KUPETZKY, kZ1V-pi_lts'ke, JOHANN ( 1667 1740). An eminent Austrian portrait painter, born at Biising, near Pressburg. The son of a weaver, he ran away from home at the age of fif teen, and found refuge at a nobleman's castle. A Swiss painter named Klaus, who was then em ployed there, discovered his talent, and kept him for three years under his tuition in Vienna. Kupetzky then went to Venice, and thence begged his way to Rome, where he found a patron in Prince Alexander Sobieski. After a sojourn of twenty-two years in Italy, he settled in Vi enna at the invitation of Prince Adam Liech tenstein. became Court painter to Joseph I., and was in high favor with Charles VI. and Prince Eugene of Savoy. In 1716 Peter the Great. then at Karlsbad, summoned him to paint his portrait (Brunswick Museum) , but could not induce him to accept an appointment as Court painter at Saint Petersburg. As a member of the Bohemian Brotherhood, Knpetzky got into conflict with the Catholic clergy in Vienna. and to escape the In quisition removed secretly to Nuremberg. Near ly all tile reigning monarch, of Europe offered him lucrative positions, but his love of inde pendence prevailed. Ile ranks aimaig the first
masters of portraiture, and admirable specimens of his art may lie seen in almost every gallery in Europe, especially in Vienna. (If several portraits of himself, that in the Stuttgart Museum is the best. ConSuit Nyitri, Dec Portriit staler Johann Eupetzky (Vienna, 1889). • KUR, kti5r, or KURA, kM'ra (Lat. Cyrus). The largest river in Transcaucasia, Russia. rising in the Territory of Kars. at an altitude of about 6600 feet, and flowing in a generally southeastern direction tow; rd the Caspian Sea, into which it falls after a. course of 830 miles Plap: Russia, G (1). It flows eldelly through a mountainous region, and drains an area estimated at 60,000 square miles. The Aras, which prior to 1896 dis charged into the Kur a short distance from its mouth, has in great part recovered its old estu a•y in the Kizil Agateh Bay. Despite its tur bulent course, the Kur is navigable for steamers for about 130 miles from its mouth.