Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/364

 FULBERT

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FULBERT

by piety, while in his conceptions and their expression he resembles Cornelius. As the son of a poor painter in the Bohemian town of Kratzaii, he learned the ele- ments of the art in his father's workshop and practised drawing while keeping his flock, the Christ-Child and the adoration of the shepherds being his favourite sub- ject. His father brought him at the age of sixteen to the painter Bergler in Prague.

This artist was so well pleased with two composi- tions assigned by him to the novice, that he advised him to exhibit some of his pictures. Two of them were actually bought, and several art patrons pro- cured for him the funds necessary to attend the acad- emy. The reading of Romantic poets soon made a Romanticist of him. Cornelius's illustrations of "Faust" and Overbeck's sketch of Tasso confirmed this tendency. On his journeys to Dresden and Vi- enna he became fond of Diirer's creations. He illus- trated the Lord's Prayer in nine etchings and Tieck's "Genoveva" in fifteen. To the recommendation of some Romanticists lie was indebted for the means for a journey to Rome, which he began towards the end of 1826. In Italy he studied the works of different pe- riods of art, above all acquired the historical style, studied the representation of the great Christian mys- teries, and modified his method by the .study of the works of Raphael and Michelangelo. Of course he did not fail to become acquainted with Fra Angelico, a spirit congenial to his own. In Rome he immediately joined the Nazarene School, learned monumental tech- nic, and completed the Tas.so cycle in the Villa Mas- simi by adding three frescoes: "Armida and Rinaldo", ' Armida in the Enchanted Forest", and ' 'The Crusaders at the Holy Sepulchre." The 3'ear 1829 saw him again in Prague, but in 1834 he went to Vienna, where he lived till his death.

It is noteworthy that two of his early pictures, painted shortly after his return, viz. "Jacob and Rachel "and "Mary's Journey over the Mountains", Bold for five times the original price, even during his lifetime. In 1841 he became professor in the academy of Vienna and was raised to the ortlcr of knighthood in 1854, and was henceforth commonly called Hitter von FUhrich. Executed with the same care as the paint- ings just mentioned, are "Booz and Ruth", "St. Gu- dula", "Christ in Limbo", "Christ on His Way to the Garden". He painted religious pictures almost ex- clusively; of Old-Testament subjects we may mention: " God writes the Commandments upon the Tables of Stone", " Josue and the Destruction of Jericho ", "The Sorrowing Jews"; of New-Testament pictures: "Jo- seph's Dream", "Joseph and Mary on their Way to Jerusalem", "The Birth of Christ", " The Storm on the Sea", "The Miraculous Draught of Fishes". These pictures prove the grandeur and loftiness of religious themes and testify to the moral and mystical concep- tion of the artist. Purity in form and energy in ex- pression, a simple beauty in movement and dress, without pretension and affectation, are their unmis- takable excellencies. The artist's desire to apply the monumental fresco-technic in his native country was fulfilled twice. In 1844—46 he painted the Stations of the Cross in the church of St. John Nepomucene in Vienna. The work was appreciated on all sides, and copies of it have reached America and the most distant missions.

In 1854-61 he painted, together with others, the church of Altlerchenfeld in Vienna. The artist him- self has ejqjlained to us the plan of this Christian epos. Christ's activity as the Saviour before, during, and after his earthly career, is presented here to the eyes of the faithful as in a great picture Bible; in the vestibule, what precedes t he creation of man ; on the walls of the entrance and in the aisles, the prototypes of the Old Testament; in the nave, scenes from the New Testa- ment; the pictures in the transept represent the proxi- mate preparation for the redemption; over the main

altar, the Oucifixion, and in the choir, Christ's life in His Church. The plan, as well as the composition, ia magnificent; in the execution he was aideil by less skilful hands, and the colouring is at times imperfect, as is the case in most of the works of the Nazarenes. But Fiihrich acquired his greatest fame as a draughts- man. Though we may miss at times individuality, characters drawn from life, and dramatic movement, a fact which will not astonish us, considering the ideal character of his subjects, still he meets the essential re- quirements of his theme, often enraptures us by his ?ia'ivctc and piety, by his noble lines and thoughtful invention. His cyclical pictures have become the joy of the Christian people. The master here achieves his ideal of the artist's work. The artist must be a man of meditation and a man of enthusiasm, who can translate the element of instruction from the purely intellectual sphere into that of the imagination, turn mere inspection into contemplation. The Christmas cycle or "The Way to Bethlehem" in its twelve num- bers contains the most beautiful pictorial idylls. Full of charm and touching is the symbolical figure of the human soul, whose attention is first called by the per- sonification of Christian art to the mystery of the In- carnation and which then follows the events with the light of meditation and the inspiration of art. The fifteen pictures of the Easter cycle, " He is Risen ' ', sur- prise us by the fertility of ideas, by the astonishing skill in the use of symbolical language, by their digni- fied earnestness and deep truth. Equally imperishable works of art are the eleven drawings and etchings en- titled "Christ's Triumph". In "Thomas a Kempis" (to the text of Guido Gorres) Fiihrich found an oppor- tunity to throw the principal tenets of our religion into poetical form, and at the same time to reveal the wealth of his Christian heart.

To these works must be added "The Life of Mary", "The Legend of St. Wendelin", "The Psalter", "Poor Henry", and "Memorials for Our Time". Most of these drawings were made for woodcuts, "The Prodigal Son" and "Ruth" for copperplate engrav- ings. Fiihrich's Catholic principles of aesthetics are laid down in his beautiful booklet "Von der Kunst", also in " Kunst und ihre Formen ' '. Moreover, we have from his pen "Briefe aus Italien" and an autobiogra- phy; a new edition of the latter, prepared by friends and enriched with additions, appeared in 1875 in Vienna.

LuKAS FuHRicH, the son of the artist, in the Histor.-polU. Blatter^ vol. XCII, 625 sqq., wrote an account of the master's residence in Vienna and of the friends who used to meet there; Idem, a biography in Graphische Kiinste, VIII (Vienna, 18S6), l-.'J; Valentin in Vohue, Kunst und Kiinstler (Leipzis, ISS^)', Brunner in Frankfurter Broschuren (1888).

G. GlETMANN.

Fulbert of Chartres, bishop, b.between 952 and 962; d. 10 April, 1028 or 1029. Mabillon and others think that he was born in Italy, probably at Rome; but Pfister, his latest biographer, designates as his birth- place the Diocese of Laudun in the present depart- ment of Gard in France. He was of humble parent- age and received his education at the school of Reims, where he had as teacher the famous Gerbert who in 999 ascended the papal throne as Sylvester II. In 990 Fulbert opened a school at Chartres which soon became the most famous seat of learning in France and drew scholars not only from the remotest parts of France, but also from Italy, Germany, and England. Fulbert was also chancellor of the church of C'hartres and treasurer of St. Hilary's at Poitiers. So highly was he esteemed as a teacher that his pupils were wont to style him "venerable Socrates". He was a striiiiy; (ippoiiciit of the nit iiuialistic tendencies which luid iiilVctcd sciriiedialccticianscif his times, and often warned his pupils against such as extol their dialectics above the teachings of the Church and the testimony of the Bible. Still it was one of Fulbert's pupils, Berengarius of Tours, who went farthest in subjecting