Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/80

 FETI

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FETISHISM

to the Vaticanism pamplilet of Mr. Gladstone, and rested on just thesaiiir funii.iinrntal misunderstancliiig of the dogma of I'Mpal Infalliliility as d(>fined liy the Vatican Council. Tlu' Prussian (lovernnicut pminptly appointed Dr. Schulte to a professorship at Bonn, while it iniprisonetl Catholic priests and bishops. Fess- ler's reply, "Die wahre und die falsche Unfehlbarkeit der Piipste" (Vienna, 187 1 ), was translated into French by Cosquin, editor of " Le Frangais ", and into English by Father Ambrose St. John, of the Birmingham Ora- tory (The true and false Infallibility of tlie Popes, London, 1875). It is still an exceedingly valuable explanation of the true doctrine of Infallibility as taught by the great Italian " Ultramontane " theolo- gians, such as Bellarmine in the sixteenth century, P. Ballerini in the eighteenth, and Perrone in the nine- teenth. But it was difficult for those who had been fighting against the definition to realize that the " In- fallibilists" had wanted no more than this. Bishop Hefele of Rottenburg, who had strongly opposed the definition, and afterwards loyally accepted it, said he entirely agreed with the moderate view taken by Bishop Fessler, but doubted whether such views would be accepted as sound in Rome. It was clear, one would have thought, that the secretary of the council was likely to know; and the hesitations of the pious and learned Hefele were removed by the warm Brief of approbation which Pius IX addressed to the author. Anton Ehdinger. Dr. Joseph Fessler, Bischof v. St. Putten, ein Lebensbitd (Brixen, 1874); Mitterrl'tzner in Kirchcnlexi- kon; Granderath and Kirch, Geschichte des Vaticanischen Konzils (Freiburg im Br., 2 vols., 1903).

John Chapman.

Feti, DoMENico, an Italian painter; b. at Rome, 1589; d. at Venice, 1624. He was a pupil of Cigoli (Ludovico Cardi, 1559-161.3), or at least was much in- fluenced by this master during his sojourn in Rome. From the end of the sixteenth century Rome again became what she had ceased to be after the sack of 1527, the metropolis of the beautiful. The jubilee of the year 1600 marked the triumph of the papacy. Art, seeking its pole now at Parma, now at \'enice, now at Bologna, turning towards Rome, concentrated itself there. Crowds of artists flocked thither. This was the period in which were produced the master- pieces of the Carracci, Caravaggio, Domenichino, Guido, not counting those of many cosmopolitan artists, such as the brothers Bril, Elsheimer, etc., and between 1600 and 1610 Rubens, the great master of the century, paid three visits to Rome. This exceptional period was that of Domenico's apprenticeship; the labour, the unique fermentation in the world of art, resulted, as is well known, in the creation of an art which in its essential characteristics became for more than a cen- tury that of all Europe. For the old local and pro- vincial schools (Florentine, Umbrian, etc.) Rome had the privilege of substituting a new one which was characterized by its universality. Out of a mixture of so many idioms and dialects she evolved an interna- tional language, the style which is called baroque. The discredit thrown on this school should not lead us to ignore its grandeur. In reality, the reorganiza- tion of modern painting dates from it.

Domenico is one of the most interesting types of this great evolution. Eclecticism, the fusion of divers characteristics of Correggio, Barrochi, Veronese, was already apparent in the work of Cigoli. To these Feti added much of the naturalism of Caravaggio. From him he borrowed his vulgar types, his powerful mobs, his Bohemians, his beggars in heroic rags. From him also he borrowed his violent illuminations, his novel and sometimes fantastic portrayal of the picturesque, his rare lights and strong shadows, his famous chia- roscuro, which, nevertheless, he endeavoured to de- velop into full daylight and the diffuse atmosphere of out-of-doors. He did not have time to succeed completely in this. His colouring is often dim, crude,

and faded, though at times it assumes a golden patina and seems to solve the problem of conveying mysteri- ous atmospheric effects.

At an early age Domenico went to Mantua with Cardinal Gonzaga, later Duke of Mantua, to whom he became court painter (hence his surname of Manto- vano), and he felt the transient influence of Giulio Ro- mano. His frescoes in the cathedral, however, are the least characteristic and the feeblest of his works. Domenico was not a good frescoist. Like all modern painters he made use of oils too frequently. By de- grees he abandoned his decorative ambitions. He painted few altar-pieces, preference leading him to execute easel pictures. For the most part these dealt with religious subjects, but conceived in an intimate manner for private devotion. Scarcely any of his themes were historical, and few taken from among those, such as the Nativity, Calvary, or the entomb- ment, which had been presented so often by painters. He preferred subjects more human and less dogmatic, more in touch with daily life, romance, and poetry. He drew by preference from the parables, as in "The Labourers in the Vineyard", "The Lost Coin" (Pitti Palace, Florence), "The Good Samaritan", "The Re- turn of the Prodigal Son" (and others at the Museum of Dresden). Again he chose picturesque scenes from the Bible, such as "Elias in the Wilderness" (Berlin) and the history of Tobias (Dresden and St. Peters- burg).

It is astonishing to find in the canvases of this Ital- ian nearly the whole repertoire of Rembrandt's sub- jects. They had a common liking for the tenderest parts of the Gospel, for the scenes of every day, of the "eternal present", themes for genre pictures. But this is not all. Domenico was not above reproach. It was his e.xcesses which shortened his life. May we not assume that his art is but a history of the sinful soul, a poem of repentance such as Rembrandt was to present? There is fo\md in both painters the same confidence, the same sense of the divine Protection in spite of sin (cf. Feti's beautiful picture, "The Angel Guardian" at the Louvre), and also, occasionally, the same anguish, the same disgust of the world and the flesh as in that rare masterpiece, "Melancholy", in the same museum. Thus Domenico was in the way of becoming one of the first masters of lyric painting, and he was utilizing to the perfection of his art all thathe could learn at Venice when he died in that city, worn out with pleasure, at the age of thirty-four. There is no good life of this curious artist. His principal works are to be found at Dresden (11 pictures), St. Petersburg, Vienna, Florence, and Paris.

Baglione, Le rile de' pitlore (Rome. 1642), 155; Lanzi, Sloria pillorica delV llaliana (Milan, 1809); tr. RoscoE (Lon- don, 1847), I, 471; 11,339; Charles Blanc, //is/oiVe (ie5 petn- Ires: Ecole romaine (Paris, s. d.); Burckhardt, Cicerone, ed. Bode, Fr. tr. (Paris, 1897), 809, 816; Woehmann, Malerei (Leipzig, 1888), III, 233. LoDIS GiLLET.

Fetishism means the religion of the feti.sh. The word jetish is derived through the Portuguese feiti^o from the Latin farliiius (jacere, to do, or to make), signifying made b)' art, artificial (cf. Old English fetys in Chaucer). From jacio are derived many w'ords signifying idol, idolatry, or witchcraft. Later Latin has facturari, to bewitch, and factura, witchcraft. Hence Portuguese feitiro, Italian fdtntura, O. Fr. fai- lure, meaning witchcraft, magic. The word was prob- ably first applied to idols and amulets made by hand and supposed to possess magic power. In the early part of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese, explor- ing the West Coast of Africa, foimd the natives using small material objects in their religious worship. These they called jeitiro, but the use of the term has never extended beyond the natives on the coast. Other names are bohsum, the tutelary fetishes of the Cold Coast; suhman, a term for a private fetish; gree-yree on the Liberian coast; morula in the Gabun