u 



FOXTANA, DOMENICO. 



FOXTANES, LOUIS DR. 



9M 



for the king of Rome, with plans of the ) alaoes of foreign sovereigns 

 compared ; and * history of the royal residence*. Fontaine was elected 



member of the Institute of France in 1811, and at the time of hi* 

 death was the senior member. 



He died on the 10th of October 1853, in the ninety-second year of 

 hia age. In the later yean of hi* life, he retired to a aeoluded quarter 

 of Pan* near Pere-la-Cbaise, where the remain* of his friend* Percier 

 and Bcruier reposed ; here he surrounded himself with a collection of 

 work* of art, preserved his faculties to the last, and thence was 

 attended to his grave by members of the Institute, by artists, and work- 

 men of all clause ; the architect* of England being represented by 

 Professor Donaldson, who was amongst those who pronounced 

 eulogiuma at the grave. 



FONTA'NA, DOMENI'CO, a distinguished Italian architect, was 

 born at Mili, on the borders of the Lake of Como, in 1543. Having a 

 decided taste for mathematical studies, at the age of twenty he went 

 to join his elder brother Giovanni, an architect, at Rome. Hero he 

 attracted the notice and obtained the favour of Cardinal Montalto, who 

 confided to him the erection of the Cappella del Presepio, or Sistina, 

 in Santa Maria Msggiore, a design of great nobleness and grandeur, 

 although, according to modern taste, too overcharged in its ornaments, 

 and too much cut up by the injudicious arrangement of the gilding 

 and coloured marbles. By the same ecclesiastic he was employed to 

 build for him, in the vicinity of the above-mentioned church, the 

 palace now known by the name of the Villa Negroni This edifice 

 which, partly on account of it* gardens, waa for a long while one of 

 the most celebrated mansions in Rome, is, like most of the architect's 

 other designs of the same class, exceedingly simple in its composition, 

 and has little decoration beyond what it derives from the dressings 

 and pediments of the windows, which latter ar alternately angular 

 and curved. Yet favourable ns these undertaking* were in themselves, 

 they wire not productive of much immediate profit to the architect, 

 and were even injurious to his patron, a* they afforded the pope 

 (Qregory XIII.) a pretext for suppressing the pensions of the cardinal, 

 since be was wealthy enough to indulge in such magnificence. On 

 this, out of his attachment to the cardinal and his eagerness to complete 

 the Cappella del Presepio, Foutana generously contributed a thousand 

 scudi of his own, rather than see the scheme abandoned. To his 

 disinterestedness on this occasion he was in all probability not a little 

 indebted for his subsequent good fortune, as the cardinal was shortly 

 sfu-rwards elected to the pontifical throne under the well-known name 

 of Sisto Quinto. The new pope had now the means of indulging his 

 taste for architecture and embellishment, and one of his projects was 

 to re-erect the various Egyptian obelisks which lay scattered and 

 neglected among the ruined fabrics of the ancient city. The first to 

 which the pope directed his attention was that which still remained 

 standing in the Vatican circus. This he was anxious to have removed 

 to the area in front of Su Peter's ; but the practicability of transporting 

 such an enormous mass (83 feet 2 inches high), and elevating it upon 

 a pedestal, waa long doubtful, ulthough the ablest mathematicians and 

 engineers were summoned to- suggest the means. Upwards of fire 

 hundred different projects and models were submitted to him, nor did 

 Foutana fail to come forward among the competitors, and he gave 

 aatisfactory proof of his contrivance by applying it to a small obelisk 

 in the mausoleum of Augustus. Eventually the carrying it into 

 execution was intrusted to Fontana, although it had been in the first 

 instance determined that Oiacomo della Porta and Ammanati should 

 take charge of the operation*. A circumstantial account of all the 

 proceedings attending this very arduous enterprise was published by 

 the architect himself, under the title of 'Del niodo tenuto nel 

 trasportare I'Obelisoo Vaticano." The operations commenced April 

 30th 1586, snd the obelisk was removed and placed on the new 

 pedestal prepared for it on the 13th of the following June, when was 

 successfully accomplished the most stupendous trial of mechanical 

 skill that age had then witnessed, although since several times rivalled. 

 The complete success of this task gained the architect not only honours 

 and distinction, but a pension of 2000 scudi, and also gave him assur- 

 ance of an equally favourable result in sll similar undertakings. To 

 these belong the three obelisks he afterwards erected in the Piazza 

 del Popolo, before St Giovanni Laterxno, and in front of Santa Maria 

 Hsggiore. The second of these is still lrg. T than the first-mentioned, 

 beinif 105 feet 7 Inches high, independently of the pedestal, and its 

 weight calculated at about 440 tons. 



In sddition to tasks of this nature, Slxtua afforded him th* oppor- 

 tunity of displaying his talenta a an architect, giving him charge of 

 the various works at the Laternn church, to which he attached, on 

 on* of its aid**, a kind of portico consisting of an upper and lower 

 gallery, in five open arcades, the piers of the former ornamented with 



Doric and those of the other wilh a Corinthian order. Immediately 

 adjoining this portico he also erected the palace of the Latcran, a 

 uniform square pile of building, with two series of window* above the 

 li.wer floor, all of which have pediments ultimately angular and 

 curved, and the whole is surmounted by a massive and rich cornice, 

 liy the same poutiff Le was likewise charged to construct the Vatican 

 library, snd thus destroy the noble court formed by Bramante. Ue 

 also errcted the lofty mat.* of building on the side towards the piaua 

 of 8U Peter's, whiuh, imprtMire a* it is in itavlf, does not bespeak 

 u.uch fertility of invention, it being little more than a repetition ol 



his palace of the Lateran. Another papal residence, which was partly 

 erected by him, was that of the Quirinal, or Monte Cavallo, so called 

 from the two colossal figures before it, which he removed thither from 

 the Baths of Constantino. Among his other works may be mentioned 

 the restoration of the columns of Trajan aud Antoninus, and the 

 fountain of Termini, lie was preparing to erect a vast cdificu for s 

 cloth manufactory within the Coliseum, the plan of which was to 

 have been elliptical like that of the amphitheatre, when Sixtus, with 

 whom the idea originated, died; and thus was frustrated a f< 

 that would irreparably have injured the sublime and majestic character 

 of that great monument of antiquity. 



The death of that pope brought a change of circumstance* to 

 Fontana, who was dismissed by Clement Vlll. from his situation a* 

 papal architect. Still his prosperous fortune did not desert him, for 

 he was immediately invited to Naples by the viceroy, the Count de 

 Miranda. In that capital, to which he repaired in 1592, he was 

 employed on a variety of works, and among others he executeil tin- 

 fountain Medina ; but the most important of them all was the royal 

 palace, a grand and imposing, although not particularly elegant eUitice. 

 He died in that city in 1607, possessed of considerable wealth, and of 

 a distinguished reputation. 



FONTA'NA, PROSPERO, a celebrated painter of Bologna, where 

 he was born in 1512. He was the pupil of Innoceusio da Irnola, the 

 assistant of Del Vaga aud Vasari, and the matter of the Caracci ; and 

 was of great authority in Bologna until the establishment of the school 

 of his pupil*. As a fresco-painter Fontana was a mere machinist, but 

 in portrait-painting he waa one of the first painters of his time. There 

 are frescoes by him at Bologna, at Homo, and at Citta di CaKtello, 

 where in a few weeks he painted a great hall in the Palazzo Vitelli, 

 illustrating the deeds of that family. H was presented by Michel 

 Angelo as a good portrait-painter to Oiulio HI., who took him into 

 his service, a* did also bis three successors. Fontsna died at Hume 

 in 1597. 



LAVINIA FONTANA, called also ZAPPI, the name of her husband, was 

 the daughter of Prospcro, and likewise distinguished herself for her 

 ability in painting, especially in portrait; but she executed works in 

 various departments of painting, all finished with care and delicacy. 

 Some of her portraits have passed for the works of Ouido. She was a 

 great favourite with the noble ladies of Rome from the time of 

 Gregory XIII. to Paul V.: she paiuted Gregory's portrait. Sin 

 at Rome in 1614, aged cixty-two. 



FONTANES, LOUIS DE, was born at Niort, in the department 

 of Deux Sevres, March 6, 1757. His father, a Protestant. 1 

 though of noble rank, only the scanty income derived from hie ottice of 

 incpecteur de commerce, was under the necessity of sending him to a 

 village school near Niort; but the extreme diligence of tne boy en- 

 abled him to make much progress. He afterwards finished his educa- 

 tion with equal ardour, and better opportunities, at the o 

 native town. At the age of sixteen Foutanes had written many fugitive 

 verses, noticeable only for the purity of their language aud thurtlueut 

 versification. 



In 1777, having had the misfortune to lose his father and a brother, 

 whose tastes were akin to his own, he removed to Paris, and in the 

 following year appeared for the first time as an author with his poem 

 ' La Forot de Navarre,' which was weU received, and procured him 

 several friends, particularly the tragic poet DucU. His translation of 

 Pope's ' Essay on Man ' appeared in 1783, and though the verses were 

 not considered adequate to the subject, the preliminary discourse met 

 with general approval. There are many portraits of eminent writer* 

 in thi* preface ; those of Voltaire and Pascal have been especially 

 admired. ' Le Verger,' another poem, was published iu 1788; and 

 ' L'Essai sur 1'Astronomie' in 1789. 



The revolution broke out in this year, and Foutanes feeling that the 

 time waa no longer suitable to poetry, became a journalist. About 

 two years after, the animosity manifested against the. nobles drove 

 Fontanes from the capital He took shelter in Lyon ; but the arrival 

 of Collotd'Herbois in that city, in 1793, compelled him to fly from it, 

 and to wonder homeless and friendless from one place to another. 

 But after the 9th Thcrmidor (July 28, 1794), the Convention founded 

 the Institute, and Fontanes was included in the list of its members. 

 He was ap|>ointed Professor of Belles- Lettres to the Kcole Ceutrale 

 des Quatre Nations in 1795. He still continued to write for the 

 newspaper*, and assisted La Harpe, in 1790, in writing for the 

 ' Memorial,' a literary and political paper, which took the side of the 

 Bourbon family. His connection with this paper caused him to be 

 net down in the long roll of disaffected authors, which Burros nud 

 Bonaparte pressed into the conspiracy of the 18th Fructidor ; his name 

 was expunged from the Institute, aud he was condemned to trans- 

 portation to Cayenne. He however escaped to England, and in Loudou 

 joined his old friend Chateaubriand. 



After the 18th Brumaire (1799), Fontanea ventured to return to 

 Paris, where he lived in great seclusion, until the First Consul, requir- 

 ing s competent author to write the ulogo on Washington, then 

 recently deceased, Maret, his secretary, recommended Fontanes. who 

 waa couimis*ioned to do it his name being withdrawn from the. list 

 of trausporta for the purpose. He had but six days allowed him 1'or 

 this important task : it was completely successful, and became the 

 turning point in his fortune. He was reinstated in the Institute, aud 



