Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/725

F R A P R A 689 country, and more apprehensive lest he should lose it. And yet at the time of his death it is said that he was generally regretted, and his bitterest opponents cannot deny that if he did much evil lie also did much good. Deeply imbued with the principles of the French Revolution, he was a stern an tagonist of the church. He abolished the Inquisition, sup pressed the college of theology, did away with the tithes, and inflicted endless indignities on the priests. " What are they good for]" was his saying; "they make us believe more in the devil than in God." He discouraged marriage both by precept and example, and left behind him several illegitimate children. For the extravagances of his later years the plea of insanity has been put forward ; and it was evident that his worst characteristics were at their worst when the east wind blew. The circumstances of his death were in strange keeping with his life. He was about to sabre his doctor when he was seized with a fit, and he expired the same day, September 20, 1840. He was buried in the cathedral of Asuncion, but the spot is no longer known, and a story is told by Mr Mansfield and by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomson, to the effect that his body was dug up by some private enemies and flung into the river. On the other hand, it is well known that the greatest respect was shown to Ills memory by those who succeeded him in the govern ment of Paraguay. Unfortunately for the history of his administration, Francia kept no records ; and he caused all his orders to be returned to him with the word " executed " on the margin, and then to be destroyed. The first and fullest account of Dr Francia was given to the world by two Swiss surgeons, Rengger and Longchamps, whom he had detained from 1819 to 1825JSsiiai historiq-itc sur la revolution de Paraguay et la youvcrnemciit dictatorial du doctcur Francia, Paris, 1827. Their work was almost immediately translated into English under the title of Tto Reign of Doctor Joseph G. 11. De, Fmncia in Paraguay, 1827. About eleven years after there appeared at London Letters on Paraguay, by J. I", and W. P. llobertson, two young Scotchmen whose hopes of commercial suc cess had been rudely destroyed by the dictator s interference. The account which they gave of his character and government was naturally of the most unfavourable description, and they rehearsed and emphasized their accusations in Fruncia s llcign of Terror, 1839, and Letters on South America, 3 vols., 1843. From the very pages of his detractors Thomas Carlylc succeeded in extracting mate rials for a brilliant defence of the dictator " as a man or sovereign of iron energy and industry, of great and severe labour." It appeared in the Foreign Quarterly Review for 18-13, and is reprinted in vol. iv. of the author s Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. Comparatively little new light has since been thrown on the subject. Captain Ilichard F. Burton gives a graphic sketch of Francia s life find a favourable notice of his character in his Letters from (lie Battlefields of Paraguay, 1870, while C. A. "Washbura takes up a hostile po sit ion in his History of Paraguay, 1871. FRANCIABIGIO (1482-1525), a Florentine painter. The name of this artist is generally given as Marcantonio Franciabigio ; it appears, however, that his only real ascer tained name was Francesco di Cristofano ; and that he was currently termed Francia Bigio, the two appellatives being distinct. He was born in Florence, and studied under Albertinelli for some months. In 1505 he formed the acquaintance of Andrea del Sarto ; and after a while the two painters set up a shop in common in the Piazza del Grano. Franciabigio paid much attention to anatomy and perspective, and to the proportions of his figures, though these are often too squat and puffy in form. He had a large stock of artistic knowledge, and was at first noted for diligence. As years went on, and lie received frequent commissions for all sorts of public painting for festive occasions, his diligence merged in something which may rather be called workmanly offhandcdness. He was particularly proficient in fresco, and Vasari even says that he surpassed all his contemporaries in this method a judgment which modern connoisseurship does not accept. In the court of the Servi (or cloister of the Nunziata) in Florence he p.iinted in 1513 the Marriage of the Virgin, as a portion of a series wherein Andrea del Sarto was chiefly concerned. The friars having uncovered this work before it was quite finished, Franciabigio was so incensed that, seizing a mason s hammer, he struck at the head of the Virgin, and some other heads; and the fresco, which would otherwise be his masterpiece in that method, remains thus mutilated to the present day. At Lo Scalzo, in another series of frescos on which Andrea was likewise employed, he executed in 1518-19 the Departure of John the Baptist for the Desert, and the Meeting of the Baptist with Jesus ; and, at the Medici Palace at Poggio a Cainno, in 1521, the Triumph of Cicero. Various works which have been ascribed to Raphael are now known or reason ably deemed tp be by Franciabigio. Such are the Madonna del Pozzo, in the Uflizi Gallery; the half figure of a Young Man, in the Louvre (a noble work already mentioned iu the article FRANCIA); and the famous picture in the Fuller-Mai tland collection, a Young Man with a Letter. These two works show a close analogy in style to another in the Pitti Gallery, avowedly by Francia bigio, a Youth at a Window, and to some others which bear this painter s recognized monogram. The series of portraits, taken collectively, places beyond dispute the eminent and idiosyncratic genius of the master. Two other works of his, of some celebrity, are the Calumny of Apelles, in the Pitti, and the Bath of Bathsheba (painted iu 1523), in the Dresden Gallery. FRANCIS I. (1494-1547), king of France, son of Charles of Orleans, count of Angouleme, and Louisa of Savoy, was born at Cognac 12th September 1494. As heir- presumptive of the throne of France, he received special favours from Louis XII., who created him duke of Valois and in 1512 gave him the command of the army of Navarre. In this position, though achieving no important results, he conducted himself with such prudence and courage that in 1513 he was appointed to the command of the army in Picardy, where he successfully carried out tho plan of defensive operations that was entrusted to him. He married Claude daughter of Louis XII. in 1514, and succeeded him on the throne 1st January 1515. After his accession the first and great object that occupied his ambition was the recovery of Milan, the inheritance of which he claimed through his great-grandmother Valentina Visconti. Accordingly, while, in order to render himself secure against external attacks, he negotiated an alliance with Charles of Austria, afterwards the emperor Charles V., and the renewal of a treaty concluded by Louis XII. with Henry VIII. of England, he also began to collect his forces for an Italian expedition. The politic negotiations which won him Genoa, the acquisition of which was all-important as commanding the connexion between Milan and the sea, placed the purpose of his preparations beyond all doubt, and caused Leo X. to unite in an alliance against him with the Spaniards and the Swiss. The Swiss at once occu pied all the mountain passes ; but Francis, guided by a Piedmontese peasant, succeeded after great labour and diffi culty in leading his army over the Alps by a pass deemed impracticable, and, descending into the friendly territories of the marquis of Saluzzo, surprised and routed at Villa Franca Colonna the general of the papal cavalry, and thus outflanking the Swiss caused them tc fall back upon Milan. Completely disconcerted by the sudden movement, they at first actually entered into negotiations for a truce ; but re ceiving shortly afterwards a reinforcement of troops and their arrears of pay, they endeavoured to surprise tho French at Marignano. This battle, begun on the 13th Sep tember 1515, prolonged into the night, and renewed on the following morning, was fought on both sides with furious and stubborn courage ; but on the arrival of Alviano tho Venetian commander to the succour of Francis, the Swiss IX. 87