Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/410

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FIE
384
FIL

chapels in Italy. The most characteristic works of Fra Angelico are those of the convent of St. Mark, illustrating the passion of Christ, some of which are still in a good state of preservation; and there are many admirable small specimens preserved in the academy of Florence. The national gallery of London possesses only one unimportant example of this painter. Cortona still possesses some of his best works, and the frescos of the chapel of San Lorenzo, executed for Nicolas V., are also well preserved. They were neglected and forgotten for about two centuries, owing to the loss of the key of the chapel. Attention was first drawn to them early in this century by Hirt, the Prussian architect and antiquary, and they are now well known and appreciated from the prints published in 1810 by Giangiacomi. The works of Fra Angelico are conspicuous for their sentiment and expression of piety. They are exclusively religious or ecclesiastical; and their piety is so palpable and genuine, that they became in a great measure the type of character for religious art during his own and subsequent generations. The sincerity of his sentiment was justified by the simplicity of his life. His character was so high that Nicolas V. offered him the archbishopric of Florence; but he declined the dignity, on the plea that to govern or to lead were alike incompatible with his nature. He was remarkably methodical in his habits, and was of such fervent piety that he never commenced painting without prayer. It was his persuasion that he who would represent the works of Christ, must live in accordance with Christ's teaching, and go to him for his inspirations; and in this spirit he invariably carried out his first impression, treating it as an inspiration accorded to his prayer. Though not canonized, Fra Giovanni is a Beato. Beatification for eminent piety is a solemn distinction conferred by the church, second only to canonization.—(Vasari, Vite, &c., Ed. Le Monnier; Marchese, Memorie dei piu insigni Pittori, &c., Domenicani)—R. N. W.

FIEVÉE, Joseph, born in 1767; died in 1839. His childhood was past at Soissons; from Soissons he went to Paris, where we find him first as a compositor in a printing-office, then a writer in a newspaper conducted by Condorcet. He was for a while connected in politics with the jacobins, and then with the royalists. In 1802 he was a zealous Bonapartist. In this year he was sent on some secret mission to England, and published an absurd book about the country. Through the period of the consulate and empire he edited government journals, and succeeded in obtaining one valuable appointment or another. In 1814 he writes in praise of the allied sovereigns. On Bonaparte's return from Elba in 1815, Fievée for a while disappears. From this time till 1830 he lived by obscure journalism, and is described as having contributed to the revolution which placed Louis Philippe on the throne. For the next nine years we have him puffing and pamphleteering incessantly. He wrote some lively novels, and one or two successful comedies.—J. A., D.

FIGRELIUS, Greipenhelm or Greiffenhelm, a native of Sweden. The date of his birth is not recorded. He died in 1676. His character for erudition was such, that he was selected to superintend the education of the prince who afterwards became King Charles XI. He was ennobled, and took the name of Greiffenhelm. He was appointed chancellor and councillor of state. He published a work "De Statuis illustrium Romanorum"—the result of a visit to Rome—and some speculations on unfulfilled prophecy.—J. A., D.

FIGUEROA, Christobal Suarez de, a Spanish writer of some consideration in his time, born at Valladolid in the beginning of the seventeenth century. His principal works are—"La Constante Amarilis," an amorous poem, praised by Cervantes; a life of Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, in which he supplies the omissions which Ercilla had been induced to make, owing to his personal quarrel with his commander; a history of the labours of the jesuits in the east in 1607 and 1608: "Spain defended," a heroic poem; "The Mirror of Youth," &c.—F. M. W.

FIGUEROA, Francisco de, a Spanish poet, born in 1540 at Alcala de Henares. When young he entered the military profession, and while serving in Italy acquired a taste for the Tuscan style of poetry, which he may be said to have transplanted into his own country. He soon returned to Spain, and married there. In 1579 he went into Flanders with Don Carlos of Arragon, but returning to Alcala, devoted himself to literary pursuits. Some of his verses are still preserved in the best collections. His eclogue of "Tirsi," says Ticknor, "is the first really good blank verse I have met with." He was honoured with the friendship of Cervantes. Such was his modesty, that shortly before his death, in 1620, he destroyed all his writings, which had been circulated in manuscript as early as 1572; but some of them were afterwards, in 1626, published at Lisbon. Specimens may be found, with a memoir of the author, in Sedan's Parnaso Español.—F. M. W.

FIGUEROA, Garcia de Silva y, a Spanish statesman and traveller, born in 1574; died about 1626. He was a page to Philip II., and distinguished himself in the war in Flanders. In 1614 he was sent as ambassador to the shah of Persia, to negotiate a treaty. He was detained at Goa two years by the jealousy of the viceroy, and it was not till 1618 that he arrived at Ispahan. But he did not succeed in negotiating the desired treaty, and after further delays on the way home, he arrived in Spain in 1624. There exists in French an account of his expedition (Paris, 1667); we have also a letter on Persian affairs addressed by him to the marquis of Bedmar, and some other unpublished works.—F. M. W.

FIGUIEIRA, Guillem, born at Toulouse about 1190. A tailor, and the son of a tailor; but gifted with imagination, with powers of expression, and, acquiring some skill in music, he got him glee-maiden and harp, and set up the trade of troubadour and jongleur. Guillem was a witness of the cruelties of the crusade against the Albigeois, and poured out vehement denunciations against Rome. His own orthodoxy was doubted, but on no sufficient grounds. Several of his serventes are preserved. Petrarch is said to have imitated some of them. He proposed to expiate his sins by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which there is no record of his having performed.—J. A., D.

* FIGUIER, Louis Guillaume, the son of Pierre Oscar Figuier, druggist at Montpellier, was born at Montpellier February 15, 1819. He took the degree of doctor of medicine, and was appointed professor at the ecole de pharmacie of Montpellier in 1846. Here he remained up to 1853, very efficiently discharging the duties of his office, when he was promoted to the professorship of chemistry at the pharmaceutical school of Paris. M. Figuier has written several interesting works connected with chemistry and general science, of which the principal are—"Exposition et histoire des principales découvertes scientifiques modernes;" 3 vols. Paris, 1851-55. "L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes;" "L'Année Scientifique." He is also the author of various researches on the compounds of gold, of a new method of analysing blood, of a research on lignin, on the origin of sugar contained in the liver, and of the existence of sugar in normal blood.—C. E. L.

FILANGIERI, Gaetano, a name holding an illustrious place among the political philosophers of the last century. Although in many points a follower of the French school of philosophy in the eighteenth century, still, through his own genius and the Platonic tradition restored at Naples by Vico, he followed out that ideal of legislation which gives a prominent place to moral training in the government of man and society. He was born at Naples in August, 1752, of a noble family, which traced its origin to a companion in arms of the Norman Count Roger, in the eleventh century, of the name of Anger; whence the appellation of Filangieri (Filii Angerii) was given to his descendants. While yet a boy, Gaetano was destined to the army, and the pedantic instruction of those times seemed to have blighted his intellectual powers. It happened, however, one day that one of his brothers failing to explain a problem of geometry, he, the younger, who, though not taught in it, had daily listened to the lessons, suggested the right solution. This first revealed his capacity. At the age of seventeen he resigned his commission; and, having applied himself to the study of classics, as well as to modern languages, he read all ancient and modern works bearing on social science. The evils of the old system of law urged his noble mind to conceive the plan of his "Scienza della Legislazione," the object of which was to suggest rational rules for the reform of legislation. The first book contains the theory of the absolute and of the relative goodness of laws; namely, the principles of their conformity to universal justice, and of their adaptation to the political, moral, and physical peculiarities of different countries. On these topics Filangieri followed the same path as Montesquieu, more as an independent judge than as a disciple—witness his observations on the British constitution (chap, xi.), and on the influence of climate (chap, xiv.). In the second book, treating of population and social wealth, he upholds many a sound doctrine of the new political economy