322 



FRESNE FREYBKRG. 



t inn he traced oil' from his cartoon enough to fill the 

 space. But, as it was necessary to the success and 

 permanency of his work tliat the colours should be 

 applied while the stucco was yet damp, no more 

 cement was applied at one time than what the artist 

 could finish with convenience in one day. The first 

 part of his operation, after the tracing, was to lay in 

 the masses of colour with a large brush, and then to 

 finish up the parts by delicately liatching them over 

 with a series of minute strokes, by means of smaller 

 brushes. 



In old writers on fresco painting, different pro- 

 cesses are described for mixing up and preparing the 

 colours ; but they all agree in stating that the colours 

 should all be native earths or minerals, as lakes and 

 vegetable colours will not stand, and that the whites 

 made use of should be of white chalk, or powdered 

 marble. Secondly, that the vehicle should be a solu- 

 tion of animal glue, prepared by boiling the skins of 

 animals or fishes, such as parings of parchment, glove 

 leather, c., or from the whites of eggs. One old 

 author, indeed, directs that a certain number of 

 fresh eggs, yolks, shells, &c v should be well beaten 

 up, and pounded in a marble mortar, and that a small 

 portion of good vinegar (say a gill to six eggs) should 

 be added, and the whole mixture beat up with a bunch 

 of fresh twigs cut from a fig-tree. In this way, the 

 white and yolks of the eggs form a sort of emulsion, 

 and, the vinegar dissolving the earthy matter of the 

 shells renders the vehicle more binding ; the yellow- 

 ness of the eggs would not materially alter the 

 colours, neither would the whites be tarnished there- 

 by, being of chalk, which would not be the case if 

 white lead or cerusse were employed. As to the fig 

 leaves, it is well known that the juice given out by 

 them is a species of Indian-rubber, or caoutchouc an 

 elastic gum, which will render the colours less liable 

 to crack. In this manner all the finest fresco paint- 

 ings of the churches in Italy have been executed. 

 The Sistine chapel, Vatican, Grotto Ferrate, Far- 

 nesine palace, &c. 



It is pretended, that there are specimens of fresco 

 painting extant of the time of Constantine the Great. 

 It began to revive in the sixteenth century. The 

 example of Michael Angelo and Raphael shows how 

 worthy it is of the greatest artists. The painter 

 cannot seduce the senses by soft tints and tender 

 harmony of colours ; he is, therefore, reduced to 

 depend solely on form, character, expression. If 

 oil painting is better suited for nice expressions of the 

 slightest emotions of the heart, fresco painting is the 

 field which the true poet-painter will prefer. What 

 can be more sublime than the Last Judgment of 

 Michael Angelo, in the Capella Sistina ! How rich 

 and vast are Raphael's conceptions in the stanze and 

 loggie ! The Germans possess at present the most 

 distinguished fresco painters, and Cornelius has 

 established his fame by his grand fresco pictures in 

 the Glyptotkeca in Munich. Schnorr is also distin- 

 guished in this line, and the villa Massimi, near 

 Rome, is a fine monument of contemporary German 

 art, as Overbeck, Schnorr, and Feith painted the 

 three rooms in fresco. Fresco painting was long 

 disregarded, when all noble and grand conceptions 

 seemed to have fled from the art ; and it is only in 

 recent times that it has been taken up again, chiefly 

 by the Germans. 

 FRESNE, DTI. See Dufresne. 

 FRESNOY, CHARLES ALPHONSO DU ; a native oi 

 Paris, eminent in the sister arts of painting and 

 poetry ; was born in 1611. He was intended by his 

 family for the legal profession, and was for a time 

 discarded by them in consequence of his determina- 

 tion to follow the bent of his genius, which led him 

 to put himself under the tuition of Vouet and Perrier, 



who instructed him in the rudiments of his favourite 

 art. In 1634, he accompanied his friend Mignard 

 :o Italy, and was, at this period of his life, mainly 

 ndebted to his liberality for support. He returned 

 [o France in 165G, having, during his stay in Italy, 

 completed his well known poem, De Arte Graphica, 

 which did not, however, appear till three years aftrt 

 his decease, when his friend De Piles published it 

 (in 1668), with his own annotations. This work has 

 been three times translated into English, first by 

 Dryden, in 1694, then by Graham, and lastly by 

 Mason, in 1782 ; to the latter edition are attached 

 some notes from the pen of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 

 Du Fresnoy's pictures do not exceed fifty in number. 

 Titian and the Caracci appear to have been his prin- 

 cipal models ; the tints of the one and the design of 

 the others being the manifest objects of his study 

 and imitation. They are much admired, and, 

 though they were of but little profit to the painter, 

 are now of considerable value. He died in 1665, of 

 a pulmonary complaint, at the age of fifty-four. 



FRETS ; certain short pieces of wire fixed on the 

 finger-board of guitars, &c., at right angles to the 

 strings, and which, as the strings are brought into 

 contact with them by the pressure of the fingers, 

 serve to vary and determine the pitch of the tones. 

 The frets are always placed at such distances from 

 each other, that the string which touches any parti- 

 cular fret is one semitone higher than if pressed on 

 the next fret towards the head of the instrument, and 

 one semitone lower than when brought into contact 

 with the next fret towards the bridge. Formerly, 

 these frets, or stops, consisted of strings tied round 

 the neck of the instrument. 



FREUDE (joy) ; a German word, which forms a 

 part of many geographical names, as Freudenthal, 

 Valley of Joy. 



FREYA. See Northern Mythology. 

 FREYBERG, a celebrated mining town of Saxony, 

 circle of the Erzgebirge (q. v.), on the Munzbacli, 

 owes its origin to the discovery of silver mines in the 

 neighbouring country, in the twelfth century, when 

 miners from the Hartz mountains settled there in 

 1195. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, 

 Freyberg had 30,000 inhabitants, but the thirty 

 years' war, that scourge of Germany, destroyed the 

 prosperity of the place. It has at present 1 100 

 houses, with 9000 inhabitants (lat. 50 53' N. ; Ion. 

 13 18' E.), and contains some remarkable antiqui- 

 ties. In the cathedral is the tomb of the celebrated 

 mineralogist Werner, (q. v.) The city has a good 

 school and library ; but the most important institu- 

 tion, which is unique in the world, is its mining 

 academy, founded in 1765. Werner made it known 

 all over the scientific world, and some of the most 

 distinguished naturalists of the age have been formed 

 there ; e. g., Humboldt. In 1791, a spacious build- 

 ing was erected, which contains the lecture-rooms, 

 the library, the institution for selling mineralogical 

 specimens, and the rich Wernerian museum, or col- 

 lections illustrative of oryctognosy and mining, given 

 by Werner to the academy. There are ten profes- 

 sors for the mining sciences and their auxiliary 

 branches. Some of the Saxon students receive 

 instruction gratuitously, besides having an allowance, 

 and labour in the mines, at their leisure hours, like 

 common miners, for a little higher wages. The 

 chief mining school is preparatory to the academy. 

 There are also manufactories in Freyberg; but its 

 chief support is derived from mining and the manu- 

 factures connected with it. About 10,000 labourers 

 are employed in the mines in the neighbourhood. 

 The mine called Himmelfurst, is celebrated for its 

 productiveness, for the excellent manner in which it 

 is worked, and for the machinery employed in it. It 



