Raphael. It has been said that he became a journeyman and colour-grinder to some of the best masters, in order to prosecute his studies; this lacks confirmation. Only three works are extant which can safely be assigned to Melozzo: those in the Louvre, the National Gallery, London, and the Barberini Palace, Rome, are disputable. (1) He painted in 1472 the vault of the chief chapel in the church of the Apostoli in Rome, his, subject being the “Ascension of Christ”; the figure of Christ is so boldly and effectively foreshortened that it seems to “burst through the vaulting”; this fresco was taken down in 1711, and the figure of Christ is now in the Quirinal Palace, not worthy of special admiration save in its perspective quality; while some of the other portions, almost Raphaelesque in merit, are in the sacristy of St Peter’s. (2) Between 1475 and 1480 he executed a fresco, now transferred to canvas, and placed in the Vatican picture-gallery, representing the appointment of Platina by Pope Sixtus IV. as librarian of the restored Vatican library. (3) In the Collegio at Forlì is a fresco by Melozzo, termed the “Pestapepe,” or Pepper-grinder, originally painted as a grocer’s sign; it is an energetic specimen of rather coarse realism, now much damaged. Melozzo also painted the cupola of the Capuchin church at Forlì, destroyed in 1651; and it has been said that he executed at Urbino some of the portraits of great men (Plato, Dante, Sixtus IV., &c.) which are now divided between the Barberini Palace and the Campana collection in Paris; this, however, is doubtful, and it is even questionable whether. Melozzo was ever at Urbino. In Rome he was one of the original members of the academy of St Luke, founded by Sixtus IV. He returned to Forlì, probably towards 1480, and died in November 1494. He contributed sensibly to the progress of pictorial art; and, without being remarkable as a colourist, gave well graded lights, with general care and finish, and fine dignified figures. His works bear a certain resemblance to those of his contemporary Mantegna. Marco Palmezzano was his pupil; and the signature “Marcus de Melotius” on some of Palmezzano’s works, along with the general affinity of style, has led to their being ascribed to Melozzo, who has hence been incorrectly called “Marco Melozzo.”
MELROSE, a city of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A.,
about 7 m. N. of Boston. Pop. (1890), 8519; (1900), 12,962, of
whom 2924 were foreign-born and 130 were negroes; (1910 census)
15,715. It is served by the Boston & Maine railroad,
and by inter-urban electric railways. The city covers 4·8 sq. m.
of broken, hilly country, in which is a part of the state park of
Middlesex Fells; it includes the villages of Melrose, Melrose Highlands,
Wyoming and Fells. In 1905 the total factory product
was valued at $9,450,929 (an increase of 176·6% over the value
of the factory product in 1900). The principal products are
rubber shoes (at the village of Fells), skirts (at the village of
Wyoming), and leather and silverware (at Melrose Highlands).
The water supply of Melrose, like that of Stoneham and of Medford,
is derived from the metropolitan reservoir called Spot Pond
in Stoneham, immediately west of Melrose. The city was the
home of Samuel Adams Drake (1833–1905), American historian,
whose History of Middlesex County (Boston, 1880; vol. 2, “Melrose,” by E. H. Goss) should be consulted; and of William
Frederick Poole (1821–1894), the librarian and the originator of
indexes of periodical literature. Melrose was settled about 1633,
and was a part of Charlestown until 1649, and of Malden until
1850. The eastern part of Stoneham was annexed to it in 1853.
In 1899 it was chartered as a city; the charter came into effect in
1900. The name is said to be due to a resemblance of the scenery
to that of Melrose, Scotland.
MELROSE, a police burgh of Roxburghshire, Scotland. Pop.
(1901), 2195. It lies on the right bank of the Tweed, 3714 m.
S.E. of Edinburgh, and 19 m. N.W. of Jedburgh, via St
Boswells and Roxburgh, by the North British railway. The
name–which Bede (730) wrote Mailros and Simeon of Durham
(1130) Melros—is derived from the Celtic maol ros, “bare moor,
and the town figures in Sir Walter Scott’s Abbot and Monastery
as “Kennaquhair.” In consequence of the beauty of its situation between the Eildons and the Tweed, the literary and
historical associations of the district, and the famous ruin of
Melrose Abbey, the town has become residential and a holiday
resort. There is a hydropathic establishment on Skirmish Hill,
the name commemorating the faction fight, on the 25th of July
1526, in which the Scotts defeated the Douglases and Kers.
Trade is almost wholly agricultural. The main streets run from
the angles of the triangular market-place, in which stands the
market cross, dated 1642, but probably, much older. Across
the river are Gattonside, with numerous orchards, and Allerly,
the home of Sir David Brewster from 1827 till his death in
1868.
The original Columban monastery was, founded in; the 7th century at Old Melrose, about 212 m. to the east, in the loop of a great bend of the Tweed. It was colonized from Lindisfarne, Eata, disciple of Aidan, being the first abbot (651), and Boisil and Cuthbert being priors here. It was burned by Kenneth Macalpine in 839 during the wars between Scot and Saxon, and, though rebuilt, was deserted in the middle of the 11th century, The chapel, dedicated to St Cuthbert, continued for a period to attract many pilgrims, but this usage gradually declined and the building was finally destroyed by, English invaders. Meanwhile in 1136 David I. and founded an abbey dedicated to the Virgin, a little higher. up the Tweed, the first Cistercian settlement in Scotland, with monks from Rievaulx in Yorkshire. Lying in the direct road from England, the abbey was frequently assaulted and in 1322 was destroyed by Edward II. Rebuilt, largely by means of a gift of Robert Bruce, it was nearly burned down in 1385 by Richard II. Erected once more, it was reduced to ruin by the earl of Hertford (afterwards the Protector Somerset) in 1545. Later the Reformers dismantled much of what was left. The adaptation of part of the nave to the purposes of a parish church and the use of the building as a quarry did further damage. The ruins, however, now the property of the duke of Buccleuch, are carefully preserved. Of the conventual buildings apart from the church nothing has survived but a fragment of the cloister with a richly-carved round-headed doorway and some fine arcading. The abbey, cruciform, is in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, with pronounced French influence, due probably to the master mason John Morow, or Morreau, who, according to an inscription on the south transept wall, was born in Paris. The south front is still beautiful. The west front and a large portion of the north half of the nave and aisle have perished, but the remains include the rest of the nave, the two transepts, the chancel and choir, the two western piers of the tower and the sculptured roof of the east end. From east to west it measured 258 ft., the nave is 69 ft. wide and the width of the transepts from north to south is 11512 ft. The nave had an aisle on each side, the north, noticeably the narrower, the south furnished with eight chapels, one in each bay. Both transepts contained an eastern aisle, and the chancel a square chapel at its west end on each side. Over the south transept aisle, which was the chapel of St Bridget, is the clerestory passage, which ran all round the church. The choir extended westwards for three bays beyond the tower and terminated in a stone rood-screen. Sir Walter Scott has immortalized the east window, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel, but the south window with its flowing tracery is even finer. In the carving of windows, aisles, cloister, capitals, bosses and doorheads no design is repeated. The heart of Robert Bruce was buried at the high altar, and in the chancel are the tombs of Sir William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale (1300–1353), James 2nd earl of Douglas (1358–1388), the victor of Otterburn, Alexander II.; and Michael Scot “the Wizard” (1175–1234)—though some authorities say that this is the tomb of Sir Brian Layton, who fell in the battle of Ancrum Moor (1544). At the door leading from the north transept to the sacristy is the grave of Joanna (d. 1238), queen of Alexander II.
The muniments of the abbacy, preserved in the archives of the earl of Morton, were edited by Cosmo Innes for the Bannatyne Club and published in 1837 under the title of Liber sancte Marie de Melros. Among the documents is one of the earliest specimens of the Scots dialect. The Chronica de Mailros, preserved among the Cotton MSS., was printed at Oxford in 1684 by William Fulman and by the Bannatyne Club in 1835 under the editorship of John Stevenson.
