is the Historia ecclesiastica written by Sozomen about 442; in it Sozomen supplies the identity of the murdered Roman official as Butheric, the commanding general of the field army in Illyricum (magister militum per Illyricum).According to Sozomen, a popular charioteer tried to rape a cup-bearer, (or possibly Butheric himself), and in response, Butheric arrested and jailed the charioteer. The populace demanded the chariot racer's release, and when Butheric refused, a general revolt rose up costing Butheric his life. Doležal says the name "Butheric" indicates he might have been a Goth, and that the general's ethnicity "could have been" a factor in the riot, but none of the early sources actually say so. Sources
There are no contemporaneous accounts. Church historians Sozomen, Theodoret the bishop of Cyrrhus, Socrates of Constantinople and Rufinus wrote the earliest accounts during the fifth century. These are moral accounts emphasizing imperial piety and ecclesial action rather than historical and political details. Further difficulty is created by these events moving into legend in art and literature almost immediately.Doležal explains that yet another problem is created by aspects of these accounts contradicting one another to the point of being mutually exclusive. Nonetheless, most classicists accept at least the basic account of the massacre, although they continue to dispute when it happened, who was responsible for it, what motivated it, and what impact it had on subsequent events. <mask>' role

Theodosius was not in Thessalonica when the massacre occurred. The court was in Milan. Several scholars, such as historian G. W. Bowersock and authors Stephen Williams and Gerard Friell, think that Theodosius ordered the massacre in an excess of "volcanic anger". McLynn also puts all the blame on the Emperor as does the less dependable fifth century historian, Theodoret. Other scholars, such as historians Mark Hebblewhite and N. Q.King, do not agree. Peter Brown, points to the empire's established process of decision making, which required the emperor "to listen to his ministers" before acting. There is some indication in the sources Theodosius did listen to his counselors but received bad or misleading advice. J. F. Matthews argues that the Emperor first tried to punish the city by selective executions. Peter Brown concurs: "As it was, what was probably planned as a selective killing ... got out of hand". Doleźal says Sozomen is very specific in saying that in response to the riot, the soldiers made random arrests in the hippodrome to perform a few public executions as a demonstration of imperial disfavor, but the citizenry objected. Doleźal suggests, "The soldiers, realizing that they were surrounded by angry citizens, perhaps panicked ... and ...forcibly cleared the hippodrome at the cost of several thousands of lives of local inhabitants".McLynn says Theodosius was “unable to impose discipline upon the faraway troops" and covered that failure by taking responsibility for the massacre on himself, declaring he had given the order then countermanded it too late to stop it. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan and one of Theodosius' many counselors, was away from court. After being informed of events concerning Thessalonica, he wrote <mask> a letter offering what McLynn calls a different way for the emperor to "save face" and restore his public image. Ambrose urges a semi-public demonstration of penitence, telling the emperor he  will not give Theodosius communion until this is done. Wolf Liebeschuetz says "Theodosius duly complied and came to church without his imperial robes, until Christmas, when Ambrose openly admitted him to communion". Washburn says the image of the mitered prelate braced in the door of the cathedral in Milan blocking Theodosius from entering is a product of the imagination of Theodoret who wrote of the events of 390 "using his own ideology to fill the gaps in the historical record". Peter Brown also says there was no dramatic encounter at the church door.McLynn states that "the encounter at the church door has long been known as a pious fiction". Wolfe Liebeschuetz says Ambrose advocated a course of action which avoided the kind of public humiliation Theodoret describes, and that is the course Theodosius chose. Aftermath
According to the early twentieth century historian Henry Smith Williams, history's assessment of <mask>' character has been stained by the massacre of Thessalonica for centuries. Williams describes <mask> as a virtuous-minded, courageous man, who was vigorous in pursuit of any important goal, but through contrasting the "inhuman massacre of the people of Thessalonica" with "the generous pardon of the citizens of Antioch" after civil war, Williams also concludes Theodosius was "hasty and choleric". It is only modern scholarship that has begun disputing Theodosius' responsibility for those events. From the time Edward Gibbon wrote his Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Ambrose' action after the fact has been cited as an example of the church's dominance over the state in Antiquity. Alan Cameron says "the assumption is so widespread it would be superfluous to cite authorities.But there is not a shred of evidence for Ambrose exerting any such influence over <mask>". Brown says Ambrose was just one among many advisors, and Cameron says there is no evidence Theodosius favored him above anyone else. By the time of the Thessalonican affair, Ambrose, an aristocrat and former governor, had been a bishop for 16 years, and during his episcopate, had seen the death of three emperors before Theodosius. These produced significant political storms, yet Ambrose held his place using what McLynn calls his "considerable qualities [and] considerable luck" to survive. <mask> was in his 40s, had been emperor for 11 years, had temporarily settled the Gothic wars, and won a civil war. As a Latin speaking Nicene western leader of the Greek largely Arian East, Boniface Ramsey says he had already left an indelible mark on history. McLynn asserts that the relationship between <mask> and Ambrose transformed into myth within a generation of their deaths.He also observes that the documents revealing the relationship between these two formidable men do not show the personal friendship the legends portray. Instead, those documents read more as negotiations between the institutions the men represent: the Roman state and the Italian Church. Second civil war: 392–394
In 391, <mask> left his trusted general Arbogast, who had served in the Balkans after Adrianople, to be magister militum for the Western emperor Valentinian II, while <mask> attempted to rule the entire empire from Constantinople. On 15 May 392, Valentinian II died at Vienna in Gaul (Vienne), either by suicide or as part of a plot by Arbogast. Valentinian had quarrelled publicly with Arbogast, and was found hanged in his room. Arbogast announced that this had been a suicide. Stephen Williams asserts that Valentinian's death left Arbogast in "an untenable position".He had to carry on governing without the ability to issue edicts and rescripts from a legitimate acclaimed emperor. Arbogast was unable to assume the role of emperor himself because of his non-Roman background. Instead, on 22 August 392, Arbogast had Valentinian's master of correspondence, Eugenius, proclaimed emperor in the West at Lugdunum. At least two embassies went to Theodosius to explain events, one of them Christian in make-up, but they received ambivalent replies, and were sent home without achieving their goals. Theodosius raised his second son Honorius to emperor on 23 January 393, implying the illegality of Eugenius' rule. Williams and Friell say that by the spring of 393, the split was complete, and "in April Arbogast and Eugenius at last moved into Italy without resistance". Flavianus, the praetorian prefect of Italy whom Theodosius had appointed, defected to their side.Through early 394, both sides prepared for war. Theodosius gathered a large army, including the Goths whom he had settled in the eastern empire as foederati, and Caucasian and Saracen auxiliaries, and marched against Eugenius. The battle began on 5 September 394, with Theodosius' full frontal assault on Eugenius's forces. Thousands of Goths died, and in Theodosius's camp, the loss of the day decreased morale. It is said by Theodoret that Theodosius was visited by two "heavenly riders all in white" who gave him courage. The next day, the extremely bloody battle began again and Theodosius's forces were aided by a natural phenomenon known as the Bora, which can produce hurricane-strength winds. The Bora blew directly against the forces of Eugenius and disrupted the line.Eugenius's camp was stormed; Eugenius was captured and soon after executed. According to Socrates Scholasticus, Theodosius defeated Eugenius at the Battle of the Frigidus (the Vipava) on 6 September 394. On 8 September, Arbogast killed himself. According to Socrates, on 1 January 395, Honorius arrived in Mediolanum and a victory celebration was held there. Zosimus records that, at the end of April 394, <mask>'s wife Galla had died while he was away at war. A number of Christian sources report that Eugenius cultivated the support of the pagan senators by promising to restore the altar of Victory and provide public funds for the maintenance of cults if they would support him and if he won the coming war against Theodosius. Cameron notes that the ultimate source for this is Ambrose's biographer Paulinus the Deacon, whom he argues fabricated the entire narrative and deserves no credence.Historian Michele Renee Salzman explains that "two newly relevant texts – John Chrysostom's Homily 6, adversus Catharos (PG 63: 491–492) and the Consultationes Zacchei et Apollonii, re-dated to the 390s, reinforces the view that religion was not the key ideological element in the events at the time". According to Maijastina Kahlos, Finnish historian and Docent of Latin language and Roman literature at the University of Helsinki, the notion of pagan aristocrats united in a "heroic and cultured resistance" who rose up against the ruthless advance of Christianity in a final battle near Frigidus in 394 is a romantic myth. Death
Theodosius suffered from a disease involving severe edema. He died in Mediolanum (Milan) on 17 January 395, and his body lay in state in the palace there for forty days. His funeral was held in the cathedral on 25 February. Bishop Ambrose delivered a panegyric titled De obitu Theodosii in the presence of Stilicho and Honorius in which Ambrose praised the suppression of paganism by Theodosius. On 8 November 395, his body was transferred to Constantinople, where according to the Chronicon Paschale he was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles.He was deified . He was interred in a porphyry sarcophagus that was described in the 10th century by <mask> Porphyrogenitus in his work De Ceremoniis. Art patronage

According to art historian David Wright, art of the era around the year 400 reflects optimism amongst the traditional polytheists. This is likely connected to what <mask> Jacobs calls a renaissance of classical styles of art in the Theodosian period (AD 379- 45) often referred to in modern scholarship as the Theodosian renaissance. The Forum Tauri in Constantinople was renamed and redecorated as the Forum of Theodosius, including a column and a triumphal arch in his honour. The missorium of Theodosius, the city of Aprodisias' statue of the emperor, the base of the obelisk of Theodosius, the columns of Theodosius and Arcadius, and the dyptich of Probus were all commissioned by the court and reflect a similar renaissance of classicism. According to Armin Wirsching, two obelisks were shipped by the Romans from Karnak to Alexandria in 13/12 BC.In 357, Constantius II had one (that became known as the Lateran  obelisk) shipped to Rome. Wirsching says the Romans had previously watched and learned from the Egyptians how to transport such large heavy objects, so they constructed "a special sea‐going version of the Nile vessels ... – a double‐ship with three hulls". In 390, Theodosius oversaw the removal of the other to Constantinople.Linda Safran says that relocating the obelisk was motivated by <mask>' victory over "the tyrants" (most likely Maximus Magnus and his son Victor). It is now known as the obelisk of Theodosius and still stands in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, the long Roman circus that was, at one time, the centre of Constantinople's public life. Re-erecting the monolith was a challenge for the technology that had been honed in the construction of siege engines. The obelisk's white marble base is entirely covered with bas-reliefs documenting Theodosius' imperial household and the engineering feat of removing the obelisk to Constantinople. <mask> and the imperial family are separated from the nobles among the spectators in the imperial box, with a cover over them as a mark of their status.From the perspective of style, it has served as "the key monument in identifying a so-called Theodosian court style, which is usually described as a "renaissance" of earlier Roman classicism". Religious policy

Arianism and orthodoxy
John Kaye says the Arian controversy, a dispute concerning the nature of the divine trinity, and its accompanying struggles for political influence, started in Alexandria before the reign of Constantine the Great between a presbyter, Arius of Alexandria, and his bishop, Alexander of Alexandria. When Alexander died, his successor, Athanasius, became the representative of orthodoxy. Arius asserted that God the Father created the Son. This meant the Son, though still seen as divine, was not equal to the Father, because he had a beginning, and was not eternal. Father and Son were, therefore, similar but not of the same essence. This Christology quickly spread through Egypt and Libya and the other Roman provinces.Bishops engaged in "wordy warfare," and the people divided into parties, sometimes demonstrating in the streets in support of one side or the other. Constantine had tried to settle the issues at the Council of Nicaea, but as Arnold Hugh Martin Jones states: "The rules laid down

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 at Nicaea were not universally accepted". After the Nicene Creed was formulated in 325, many in the church reacted strongly against the word "homoousios" in the Creed, and therefore Councils at Ariminum (Rimini), Nike (southeast of Adrianople), and Constantinople, held in 359–60 by Emperor Constantius II, formulated creeds that were intended to replace or revise the Nicene Creed; in particular, to find alternatives for "homoousios." These councils are no longer regarded as Ecumenical Councils in the tradition of the Church; their creeds, which are at odds with the Nicene Creed, are known as Arian Creeds. During this time, Athanasius was at the center of the controversy and became the "champion of orthodoxy" after Alexander died. To Athanasius, Arius' interpretation of Jesus' nature (Homoiousian), that the Father and Son are similar but not identical in substance, could not explain how Jesus could accomplish the redemption of humankind which is the foundational principle of Christianity. "According to Athanasius, God had to become human so that humans could become divine ... That led him to conclude that the divine nature in Jesus was identical to that of the Father, and that Father and Son have the same substance" (homoousios).Athanasius' teaching was a major influence in the West, especially on <mask> I. On 28 February 380, Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, a decree addressed to the city of Constantinople, determining that only Christians who believed in the consubstantiality of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit could style themselves "catholic" and have their own places of worship officially recognized as "churches"; deviants were labeled heretics and described as "out of their minds and insane". Recent scholarship has tended to reject former views that the edict was a key step in establishing Christianity as the official religion of the Empire, since it was aimed exclusively at Constantinople and seems to have gone largely unnoticed by contemporaries outside the capital. Nonetheless, the edict is the first known secular Roman law to positively define a religious orthodoxy. Errington and McLynn attribute Theodosius's zeal to his falling under the influence of a Nicene lobby during his stay at Thessalonica. According to Robinson Thornton, Theodosius began taking steps to repress Arianism immediately after his baptism in 380. On 26 November 380, two days after he had arrived in Constantinople, Theodosius expelled the Homoian bishop, Demophilus of Constantinople, and appointed Meletius patriarch of Antioch, and Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the Cappadocian Fathers from Cappadocia (today in Turkey), patriarch of Constantinople.<mask> had just been baptized, by bishop Ascholius of Thessalonica, during a severe illness. In May 381, Theodosius summoned a new ecumenical council at Constantinople to repair the schism between East and West on the basis of Nicene orthodoxy. The council went on to define orthodoxy, including the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, as equal to the Father and 'proceeding' from Him. The council also "condemned the Apollonarian and Macedonian heresies, clarified jurisdictions of the bishops according to the civil boundaries of dioceses, and ruled that Constantinople was second in precedence to Rome." Policy towards paganism

Theodosius seems to have adopted a cautious policy toward traditional non-Christian cults, reiterating his Christian predecessors' bans on animal sacrifice, divination, and apostasy, while allowing other pagan practices to be performed publicly and temples to remain open. He also voiced his support for the preservation of temple buildings, but nonetheless failed to prevent the damaging of many holy sites, images and objects of piety by Christian zealots, some including even his own officials. Theodosius also turned pagan holidays into workdays, but the festivals associated with them continued.A number of laws against paganism were issued towards the end of his reign, in 391 and 392, but historians have tended to downplay their practical effects and even the emperor's direct role in them. Modern scholars think there is little if any evidence Theodosius pursued an active and sustained policy against the traditional cults. There is evidence that Theodosius took care to prevent the empire's still substantial pagan population from feeling ill-disposed toward his rule. Following the death in 388 of his praetorian prefect, Cynegius, who had vandalized a number of pagan shrines in the eastern provinces, Theodosius replaced him with a moderate pagan who subsequently moved to protect the temples. During his first official tour of Italy (389–391), the emperor won over the influential pagan lobby in the Roman Senate by appointing its foremost members to important administrative posts. Theodosius also nominated the last pair of pagan consuls in Roman history (Tatianus and Symmachus) in 391. Temple destruction

Contemporary archaeology has found that the area with the most destruction against temples by Christians took place in the territory around Constantinople in the diocese of Orientis (the East) under Theodosius' prefect, Maternus Cynegius where archaeological digs have discovered several destroyed temples.<mask> officially supported temple preservation, but Garth Fowden says Cynegius did not limit himself to <mask>' official policy, but instead, commissioned temple destruction on a wide scale, even employing the military under his command for this purpose. Christopher Haas also says Cynegius oversaw temple closings, the prohibition of sacrifices, and the destruction of temples in Osrhoene, Carrhae, and Beroea, while Marcellus of Apamea took advantage of the situation to destroy the temple of Zeus in his own town. Earlier scholars believed Cynegius' actions were just part of a tide of violence against temples that continued throughout the 390s. However, recent archaeological discoveries have undermined this view. The archaeological evidence for the violent destructive of temples in the fourth and early fifth centuries around the entire Mediterranean is limited to a handful of sites. Temple destruction is attested to in 43 cases in the written sources, but only 4 of them were confirmed by archaeological evidence. Trombley and MacMullen say part of what creates this discrepancy are details in the historical sources that are commonly ambiguous and unclear.For example, Malalas claimed Constantine destroyed all the temples, then he said Theodisius did, then he said Constantine converted them all to churches. There is no evidence of any desire on the part of the emperor to institute a systematic destruction of temples anywhere in the Theodosian Code, and no evidence in the archaeological record that extensive temple destruction ever took place. Theodosian decrees
According to The Cambridge Ancient History, the Theodosian Law Code is a set of laws, originally dated from Constantine to Theodosius I, that were gathered together, organized by theme, and reissued throughout the empire between 389 and 391. Jill Harries and <mask>. Wood explain that, in their original forms, these laws were created by different emperors and governors to resolve the issues of a particular place at a particular time. They were not intended as general laws. Local politics and culture had produced divergent attitudes, and as a result, these laws present a series of conflicting opinions: for example, some laws called for the complete destruction of the temples and others for their preservation. French historian of Antiquity, , observes that Ammianus Marcellinus says this legal complexity produced corruption, forgery of rescripts, falsified appeals, and costly judicial delays.The Theodosian Law Code has long been one of the principal historical sources for the study of Late Antiquity. Gibbon described the Theodosian decrees, in his Memoires, as a work of history rather than jurisprudence. Brown says the language of these laws is uniformly vehement, and penalties are harsh and frequently horrifying, leading some historians, such as Ramsay MacMullen, to see them as a 'declaration of war' on traditional religious practices. It is a common belief the laws marked a turning point in the decline of paganism. Yet, many contemporary scholars such as Lepelly, Brown and Cameron, question the use of the Code, a legal document, not an actual historical work, for understanding history. One of many problems with using the Theodosian Code as a record of history is described by archaeologists Luke Lavan and Michael Mulryan. They explain that the Code can be seen to document "Christian ambition" but not historic reality.The overtly violent fourth century that one would expect to find from taking the laws at face value is not supported by archaeological evidence from around the Mediterranean. End of paganism
R. Malcolm Errington writes that reconstructing the religious policies of <mask> I is more complex than earlier historians realized. The picture of Theodosius as "the most pious emperor", who presided over the end of paganism through the aggressive application of law and coercion – a view which Errington says "has dominated the European historical tradition almost to this day" – was first written by Theodoret who, in Errington's view, had a habit of ignoring facts and cherry picking a "few concrete legislative items". In the centuries following his death, Theodosius gained a reputation as the champion of orthodoxy and the vanquisher of paganism, but modern historians see this as more of a later interpretation of history by Christian writers rather than actual history. Cameron explains that, since Theodosius's predecessors Constantine, Constantius, and Valens had all been semi-Arians, it fell to the orthodox Theodosius to receive from Christian literary tradition most of the credit for the final triumph of Christianity. Numerous literary sources, both Christian and even pagan, attributed to Theodosius – probably mistakenly, possibly intentionally – initiatives such as the withdrawal of state funding to pagan cults (this measure belongs to Gratian) and the demolition of temples (for which there is no primary evidence in the law codes or  archaeology). An increase in the variety and abundance of sources has brought about the reinterpretation of religion of this era.According to Salzman: "Although the debate on the death of paganism continues, scholars ...by and large, concur that the once dominant notion of overt pagan-Christian religious conflict cannot fully explain the texts and artifacts or the social, religious, and political realities of Late Antique Rome". Scholars agree that Theodosius gathered copious legislation on religious subjects, and that he continued the practices of his predecessors, prohibiting sacrifices with the intent of divining the future in December of 380, issuing a decree against heretics on 10 January 381, and an edict against Manichaeism in May of that same year. Theodosius convened the First Council of Constantinople, the second ecumenical council after Constantine's First Council of Nicaea in 325; and the Constantinopolitan council which ended on 9 July. What is important about this, according to Errington, is how much this 'copious legislation' was applied and used, which would show how dependable it is as a reflection of actual history. Brown asserts that Christians still comprised a minority of the overall population, and local authorities were still mostly pagan and lax in imposing anti-pagan laws; even Christian bishops frequently obstructed their application. Harries and Wood say, "The contents of the Code provide details from the canvas but are an unreliable guide, in isolation, to the character of the picture as a whole". Previously undervalued similarities in language, society, religion, and the arts, as well as current archaeological research, indicate paganism slowly declined, and that it was not forcefully overthrown by <mask> I in the fourth century.Maijastina Kahlos writes that the fourth century Roman empire contained a wide variety of religions, cults, sects, beliefs and practices and they all generally co-existed without incident. Coexistence did occasionally lead to violence, but such outbreaks were relatively infrequent and localized. Jan N. Bremmer says that "religious violence in Late Antiquity is mostly restricted to violent rhetoric: 'in Antiquity, not all religious violence was that religious, and not all religious violence was that violent'". The Christian church believed that victory over "false gods" had begun with Jesus and was completed through the conversion of Constantine; it was a victory that took place in heaven, rather than on earth, since Christians were only about 15–18% of the empire's population in the early 300s. Michele R. Salzman indicates that, as a result of this "triumphalism," paganism was seen as vanquished, and heresy was therefore a higher priority than paganism for Christians in the fourth and fifth centuries. Lavan says Christian writers gave the narrative of victory high visibility, but that it does not necessarily correlate to actual conversion rates. There are many signs that a healthy paganism continued into the fifth century, and in some places, into the sixth and beyond.According to Brown, Christians objected to anything that called the triumphal narrative into question, and that included the mistreatment of non-Christians. Archaeology indicates that in most regions away from the imperial court, the end of paganism was both gradual and untraumatic. The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity says that "Torture and murder were not the inevitable result of the rise of Christianity." Instead, there was fluidity in the boundaries between the communities and "coexistence with a competitive spirit." Brown says that "In most areas, polytheists were not molested, and, apart from a few ugly incidents of local violence, Jewish communities also enjoyed a century of stable, even privileged, existence." While conceding that Theodosius's reign may have been a watershed in the decline of the old religions, Cameron downplays the role of the emperor's 'copious legislation' as limited in effect, and writes that Theodosius did 'certainly not' ban paganism. In his 2020 biography of Theodosius, Mark Hebblewhite concludes that Theodosius never saw or advertised himself as a destroyer of the old cults; rather, the emperor's efforts to promote Christianity were cautious, 'targeted, tactical, and nuanced', and intended to prevent political instability and religious discord.See also

 Battle of Frigidus
 De Fide Catolica
 Galla Placidia, daughter of Theodosius
 List of Byzantine emperors
 Roman emperors family tree
 Saint Fana
 Serena, niece of Theodosius and wife of Flavius Stilicho
 Zosimus, pagan historian from the time of Anastasius I

Notes

Citations

References

Further reading
 Brown, Peter, The Rise of Western Christendom,  2003, pp. 73–74
 King, N.Q. The Emperor Theodosius and the Establishment of Christianity. London, 1961. External links

 This list of Roman laws of the fourth century shows laws passed by <mask> I relating to Christianity. 347 births
395 deaths
4th-century Christians
4th-century Roman emperors
4th-century Roman consuls
Ancient Romans in Britain
Burials at the Church of the Holy Apostles
Christian royal saints
Deified Roman emperors
Eastern Orthodox royal saints
Flavii
Gothic War (376–382)
People excommunicated by Christian churches
Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire
Romans from Hispania
Theodosian

masks:
Theodosius
Theodosius
Theodosius
Theodosius
Ian S
Theodosius
Theodosius
Theodosius


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<mask> (born György Mandl; 11 December 1901 25 April 1992), a businessman with various diplomatic activities, born into a Jewish family from Transylvania, helped save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust while working for the Salvadoran consulate in Geneva, Switzerland from 1942 to 1945 under the protection of consul  Castellanos Contreras, by providing them with fictive Salvadoran citizenship papers. He publicized in mid-1944 the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, which had great impact on rescue and was a major contributing factor to Hungary's regent Miklós Horthy stopping the transports to Auschwitz. During <mask>'s youth, Transylvania was part of Hungary, itself part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; after the First World War it became part of Romania, but in 1940 Hungary recovered the northern part of the historical region, including <mask>'s birth region, thanks to the Second Vienna Award. Both Hungary and Romania were allies of Nazi Germany, and <mask> had to first use all his remarkable skills and connections to save himself, his wife and his child from Nazi deportation by escaping to Switzerland. <mask> is buried in the Jerusalem Har Hamenuchot cemetery. Background
<mask> was born György Mandl to Orthodox Jewish parents – Baruch Yehudah Mandl and Ida Mandl (née Spitz) – in Lekence, Kingdom of Hungary (today Lechința, Romania), in the historical region of Transylvania, with mainly Romanian, Hungarian and German ethnic inhabitants, which changed hands three times between Hungary and Romania during the 20th century. David Kranzler writes that his paternal grandfather was a rabbi, R. Yitzchok Yaakov Mandl, that his father owned a mill, and that the family was regarded as well-to-do.<mask> had three sisters and two brothers, one of whom, Josef Mandl, became involved in Mandl-<mask>'s rescue work. Second World War
<mask> became a textiles manufacturer in Bucharest, where he met Salvadoran consul Colonel José Arturo Castellanos in the 1930s. After escaping to Switzerland from Romania, he went to work for Castellanos at the Salvadoran consulate in Geneva as First Secretary. He and Colonel Castellanos issued a large number of Salvadoran certificates which were smuggled into Nazi occupied territories and saved many Jews. In 1944 he became involved in the effort to halt the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. <mask> sent his friend, a diplomat from Romania, Florian Manoliu, to Hungary, in order to find out what was happening there. Manoliu went to Budapest, obtained reports from Swiss vice-Consul Carl Lutz on 19 June 1944, and immediately returned with the reports to Geneva.One of the reports was probably Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl's abridged 5-page version of the full 33-page Auschwitz Protocols: both the Vrba–Wetzler report and Rosin-Mordowicz report. The reports described in detail the operations of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The second report was a 6-page Hungarian release that detailed the ghettoization and deportation, town by town, of the 435,000 Hungarian Jews, updated to 19 June 1944, to Auschwitz. In contrast to many leaders who received these reports and failed to act on them, with much help from Swiss  Pastor Paul Vogt <mask> publicized the details within a day of receiving them. This triggered a significant grass roots protest in Switzerland, including Sunday masses, street protests, and the Swiss press campaign; over 400 headlines in the Swiss press demanded (against censorship rules) an end to the deportations. Pastor Paul Vogt wrote a bestseller Soll ich meines Bruders Hüter sein? (Am I my brother's keeper?- reference to Cain and Abel in the Bible). The report's publication and large scale very vocal protests in Switzerland resulted in Winston Churchill's letter:"There is no doubt that this persecution of Jews in Hungary and their expulsion from enemy territory is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world...."  As a result of the press coverage, world leaders issued appeals and warnings to Hungary's Regent, Miklós Horthy, and the mass transports, which had been deporting 12,000 Jews every day since 15 May 1944, ended on 9 July 1944. The lull in deportations made it possible to organize significant rescue activities in Hungary, such as the Raoul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz missions. Recognition
In recognition of his great contributions to his rescue activities, <mask> received an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University, New York. Nota bene: the fact that György Mandl/<mask> was Jewish made him ineligible for the title "Righteous Among the Nations" conferred by Israel to non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust. See also
 El Salvador during World War II

References

Some recorded talks and music
 <mask>-<mask>r z"l - Four Jewish Rescuers. International Rescuer Day 2006 at Hebrew University - Dr. David Kranzler - Rescue by Swiss People
 Prof. David Kranzler: Rescue by El Salvador, its diplomat <mask> & Swiss People (Feb 2003)
 Prof. David Kranzler: <mask>, a Jewish Wallenberg who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz
 The Rescuers (song)

Further reading
 Burns, Margie."El Salvador, a rescuing country" (profile of <mask>), International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Embassy of El Salvador in Israel. "El Salvador and the Holocaust: An almost unknown chapter in the history of El Salvador." Kimche, Jon. "The war's unpaid debt Of honour: How El Salvador saved tens of thousands Of Jews," Jewish Observer and Middle East Review. On Rabbi Michael-Ber Weissmandl, Recha Sternbuch and  <mask>
 Lamperti, John. "El Salvador's Holocaust Hero", personal website.Lévai, Jenö. Zsidósors Európában, Budapest, 1948 (Hungarian)
 Lévai, Jenö. "Abscheu und Grauen vor dem Genocid in aller Welt", Toronto 1968 (German)
 Meyer, Ernie. "The Unknown Hero: One sympathetic foreign diplomat saved thousands of Jews in Europe by providing them with foreign citizenship papers." Meyer, Ernie. "The greatest rescue of the Holocaust." Pineda, Rafael Ángel Alfaro."El Salvador and Schindler's list: A valid comparison," Raoul Wallenberg web site. External Links

 The Forgotten Suitcase- The Mantello Rescue Mission
 Holocaust Encyclopedia- Escape from German-occupied Europe
 US Holocaust Museum, <mask> <mask> and his mission to rescue European Jews

1901 births
1992 deaths
People from Bistrița-Năsăud County
Romanian Jews
People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust

masks:
George Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
Mantello
George Mantello
George Mandel
Mantellozle
George Mantello
George Mantello
Mantello
George Mantello
George Mendel
Mantello


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<mask> (10 November 1901 - 11 April 1990) was a literary critic and Italian academician. He came to prominence as a leading scholar of fourteenth century Italian literature. Biography

Provenance and early years
<mask> was born in Aosta, which was the (still overwhelmingly French-speaking) city from where his mother's family came. However, he spent his first sixteen years growing up in Turin, where his father was employed as a senior official with the government tax office. In 1917, along with his older sister Giuliana, he was entrusted, for a year, to the care of his maternal grandparents in Aosta. Here, for a year, he completed his schooling at the prestigious "liceo classico Principe di Napoli" (secondary school) where the politician-historian Federico Chabod was among his contemporaries. Student years
During 1918 he transferred to the University of Turin.He was initially uncertain whether to enrol in the Mathematics Faculty or in the Humanities ("facoltà di lettere") faculty:  in the end he opted for the latter. Soon after arriving at the university he had his first encounter with the future anti-fascist journalist Piero Gobetti, in the context of a competition in which they were both involved for a student-bursary from Turin's "Collegio delle province". Sapégno's education initially led him to view the political world through the prism of the influential liberal philosopher-polemicist Benedetto Croce, and he quickly became a friend of Gobetti, and after its launch in 1922, a backer of Gobetti's (as matters turned out short-lived) cultural and political weekly publication, La Rivoluzione liberale. While he was still at university Sapégno's father died young, in 1919. By the time he died Giuseppe Maria Sapégno had risen to become head of the Turin Tax Office (" segretario capo dell’Intendenza di Finanza di Torino"), and the sudden loss of his salary left the family in financial difficulties. Nevertheless, <mask> Sapégno continued to attend the university. On 10 July 1922 he graduated with a doctorate.His dissertation was supervised by Vittorio Cian and concerned the vernacular work of the Franciscan Umbrian friar Jacopone da Todi. Later he was able, in two successive months, to base two articles published in literary journals on his doctoral work. The text was later revised and published in book form in 1926. Post-graduate years
During 1924 Sapégno edited for publication a selection of philosophical pamphlets by Thomas Aquinas as part of a series being produced under the leadership of Giovanni Papini  by Rocco Carabba's publishing business. The series title  was "Cultura dell’anima" (loosely, "Culture of the spirit"). He also worked for a year during 1923/24 as a replacement teacher at the "Regina Maria Adelaide" teacher training institute in Aosta. It was on the basis of this that in 1924 he won a national competition for the teaching of Italian and History.Ferrara and Berta
Towards the end of 1924 he relocated to Ferrara (roughly equidistant between Bologna and Padua) where for some years he taught "literary subjects" - principally Italian and History - in various secondary schools. In addition, between September 1925 and December 1936 he taught at the Vincenzo Monti Technical College. It was while working as a teacher in Emilia-Romagna that he came to know Berta Ghedini, who was also working as a teacher in the city. The two of them married in July 1929. The marriage, which was childless, ended with the early death of Berta in 1937. Switch to the universities sector
In 1930 Sapégno obtained a Libera docenza qualification, which under the Italian system permitted him to teach at a university level while not being a full-time member of a university. Between 1932 and 1936 he taught courses in Italian Literature on a free-lance basis at the nearby University of Padua.Between 1930 and 1936 he also at some stage worked on a similar basis at the venerable University of Bologna. Throughout this period he was also building his profile among Italian intellectuals with regular scholarly contributions to specialist journals such as "Archivum Romanicum", "Leonardo", "La Nuova Italia", "Pegaso" and "Civiltà Moderna". His published contributions included a succession of reviews on the works of Montale, Saba, Sbarbaro, Tecchi, Pavolini and Govoni. In terms of establishing his reputation within the academic community, the volume "Il Trecento" ("The fourteenth century"), written in 1933 and published in 1934, was probably more important than any of those learned literary reviews on the output of contemporary literati, however. The book was published by Valardi in Milan as part of the "Storia letteraria d’Italia" ("History of Italian Literature") series, replacing an earlier volume on the topic which had appeared in 1902. The replacement from <mask> Sapégno was well received by scholars:  thanks, in particular, to a favourable review published in 1934 by Giulio Bertoni of the "Société de linguistique romane", won for its author one of the (four) 1934 prizes awarded by the Accademia d’Italia. Despite being among his first books published, it remains probably the best known of his books.In 1936 he participated in the nationwide competition organised by the University of Messina  to fa the vacancy that had arisen at the for an extraordinary professorship in Italian literature. There were no fewer than 29 candidates for evaluation by the ad hoc appointments commission, of whom no fewer than 13 were already well established in their university careers. The appointments commission included Senate President Federzoni, indicating the political importance attaching to the job. <mask> Sapégno was one of three candidates shortlisted for an interview session in Palermo. The upshot of this was that he was offered and accepted the extraordinary professorship, based not at Messina but along the coast at the University of Palermo. Rome
As matters turned out, <mask> Sapégno's first full-time university appointment lasted only a year. At the end of 1937 he succeeded Vittorio Rossi, by now in the final months of his illness, with a professorship at the Sapienza University of Rome.The alternative candidate, Luigi Russo, was almost a decade older than Sapégno and came with what was almost certainly a more conventional background in the universities sector. Sapégno's appointment triggered lasting bitterness on Russi's part. However, the university authorities were persuaded to prefer Sapégno, based on a decision communicated from the Education Minister, Giuseppe Bottai. Public government support for the appointment might lead to the assumption that Sapégno might not remain in post after the fall of fascism in 1943, but in fact he continued to teach at the Sapienza till 1976. During the early years of his long incumbency he taught courses on Poliziano, Dante, Boccaccio, Ariosto and Pulci, thereby cementing his reputation as an authority on the fourteenth and fifteenth century Italian literary dawn. On 16 December 1939 he was promoted to a full professorship ("... nominato ordinario"). Maria Elisabetta Posta
<mask> Sapégno married Maria Elisabetta Posta, his second wife, in 1938.The marriage was followed by the births of the couple's two daughter, Simonetta and Silvia. War years
Between 1938 and 1943 Sapégno had links to the Roman anti-fascist movement, which was well represented among the academics at the Sapienza. Partisan activists to whom he was close included Pietro Ingrao and Carlo Muscetta, along with several of his students, such as Carlo Salinari and Mario Alicata, who became his assistant at some point around 1941. Sources are nevertheless unclear and at times appear contradictory over the extent of his practical commitment to the anti-government cause. Later years
In the aftermath of two decades of fascism incorporating half a decade of destructive war, a readjustment of Sapégno's philosophical underpinnings could not be avoided. Many anti-fascist intellectuals of his generation faced some of the same dilemmas. The uncompromisingly idealistic liberal anti-fascist  philosophy of Croce would always remain as his starting point; but he also came increasingly under the influence of Gramsci, whereby in his own writings he moved towards a singular fusion of Historicism and Marxism which, in terms of traditional Anglo-American thought patterns, defies easy pigeon-holing.In 1954 he was elected to the Accademia dei Lincei as a corresponding member. He became a full national member ("Soci nazionali") in 1966. He remained active, frequently in the public eye, almost to the end. His many other memberships took in the Accademia dell'Arcadia, the Rome Philological Society, the European Culture Society and the PEN International. Between 1986 and 1990, along with his other engagements, Sapégno served as president of the Viareggio [literary] Prize. During the post-war decades Sapégno wrote and published extensively. Sources highlight, in particular, his collaboration with Emilio Cecchi on the "History of Italian Literature" ("Storia della letteratura italiana"), published by Garzanti in nine volumes between 1966 and 1969.<mask> Sapégno died in Rome on 11 April 1990. His physical remains were removed for burial to Aosta, identified by surviving family members as his home city, however. Output (selection)

Natalino Sapégno foundation
On 3 September 1991 the Regional Government of the Valle d'Aosta gave its backing to Sapégno's widow and their two daughters for the setting up of the "Centro di studi storico-letterari Natalino Sapegno" ("Natalino Sapegno History and Literature Study Centre") in order to honour Sapégno and perpetuate his memory, to be based at Morgex, twenty minutes up-river from the  Aosta municipality along the road towards Mont Blanc and the tunnel. Notes

References

Writers from Aosta
Italian literary critics
Italian literary historians
Medieval Italian literature
University of Turin alumni
University of Bologna faculty
University of Padua faculty
University of Palermo faculty
Sapienza University of Rome faculty
1901 births
1975 deaths

masks:
Natalino Sapégno
Natalino Sapégno
Natalino
Natalino
Natalino
Natalino
Natalino
Natalino


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<mask> (1872–1946) was the pseudonym of Belgian Post-Impressionist painter <mask>, who was also an innovative and highly successful businessman. He helped organize and managed the first department store chain. Early life
He was born <mask> in Leuze, Belgium, the eldest son among the seven children of Isidore <mask> and Eloise Desmaret DeWachter. The father went by Isidore, while the future <mask> was called <mask>. The name "DeWachter" has Flemish roots, however <mask> always considered himself a Walloon. Isidore and his two brothers (Benjamin and Modeste) originated the idea of the chain department store when they formed Maisons Dewachter (Houses of Dewachter) in 1868, which they formally incorporated as the Belgian firm Dewachter frères (Dewachter Brothers) on 1 January 1875. For business purposes, they had decided not to use the capital "W" in the family name and because the chain became so famous, published references to the family would also be spelled "Dewachter".By the time of <mask>'s death, the family had adopted the spelling "Dewachter" as well. Maisons Dewachter introduced the idea of ready-made – or ready-to-fit – clothing for men and children, and specialty clothing such as riding apparel and beachwear. Isidore owned 51% of the company, while his brothers split the remaining 49%. They started with four locations: the Walloon city of Leuze (where <mask> was born), La Louvière and two at Mons. Under Isidore's (and later <mask>') leadership, Maisons Dewachter would become one of the most recognized names in Belgium and France. Soon after the company was formed, Isidore and his family moved to Liège to open another branch. It was in that industrial city that <mask> established a lifelong friendship with Richard Heintz (:fr:Richard Heintz) (1871–1929), who also became an internationally known landscape artist.Heintz is considered the outstanding representative of the Liège school of landscape painting, a movement that greatly influenced Dewis's early work. When <mask> was 14, the family moved to Bordeaux, France, where Isidore established what would be the chain's flagship store. <mask>, who had begun his studies at the Athénée Royal Liège, continued lycée (high school) at Bordeaux. For the rest of his life, he would remain an étranger – a Belgian citizen living in France. Family

<mask> married Bordeaux socialite Elisabeth Marie Florigni (12 August 1873 - 25 August 1952) on July 16, 1896. Elisabeth was the daughter of Joseph-Jules Florigni (1842 - 14 April 1919) and Rose Lesfargues Florigni (1843 - 11 September 1917). There was a feeling among some members of the Florigni family, which traced its roots back to the court of Catherine de' Medici, that "Babeth" had "married down."Jules Florigni administered the Bordeaux regional newspapers the Girond and La Petite Gironde and was Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the French Legion of Honor). Elisabeth's brother, Robert (1881–1945), authored some 30 popular novels, several stage plays and at least ten screen plays. He was also a Paris-based journalist on the staff of La Petite Gironde and, like his father, Robert Florigni was named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. In 1919, Dewis's older daughter, Yvonne Elisabeth Marie (23 September 1897 in Toulouse, France - 19 February 1966 in St. Petersburg, Florida), was a student at the University of Bordeaux where she met and, after a whirlwind courtship, married Bradbury Robinson (1884–1949), a graduate student from America. He was a widowed army officer (a combat veteran of the Great War) and a medical doctor who, after being discharged in the United States, had returned to France to continue his studies. The couple would travel around Western Europe as Dr. Robinson oversaw immigrant screening for the U.S. Public Health Service. In 1906, Robinson had gained fame in the United States for having thrown the first forward pass in an American football game.The couple moved to the United States in 1926. They had seven children together, and Yvonne also gained a stepson from her husband's first marriage (his first wife having died in 1914). In her memoirs, Yvonne remembers that in the early years of Dewis's career, her mother regarded her father's painting with benign indifference. She writes that Elisabeth DeWachter was pleased with her husband's choice of "hobbies" in one sense, telling her friends, "at least it's not noisy." As the years passed, Elisabeth took more interest. It was she who maintained <mask>'s scrapbook of critical reviews for three decades. His younger daughter and only other child, Andrée Marguerite Elisabeth (24 September 1903 in Rouen, France - 11 May 2002 in Paris), married businessman Charles Jérôme Ottoz (1903–1993) in 1925, who proved to be less than supportive of his talented father-in-law.Ottoz had his own connections to the art world. He was the namesake of his grandfather Jérôme (1819–1885), the well-known Paris color merchant and art collector (especially of Corots) who loved to show his paintings to visitors at his shop on the rue Pigalle. Ottoz's grandfather was also the subject of the famous portrait painted in 1876 by Edgar Degas. A serious student of art, Andrée was passionate in her admiration of her father's work. As Yvonne lived in the States during the last 20 years of <mask>'s life, Andrée was the artist's only child to witness the most important years of his career. She was so emotionally involved in his painting that one day Dewis wondered aloud whether his daughter would have loved him as much, "if I'd been a grocer." Years later, Andrée tearfully recalled assuring her father that she would.Life as an artist delayed, success in business immediate
Young <mask> had displayed an interest (and astonishing talent) in art at the age of 8 – but Isidore was enraged at the thought that his offspring might waste his time with something as useless as painting. In a vain attempt to break his young son of his "bad habit," he would, on occasion, throw away or burn the boy’s canvases, paints and brushes. The youngster's love of art could not be deterred. It could, however, be overwhelmed by business and family responsibilities. As the eldest son, <mask> was expected to take over the family business. This was a duty that his father would not allow him to shirk and which made <mask> Dewachter from 10 to 20 in <mask>' first dozen years with the firm. Some cities had multiple stores, such as Bordeaux, which had three. For more than a decade, it was <mask>' job to move from one place to another in France to open new stores, which would then be run by one cousin or another. By 1908, <mask> was back in Bordeaux managing the flagship Grand Magasin (Department Store). He assumed ultimate responsibility for 15 of the Maisons Dewachter. The reluctant merchant found a creative outlet as an active and innovative marketer. He ran ads in newspapers; distributed illustrated catalogues; placed advertising on billboards and on trolleys; and published several series of promotional postal cards.Some of the cards featured famous art, others humorous cartoons and another series bore images of Maison Dewachter signage that had been temporarily erected at well known locations. In addition to the management of an international chain of department stores, <mask> was forced to assume an additional burden when a brother lost a small fortune gambling. With his father too infirm to deal with the situation, it once again fell to the oldest son to do his duty and settle the enormous debt. <mask> had no choice but to borrow the sum from a very rich relation, something that humiliated him to his core. So, as a matter of honor, he insisted on repaying the loan with 100% interest – over the protests of the lender and everyone else in the family. As a result, the task took <mask> several years. These responsibilities and World War I combined to condemn him to what was a frustrating life as a merchant, however successful, until after his father's death and the conclusion of the war.Sunday painter
Throughout his business career, <mask> maintained an atelier in his home and was essentially a Sunday painter. He signed his works "<mask> Dewis" (pronounced Lew-WEE Dew-WEES), because his father refused to allow him to sully the family name by associating it with such a frivolous undertaking. The nom d'artiste "Dewis" is composed of the first three letters of his last name – followed by the first two letters of his first name – Isidore. As a wealthy merchant, his interest in art was not financially motivated. His daughter Yvonne wrote that, while living in Bordeaux, he turned down at least one offer of sponsorship – an offer conditioned on him giving up "the tailoring business." Father told him [the hopeful sponsor] to mind his own business, that he would take care of his family the way he wanted to and nobody was going to tell him what to do. Well, maybe he felt free the rest of his life, but real artistic success was never his.No doubt he was a great artist and had recognition in a certain arty circle, but ... he could have been as famous as Utrillo or Picasso ... (l)ike everything else, it is a matter of publicity. And, Yvonne recalled that the young Dewis made "real artistic success" even more difficult to achieve. Another handicap was that he hated to part with any of his paintings. I remember as a girl, when anyone came to his studio and wanted to buy something, he always found some kind of excuse for not selling. First exhibitions
Dewis began to focus on his art about 1916. He was 43 years old. In the summer of that year, Dewis staged what was probably his first exhibition at the Imberti Galleries in Bordeaux, news of which reached across the trenches that divided France in the midst of World War I – to his native Belgium.Le Vingtième Siècle (The Twentieth Century) was clandestinely publishing a one-page edition in German-occupied Brussels. The paper somehow obtained a review of <mask>'s exhibition for its 22 July 1916, issue. It was placed at the top of the page and titled: "Our artists in France." It expressed sentiments that critics would echo for the next thirty years:

[S]ome "singing" landscapes attract the eye. The brush, soaked in the matutinal coolness or in the blue mist of the windrow, has more freedom and lightness. It emerges from the cliché. This is how he must paint, with no other care than to allow his soul to vibrate like a bird, in the light.The skies are like ours, changing, full of music ... The subtle movement of the waters seduces the artist; and it renders their undulating countenances a thousand reflections. In 1917, as part of <mask>'s considerable efforts to aid his Belgian countrymen (for which he was honored by both Belgium and France), he helped organize Le Salon franco-belge in the Bordeaux Public Garden. It was a charity event for the benefit of Belgian war refugees sponsored by the Belgian Benevolent Society of the South West and the Girondin Artists. This event was the first of a series of exhibitions in which the art of <mask> would draw serious attention from some prominent art critics of the era. <mask> embodies the Flemish spirit, in love with colorings that are warm and harmonious. He treats tenderly the humble motifs reinforcing the simplicity of their soberly translated soul.But he also adores the sumptuous symphonies in which the greens, the reds and the golds sing, as he lets himself be charmed by the veil of a mist. The painter <mask> has just made a small exhibition of his works at the Galerie Marguy [Paris], which has obtained the greatest and most legitimate success. This excellent painter, whose talent asserts itself at each new exhibition, this time gives us landscapes quite crowned with success. We must mention in particular: The Reapers, a very luminous work; The Canal at Bruges, of a character well interpreted; St. Jean de Luz, which shines with the sun of the South; The Stone Bridge at Rouen, etc., but we should mention them all. The noted Belgian art and literary critic Henry Dommartin (sometimes spelled Henri) met <mask> at the 1917 exhibition and became a fervent admirer of his fellow countryman's work. He once served as the State Librarian at Brussels and had heroically engineered the rescue of truckloads of Belgian art treasures from what was almost certain destruction shortly after the Germans occupied Belgium in 1914. Dommartin was the first and most insistent among <mask>'s circle of friends to argue that the artist should concentrate solely on his art.From this period until his death in Biarritz in 1946, <mask>'s landscapes were shown regularly at major exhibitions across western Europe. They attracted favorable reviews in the international press, purchases from major museums and the highest decorations from the governments of three countries. However, the highest achievement of fame eluded him. True, Dewis had finally escaped the dictates of his overbearing father that had stymied his career for almost three decades. He was now free to focus on painting. He could spend more time in the studio in his family's large apartment at 36-40 Rue de St-Cathérine over the Maison Dewachter in Bordeaux. But, his career would be marked by uncommon public relations misfortune.As daughter Andrée (bilingual, like her sister) would say in English many years later, "Dad had hard luck!" Georges Petit - the opportunity of a lifetime turns to disaster

The renowned and influential French art dealer, Georges Petit, was impressed by the Belgian's work at the 1917 exhibition in Bordeaux". His initial reaction, as he once told Dewis, was "vous êtes un tendre" ("you are tender-hearted"). The support of the owner of Galerie Georges Petit could be life-changing. According to Émile Zola, who knew the Parisian art world inside and out, Petit was "the 'apotheosis' of dealers when the Impressionist market soared and competition among marchands... became intense." Petit had attained the highest degree of success and influence in his profession. His historic Expositions internationales de Peinture had featured works by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, John Singer Sargent, Alfred Sisley and James McNeill Whistler – and he conducted the sales of the works of Degas, after that artist's death in 1917.He pressured <mask> – scolding him that he was wasting his life "selling clothes. Petit urged him to sell his interest in Maison Dewachter and move to Paris – telling him, "come paint for me in Paris and I will make you famous." Finally, <mask> relented. He sold his business and relocated his family from Bordeaux to Paris in May 1919. But, only a year later, Georges Petit was dead at the age of 64. Dewis was on his own... and he was no self-promoter. Painting for himself

In turning his career over to Petit, <mask> had taken the biggest risk of his life and lost.He found himself in Paris without a sponsor. He, of course, still had resources from the sale of his business. So, the former merchant rented an atelier and began painting for public exhibition. From the beginning, his work was highly regarded and well reviewed, as this 1921 appraisal by the art critic at Paris' Revue moderne des arts et de la vie (Modern Review of the Arts and Life) attests:

Few landscape artists, in my opinion, among our modern painters, reach such a profound expression of truth in a finer art form. This artist knows admirably how to compose his paintings, while maintaining a note of reality which removes any impression of being formulaic. Modern, clearly, by the richness of the palette, by the skillful distribution of color and light, by the creation of this true atmosphere so rarely achieved, it nevertheless continues the high tradition of the old masters by the consciousness of drawing, respect for perspective and harmony of composition. And all these elements combine to create real life on the canvas, palpitating with the intimate emotion of the artist before nature.Despite such praise, <mask>'s work was never heavily promoted. He had realized that Petit's legendary prowess as a marchand d'art (art dealer) was the perfect complement to his own talents. But, now involuntarily and totally independent,

masks:
Louis Dewis
Louis DeWachter
Isidore Louis DeWachter
Louis DeWachter
Dewis
Louis
Louis DeWachter
Dewis
Louis
Louis
Louis
Louis
Louis
Louis DeWachter
Dewis
Dewis
Louis
Louis
Louisson
Louis
Louis
Louis
Louis
Louis
Louis
Louis DeWachter
Louis
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Dewis
Louis Dewis
Louis Dewis
Louis Dewis
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texts:
 Dewis simply did not have the drive – nor the desire – to achieve commercial success. And, at this juncture of his life, Dewis was to encounter another antagonist. His son-in-law, Jérôme Ottoz, was also a recipient of the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur – recognition for his accomplishments in business. He resented his talented and (gallingly) more famous beau-père (father-in-law). Jérôme possessed a demeanor reminiscent of Isidore's and, as such, dominated the timid artist... at one point talking Dewis out of accepting a lucrative offer of sponsorship by another Parisian art dealer.Eventually, Dewis reconciled himself to his fate. And, happily so. He was perfectly content painting what he wanted to paint... and not producing what was in fashion or what art promoters thought would "sell." He was free to experiment with different techniques, as daughter Yvonne recalled:

He tried the impressionist style and the pointille and the heavy brush stroke – improving every time – but always his coloring, regardless of his method, was gorgeous. His skies were breathtaking and his water flowing on and on carrying you along in a dream. He told his family, "I paint as the bird sings" – for the pure joy of expressing his emotions. Between the World Wars
Dewis exhibited throughout France and Belgium in the 1920s and 30s, as well as in Germany, Switzerland and what were at the time the French colonies of Algeria and Tunisia.Collectors and museums from Europe, South America and Japan purchased his work. Critics commented on the maturation of his art – such as in this 1929 review by Brussel's Het Laatste Nieuws. The superb works that the painter <mask> has just hung in our theater deserve the deepest interest. Although <mask> has long been established in France, he is still able to communicate admirably that special and intimate feeling that is found in many corners of Flanders and Wallonia, recreating them with the enthusiasm of his artistic soul, yet faithful and true. The art of <mask> appears in the magnificent maturity of a learned and profound spirit of observation put at the service of a firm technique, devoid of any indication of contrivances in pursuit of effects. Everything proves that among our Belgian artists, Dewis does not occupy a secondary position. The Flemish critic at Het Volk also remarked on the sincerity of Dewis's work after visiting the same exhibition.No clutter, no affected detail, but rather works of broad design and which, in powerful touches, express the emotions and aspirations of the artist. Unlike the younger painter of Bordeaux described by his daughter Yvonne – in Paris, Dewis devoted nearly all of his time to painting in his atelier at 28 rue Chaptal or sketching at locations across France and Belgium. He was prolific, selling hundreds of paintings in his career. International recognition
Although he concentrated on his art only in the last 30 years of his life, he was already well known in France and Belgium – and beyond – for his high profile in the clothing industry – and for his civic and charitable activities, which he began in the 1890s, when he was still in his 20s. He served as the president of an organization in the South of France that worked in the interests of the suffering population of Belgium – and refugees from that country – during the Great War. He gained international attention for publicly urging the French government to treat Belgians with less suspicion (as potential German collaborators) and more compassion. His efforts on behalf of his Belgian countrymen were recognized by the French Republic with the Grande Médaille de la Reconnaissance française (Grand Medal of French Gratitude).France named him a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur for his accomplishments in business in 1914, and again as a Chevalier in 1932 for "more than 30 years of artistic practice." He was named an Officier d'Académie (Silver Palms) in 1912, when he was still painting as an amateur, and he was named Officier de l'Instruction Publique (Golden Palms) in 1922, three years after relocating to Paris.<ref>La Petite Gironde;, 28 April 1922; Page 2</ref> He also received the Médaille de la Société d'Instruction et d'Education Populaire (Medal of the Society of Instruction and Public Education). Belgium awarded him the King Albert Medal and named him a Knight of the Order of Leopold II. Tunisia made him an Officer of the Order of Glory. His art was included in multiple Salons – taking a prize in 1930 – and it received the high honor of being chosen for Paris' Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937).What critics judged to be one of his most beautiful canvases, Vue de Bruges (View of Bruges), was purchased by the French Republic for the Palace of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Dewis was a Lauréat of the Société des Artistes Français, an associate member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, a founding member of the Salon des Tuileries and of the Société des peintres du Paris moderne and of the Société royale des beaux-arts of Belgium, among others. Final years at Biarritz
<mask> and his family fled Paris for the South West shortly before the Nazi occupation of 1940, initially staying with relatives in Bayonne.By great good fortune in this time of war, they heard of a villa that was becoming available in Biarritz. An American was heading back to the United States and selling a large house with lovely gardens that he had named for his wife: Villa Pat. The family purchased the home and it was here that Dewis would paint for the last seven years of his life. Biarritz wasn't far from Bordeaux, where <mask> had lived from the age of 14 to his marriage and from 1908-1919. He was once again inspired by the countryside of the Pays Basque. Since travel was greatly limited during the occupation, Dewis often found his subjects within his own garden, in nearby parks and along the Atlantic coast. Contemporary assessment of his career

<mask> died of cancer at Villa Pat in late 1946.Bordeaux's Sud-Ouest newspaper, successor to La Petite Gironde, which had been administered decades earlier by his maternal grandfather, published its lamentations under the headline, "A Painter Is No Longer With Us." [A] great painter has just passed away in Biarritz: <mask>s. The man was as good as the painter, for whom Biarritz, Bayonne and the Basque Coast quite often manifested a sincere admiration since he retired to the resort. Through his acclaimed talent, he brought something new to this region, for which, as well as for the painting, his death is a great sorrow. The critic at the Journal of Biarritz had no trouble finding the word that he felt best described Dewis:

If we have to characterize Dewis's talent in a word, we could say that he was one of the most sincere landscape painters of modern times. Behind the big strokes which he was particularly fond of, a quivering emotion can always be felt, since Dewis painted with his heart as much as his brushes. He was buried in the family tomb at Bordeaux's .A legacy in hibernation
<mask>'s devoted daughter Andrée had returned to live in her Paris co-propriété (condominium) after the war ended. Except for the period of occupation, the flat in the 17th arrondissement of Paris was her home from 1935 until her death in 2002. The spacious apartment, just a few blocks from the Parc Monceau, occupied the entire top floor of a 19th-century building. Andrée had made many extended visits to Biarritz during her father's illness. After he died, she was intent on preserving everything related to his artistic career. She carefully crated up the entire contents of his atelier at Villa Pat. Since she would be staying with her widowed mother in Biarritz for a while, she shipped the crates to Paris for safekeeping in the temporary custody of two trusted nephews, the noted architects Édouard Niermans (1903–1984) and Jean Niermans (1897–1989), Officier de la Légion d’Honneur (:fr:Jean Niermans).Their father, Édouard-Jean Niermans (:fr:Édouard-Jean Niermans) (1859–1928), celebrated as the architect of the "Café Society" and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, married <mask>'s sister, <mask> Héloïse DeWachter (1871–1963), in 1895. Dewis was very close to <mask> and in her home the artist socialized with the likes of Auguste Renoir and Jules Chéret. Eventually, the boxes would be transferred to the attic of Andrée's co-propriété and placed in a locked room that was originally designed as maid's quarters. There the sturdy wooden boxes would sit, untouched, for nearly 50 years. Dewis rediscovered
Dewis’s art had survived and blossomed despite the opposition of his father, the devastating loss of Petit, an antagonistic son-in-law and two world wars. But now, it was all locked away and collecting dust. Jérôme had absolutely no interest in any effort to construct a legacy for his deceased rival.As the years passed, Andrée had all but given up hope that her beloved father might be remembered. By the mid-1990s, Jérôme was dead. Through a chance conversation with a visiting great-nephew from the States (a grandson of her sister Yvonne), the then 92-year-old Andrée and the young American opened the crates and immediately resolved to return <mask>'s work to the public. The more than 400 paintings and hundreds of sketches that they found were catalogued. Experts were retained to evaluate the vast collection and what were judged to be the most outstanding pieces were cleaned and properly framed for public exhibition. The effort culminated in the exhibition Dewis Rediscovered at the Courthouse Galleries in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1998. It was the first public showing of <mask>'s art in more than half a century.Historical perspective
Dr. Linda McGreevy wrote essays for the catalogues for the first two Dewis exhibits in America. McGreevy, who was a Professor of Art History and Criticism and the Chair of the Art Department at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, is an expert in French art between the two world wars. She described how <mask>'s art was rediscovered in the attic of the Paris flat of <mask>/DeWachter's daughter:

On the walls of the apartment in which she'd lived for over fifty years were works not only by her father but by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. During the course of this visit, and others over the next several months, [Andrée] recalled that there were probably more of her father's work stored in the attic, though she figured they'd probably all rotted away inasmuch as they'd been there since his death in 1946. What they found were... crates that, while caked in dust, the paintings themselves were in remarkably good condition. And stored in the ceiling were still more rolled canvases, numerous sketchbooks, journals, even his palette. <mask> was hardly an unknown artist in his time, but then again, he was no Monet or Degas either (both of whom he knew intimately).<mask>'s work resembles most closely that of Corot, who was his strongest influence, except that it tends to borrow from the Impressionists a more resplendent use of color. Dewis painted mostly landscapes, those of the Belgian towns and countryside he knew all his life. But by the end of WW II, the popular art styles of the time had not only changed drastically but the art world he'd known had fled Paris entirely. When he died, it was as if he took his life's work with him, except for less than a dozen examples in family hands in this country, and the few on the walls of his daughter's apartment in Paris. However, thanks to the perseverance of [Dewis's American great-grandson] and... the Portsmouth Art Museum, the work of <mask>, and perhaps his spirit too, have returned from the dead... The Belgian ambassador to the United States, Alex Reyn, was an honored guest at Dewis Rediscovered, after which he requested that three Dewis paintings be lent for permanent exhibition in his country's embassy in Washington, DC. Personally making the selections, he chose Snow in the Ardennes as the only painting to be displayed in the anteroom to the ambassador's office.In the catalogue for 2002's Encore: Dewis Rediscovered, Professor McGreevy observed that "art history has worked against Dewis's inclusion" in what she described as "the modernist pantheon" which was:

... continuing to relegate artists solely concerned with landscape to a lower echelon, following a hierarchy of subject matter established in the 17th century. It's only in the last decade that the history of art in mid-War France has been reevaluated and expanded in scope. This is significant for Dewis, since his most productive period spanned those two decades. Now he seems poised, like so many others, to claim a place in modernism's broader trajectory. His contributions to the French version of Regionalism, his luminous paintings from the pristine reaches of Frances arriere-pays (back country), alongside the Corot-inspired images of his native Belgium recovering slowly from the war's ravages, may well receive the recognition their creator deserved long ago. Since their rediscovery in 1996, more than 100 of Dewis's paintings found in his daughter's attic have been cleaned and framed and are lent to museums for the public to enjoy. Orlando Museum of Art

On 1 May 2018, the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) announced that it may become the permanent home of the rediscovered collection of Dewis paintings and related materials.OMA staged a mini-exhibition of Dewis works beginning in May 2018 and a full exhibit of more than 100 Dewis paintings in January 2019. In the catalogue for that exhibition, OMA Senior Curator Hansen Mulford provided this perspective:

While his earliest works were influenced by Impressionism, he quickly developed a personal style of expressive realism in line with this mainstream in French art of the 1920s and 30s. His paintings of regional locales throughout France featured views that were idealized and imbued with a sense of place. Dewis’s works draw upon classical models of French landscape painting such as those of Camille Corot. His compositions are balanced and orderly, following the conventions of depicting deep space through a recession of forms and aerial perspective. Broad planes of color define the topography, land, water, sky, and architecture, while bold diagonal elements like roads and rivers draw the eye into the scene. His brushwork is often quick and direct, rendering forms clearly without excessive detail.Though his style is anchored in a historic tradition, the simplicity of his best work is wholly modern and aligned with his contemporaries. While descriptive detail enriches all of Dewis’s paintings, he rarely painted directly from life. Instead, he worked from drawings, which allowed him to edit and distill the expressive elements of each scene. Observed impressions were important, but memory was essential to his practice, allowing him the distance to find his own order in each composition. About this he said, "it is this memory that, transmuted by my sensitivity, gives to my works life and this truth that you love to find there". While <mask> was a realist, he was also interested in creating emotional resonance with his painting that did not require excessive detail, saying "I never seek a slavish copy of nature. This is the fundamental thought of the art of Corot, Cazin, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and which the latter expresses through the aphorism: 'In painting there is suggestion rather than description.'”

OMA opened another exhibit of <mask>'s work on September 24, 2020, which will continue through August 22, 2021. Gallery

Sources
 Catalogues for Dewis Rediscovered (1998) and Encore: Dewis Rediscovered (2002), Courthouse Galleries, Portsmouth, Virginia
 L'avenir de la Dordogne (Périgueux, France), 5 January 1918
 La Petite Gironde'' (Bordeaux, France), 11 June 1918
 Memoirs of Yvonne DeWachter Robinson Young
 Transcribed interviews with Andrée DeWachter Ottoz (1995–2001)
 LouisDewis.com
 YouTube Video of "Dewis Rediscovered" Exhibition at Portsmouth, Virginia in 1998

References

Belgian painters
Post-impressionist painters
1872 births
1946 deaths
Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Officiers of the Ordre des Palmes

masks:
Louis Dewis
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Louise Marie
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