Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/554

FUS his taste and style. As it was, he has left a name which will not soon be forgotten.—W. J. F.  FUSELI,, R.A., or correctly , was the son of J. C. Fuessly (see ), and was born at Zurich, February 7, 1741; he early displayed a taste for the arts, and inherited also his father's literary talents. He was educated in the Collegium Carolinum at Zurich, and was destined for the church; he took his M.A. deforce, and entered holy orders; but having, with his friend Lavater, succeeded in exposing the injustice of a Zurich magistrate, he was recommended to leave the city for a while to avoid the resentment of the family of the magistrate. Fuseli accordingly proceeded to Berlin in the spring of 1763. When there his friend Professor Sulzer advised him to visit England, which he did at the close of that year, in company with Sir Andrew Mitchell. In London, Fuseli found it not very difficult to turn his literary abilities to account; but he found it necessary to alter the spelling of his name to make it sound intelligible to the English public. He maintained himself for some years in this way, but in 1770, by the advice of Sir Joshua Reynolds, he adopted painting as his profession. He set out in that year for Italy, where he remained for eight years. He returned to London in 1779; and in 1782 attracted the public notice by a picture of the "Nightmare," exhibited that year at the Royal Academy—a work, which, like all the pictures of Fuseli, owed its attraction almost exclusively to its conception; his best pictures are technically but coarse sketches. He had exhibited in the two previous years some remarkable subjects from classical literature; but owing doubtless to his fatally imperfect execution, they attracted no notice. The "Nightmare," from its very grotesqueness, commanded attention, and the public recognized the talents of the painter. He next produced some works for Boydell's Shakspeare Gallery; and subsequently, what he termed his "Milton Gallery," forty-seven large pictures from the Paradise Lost. This great work occupied him only nine years; it was, however, time enough for him to throw his ideas intelligibly upon the canvas, and his painting amounted to nothing more. The ideas, however, were original and impressive; but he seems to have been somewhat of Blake's constitution of mind—his ideas did not proceed from what he saw, but what he saw proceeded from his ideas. This "Milton Gallery," however, was a source of great disappointment to the painter. After the closing of its exhibition in July, 1800, Fuseli observed to a friend—"I am fed with honour, and suffered to starve, if they could starve me." The pictures were nearly all taken back to his studio, and rolled up to be reserved, as he said, "for dust, the worm, and oblivion." Fuseli was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1788; he was married to Sophia Rawlins of Bath in the same year, and moved from St. Martin's Lane to 72 Foley Street, where his "Milton Gallery" was painted. On the 10th of February, 1790, he was elected an academician. Barry the professor of painting having been expelled the academy in 1799, Fuseli was elected in his place. He delivered his first three lectures in 1801, and they were published in the same year. In 1805 he became keeper, and resigned his professorship, but was re-elected in 1810, and continued professor of painting for the remainder of his life. He died April 16, 1825. He delivered in all twelve lectures, but they are very unequal in merit; the earlier ones are the most valuable—those on ancient and modern art, and those on invention and composition; they are very elaborate in their style; indeed their great defect is this prominence of form over substance; they show an incessant aim at epigrammatic terseness of style, or striking antithesis of idea. There is, however, much force in his expressions, and his subject seems to be pursued with an energy that never flags. His criticism too is mature, and often profound.—(Knowles, Life and Writings of Fuseli, 3 vols. 8vo, 1831.)—R. N. W.  FUSS,, a distinguished mathematician and natural philosopher, born at Basle in 1755; studied at the gymnasium and university of his native town under Bernoulli, who sent him when eighteen years of age to assist the celebrated Euler at St. Petersburg. In 1776 he was appointed associate, in 1783 member, and in 1800 principal secretary of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. In 1784 he became professor of the corps of noble land cadets, in 1792 secretary to the marine corps, and in 1800 a councillor of state. In 1802 he prepared the statutes for the university and schools of the empire, and in 1805 was nominated one of the council for organizing military schools. For his services in advancing the interests of science he was raised to the dignity of chevalier of the third class of the order of St. Vladimir, and awarded a pension. For fifty years he regularly contributed to the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, during which time he published several works on mathematics and astronomy. He died December 23rd, 1825.—W. A. B.  FUST or FAUST,, one of the inventors and first promoters of the noble art of printing—and not to be confounded, as he has often been, with Dr. Faustus, the German magician—was a wealthy citizen of Mentz in Germany, where he was born about the end of the fourteenth century. In 1450 he entered into partnership with John Guttenberg, who had come to that city from Strasburg with the rudiments of the new art, in order, by the help of his capital and skill, to improve the as yet rude process, and carry it out to practical effect. His servant, Peter Schöffer, whom he took with him into the business, proved a valuable auxiliary. It was he who invented punches and matrices for the making of movable types—a service for which Fust rewarded him with the hand of his daughter, and a partnership with himself. In 1455 Fust and Guttenberg quarrelled and separated, the latter returning to Strasburg, while Fust and Schöffer carried on their operations at Mentz with increasing success. The first production of their press was the Mazarine Bible (Latin), in folio, finished in 1455. It was followed by the Latin Psalter, folio, in 1457; the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum in 1459, which exhibited the first specimen of their smaller type; the Clementine Constitutions in 1460; Cicero's De Officiis and Paradoxa in 1465. Their earliest productions were printed on vellum, and brought for some time the prices of manuscript books—under the impression that they had been produced in the ordinary way. When the truth was known that their beautiful books were the fruits of a new art, the ingenious printers were publicly accused of fraud by their first customers; and it is said that Fust was obliged to leave Mentz in consequence of a decision given against him by the courts of justice. He withdrew to Strasburg, where he taught the art to John Mentel. He died in Paris of the plague in 1466, and was succeeded in the partnership with Schöffer by his son.—P. L.  FUX. See.  FYROZ, the name of three Mohammedan sovereigns of India:—, succeeded to the throne of Delhi in 1236, from which the Ghorides had been deposed by Altmish or Cuttub, his father. Devoted to pleasure, Fyroz squandered recklessly the revenues of the state, and at the end of seven months the sceptre was torn from his feeble grasp by his sister, Ruzía Begum.—, dethroned Kai Kobad in 1289, and reigned till 1296. Fyroz strove to secure the affection of his subjects by justice and generosity. He repelled an attack of the Moguls with much vigour; but he had not the energy to put down the marauding bands by which the country was infested. He was assassinated by his favourite nephew, Allah-ed-din Khilji.—, born in 1298; died in 1387; received the crown of Delhi in 1351 on the death of his cousin, Mohammed Toghluk. Distinguished as a patron of letters, he founded the city of Firozabad to be the capital of his dominions, and constructed canals, roads, bridges, mosques, caravansaries, and baths, whose remains still attest the wisdom and prosperity of his reign. In 1386 he abdicated in favour of his son, Mohammed Toghluk II.; but, in consequence of the incompetency of the new ruler, he had to resume the sceptre.—R. V. C.  FYT,, was born at Antwerp about 1625. He painted in the style of Snyders, birds, animals, and still-life with extraordinary ability; also fruit and flowers, ornamental vases, bas-reliefs, &c.; he was particularly successful in painting dogs, and he executed the skins or feathers of his subjects with sometimes a marvellous accuracy and minuteness, and occasionally with great freedom. Rubens and Jordaens both occasionally employed him in the accessories of their pictures. Fyt was also a skilful etcher; there are some admirable studies of dogs by him. A set published in 1642, signed "Joannes Fyt pinxit et fecit," has been twice republished since, but Fyt's name was erased from the third set. The year of his death is not known.—(Descamps, La Vie des Peintres, &c.; Bartsch, Peintre Graveur.)—R. N. W. 