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 FERSTEL

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FESCH

l€em de Ferrieres. With regard to the foundation of the abbey, he thinks it cannot be traced beyond the reign of Dagobert (628-38), and he rightly regards as false the Acts of St. Savinian and the charter of Clovis, dated 508, despite the favourable opinion of Dom Morin. Some have based conjectures on the antiquity of portions of the church of Saint- Pierre et Saint-Paul de Ferrieres, which they profess to trace back to the sixth century, but this is completely dis- proved by arch;Bological testimony. On the other hand the existence of the abbey about the year 630 seems certain, and rare documents, such as the diploma of Charles the Bald preserved in the archives of Or- leans, bear witness to its prosperity. This prosper- ity reached its height in the time of the celebrated Loup (Lupus) of Ferrieres (c. 850), when the abbey became a rather active literary centre. The library must have benefited thereby, but it shared the fate of the monastery, and is represented to-day by rare fragments. One of these, preserved at the Vatican library (Reg. 1573), recalls the memory of St. Aldric (d. 836), Abbot of Ferrieres before he become Arch- bishop of Sens. There is here also a loosely arranged catalogue of some of the abbots of Ferrieres between 887 and 987, which, imperfect though it is, serves to rectify and complete that of the "Gallia Christiana". Among the last names in the list of the abbots of Fer- rieres IS that of Louis de Blanchefort, who in the fif- teenth century almost entirely restored the abbey. Grievously tried during the w'ars of religion, Ferrieres disappeared with all the ancient abbeys at the time of the French Revolution. Its treasures and library were wasted and scattered. To-day there are only to be seen some ruins of the ancient monastic buildings. At the time of the Concordat of 1802 and the ecclesi- astical reorganization of France, Ferrieres passed from the Archdiocese of Sens to the Diocese of Orleans.

Crochet, Origine Tniraculeuse et hisloire de la chapelle de Notre-Dame de Belhteem, de Ferr. en Gdt. (Orleans, 1890); ^7!- nales de la Soc. Hist, et Arch, du Gdlinais, IX (1891), 155-56; Gallia Christiana, XII, 161-62; Advrat, Deux manuscrits de Fleury-sur-Loire et de Ferrit-res conserves au Vatican in Annalcs de la Soc. Hist, et Arch, du Gdtinais, VII (ISSO, 1 ■ -, 1 ; Si ein, Lettre d'un benedictin sur VAhbajje de Ferris i. < . '' 'jW.,

X (1892), 387-93; Morin, Disrours des nn ■ n la

chappelle de Nostre-Dame de Bethleem {Varis. H Mw!;i\,La

naissance miraculeuse de la chappcUe de Bclhi< cm m i- ranee (Paris, 1610). H. Leclercq.

Ferstel, Heinrich, Freiherr von, architect; with Hansen and Schmidt, the creator of modern Vienna; b. 7 July, 1828, at Vienna; d. at Grinzing, near Vienna, 14 July, 1883. His father was a bank- clerk. After wavering for some time between the different arts, all of which possessed a strong attrac- tion for him, the talented youth finally decided on architecture, which he studied at the Academy under Van der Null, Siccardsburg, and Rosner. After sev- eral years during which he was in disrepute because of his part in the Revolution, he entered the atelier of his uncle, Stache, where he worked at the votive altar for the chapel of St. Barbara in the cathedral of St. Stephen and co-operated in the restoration and con- struction of many castles, chiefly in Bohemia. Jour- neys of some length into (Jermany, Belgium, Holland, and England confirmed him in his tendency towards Romanticism. It w'as in Italy, however, where he was sent as a bursar in 1854, that he was converted to the Renaissance style of architecture. This was thenceforth his ideal, not because of its titanic gran- deur, but because of its beauty and sj^mmetrical harmony of proportion, realized pre-eminently in Bramante, his favourite master. He turned from the simplicity and restraint of the Late Renaissance to the use of polychromy by means of graffito decoration and terra-cotta. This device, adapted from the Early Renaissance and intendc'l to convey a fuller .sense of life, he employ(d later with marked success in the Austrian Museum.

While still in Italy he was awarded the prize in the

competition for the votive church (Votivkirche) of Vienna (1855) over seventy-four contestants, for the most part celebrated architects. In this masterpiece of modern ecclesiastical architecture he produced a structure of marvellous symmetry designed along strong architectural principles, with a simple, well- defined grovmd-plan, a harmonious correlation of details, and a sumptuous scheme of decoration (1856-79). After his death this edifice was pro- posed by Sykes as a model for the new Westminster cathedral in London. Another of Ferstel's monu- mental works belonging to the same period is the Austro-Himgarian bank in Vienna, in the style of the Early Italian Renaissance (1856-60) The ex- pansion of the city of Vienna enabled Ferstel, with Eitelberger, to develop civic architecture along artistic lines (burgomaster's residence, stock ex- change, 1859). At the same time he had also the op- portunity of putting his ideas into practice in a number of private dwellings and villas at Briinn and Vienna.

The more important buildings designed during his later years, passing over the churches at Brlmn and Schonau near Teplitz, really products of his earlier activity, are the palace of Archduke Ludwig Victor, his winter palace at Klessheini, the palace of Prince Johann Liechtenstein in the Rossau near Vienna, the palace of the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's, at Triest, but above all the Austrian Museum (completed in 1871), a masterpiece of interior economy of space with its im- posing aroaded court. Next to his civic and ecclesi- astical masterpieces comes the Vienna University, of masterly construction with wonderfully effective stairways (1871-84). Through a technical error his design for the Berlin Reichstag building received no award.

Ferstel is the most distinctively Viennese of all Viennese architects; able to give a structure beauty of design and harmony without prejudice to the purpose it was to subserve, and this because of his artistic versatility and inexhaustible imagination. These qualities also assured him success as a teacher, and were evident in his memoirs and numerous treatises, which are masterpieces of clearness. Special mention should be made of those which appeared in Forster's architectural magazine. In 1S66 Ferstel was ap- pointed professor at the Polytechnic School, in 1871 chief government inspector of public works and in 1879 was rai.sed to the rank of I'reiherr. At the time of his death he was still in the full vigour of his strength.

Pecht, Deutsche Kiinstler dcs 19. Jahrhunderts, III (Nord lingen, 1881), 140-70; Ferstel, in Allg. Deutsch. Biographic 48, 521 sqq.; Lutzow in suppl. to Zeitschrift f. Kunstwissen schaft, XVIII, 658 sqq. ; Hevesi, Oeslerreichische Kunst im 19, Jhdt. (Leipzig, 1903), II, 141 sqq. Joseph Sauer.

Fesch, Joseph, cardinal, b. at Ajaccio, Corsica, 3 January, 1763; d. at Rome, 13 May, 1839. He was the son of a captain of a Swiss regiment in the service of Genoa, studied at the seminary of Aix, was made archdeacon and provost of the chapter of .Ajaccio be- fore 1789, but W'as obliged to leave Corsica when his family sided with France against the English, who came to the island in an.swer to Paoli's summons. The young priest was half-brother to Letizia Ramolino, the mother of Napoleon I and upon arriving in France he entered the commissariat department of the army; later, in 1795, became commissary of war under Bona- parte, then in command of the Arm<''e d' Italic. When religious peace was re-established, Fesch made a month's retreat under the direction of Emery, the superior of Saint-Sulpice ;iiicl re-entered ecclesiastical life. During thc( '(msuliitc he became canon of Bastia and helped to negotiati' tlie Concordat of ISOl; on 15 August, 11S02, Caprara consecrated him Arch- bishop of Lyons, and in 1803 Pius VII created him cardinal.