Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/494

 482 FRESCO PAINTING Comtesse de * * *. This was suppressed in 1749, but resumed under the title Lettres sur quelques ecrits de ce temps, in which he was associated with the abb6 de La Porte. This was succeeded in 1754 by ISAnnee litteraire, which Freron conducted alone, and which was the chief foundation of his reputation. In this he showed himself an admirer of the age of Louis XIV., and a decided adversary of the new philosophical and literary doctrines. The severity of his criticisms produced against him the most violent hatred, and the rest of his life was a warfare with the encyclopaedists. Throughout the literary history of the time his name is inseparable from that of Voltaire, who was stung by the satires which appeared week- ly in DAnnee litteraire. Freron never missed an opportunity to attack him, and Voltaire re- paid him with equal malice. He stops in the midst of a grave historical discussion to insult Freron ; he assails him in his most dignified tragedies, as well as in La pucelle and Can- dide ; he hurls against him the philippic of Le pauvre diable, and in the comedy of Ucos- saise calls his journal L? Ane litteraire. Fr6ron sustained the conflict alone with considerable success, but was defeated at last and died in grief for the suppression of his journal. He is now remembered as a calm observer of the society of his time, and the founder of news- paper criticism in France. II. Louis Stanislas, a French revolutionist, son of the preceding, born in Paris in 1765, died in Hayti in 1802. A schoolfellow of Robespierre and Camille Des- moulins, he became one of the most fervent of the revolutionary party, and published a fero- cious newspaper, L 1 Orateur du Peuple. He was at the same time a member of the club of Cordeliers. He participated in the insurrection of Aug. 10, and in the slaughters of September, 1792, and was elected to the convention, where he took his seat among the Montagnards; he voted for the king's death, and contributed to the fall of the Girondists. Being appointed one of the commissaries sent with the army against Marseilles and Toulon, he signalized himself by such brutalities that he was censured even by the committee of public safety. After the death of Danton he sided with the Thermido- rians against Robespierre, and in conjunction with Barras commanded the troops who arrest- ed the dictator and his adherents at the hotel de ville. He pursued unrelentingly the mem- bers of the committee of public safety, procured the condemnation of Fouquier-Tinville, became the chief of a reactionary band of young men known as la jeunesse doree, was instrumental in suppressing the Jacobins, and energetically opposed all attempts at insurrection. Under the directory he was sent to the south on a mission of peace ; but his former cruelties were still remembered by the people. He accepted an appointment as subprefect in Hayti, and soon after his arrival there died of yellow fever. FRESCO PAINTING (Ital. fresco, fresh), a method of ornamenting the walls and ceilings of buildings by painting designs in colors ground in water and mixed with lime upon the freshly laid plaster. It was much practised by Italian masters during the three or four centuries immediately succeeding the revival of painting in modern times, and the walls of many Italian palaces, churches, and convents are still adorned with works executed by their hands. The outlines of the designs are first drawn upon thick paper attached to cloth, which is stretched upon a frame. These are called cartoons, from the Italian cartone, paste- board. An additional colored cartoon is also prepared to serve as a study of color, and a guide during the execution of the fresco. The famous cartoons of Raphael, now deposited in the South Kensington museum, London, are of this character, although made to be copied in tapestry. The cartoons serve to give copies upon tracing paper, and these being attached to the wall in portions of convenient size, the outline is transferred to the wet plaster by going over the lines with a sharp point. An- other method is to prick the figures through the cartoon, or upon a separate sheet laid be- hind it, and then, placing either the cartoon itself or the duplicate sheet upon the plaster, to dust through the holes a black coloring matter, which attaches itself in the lines of the figures to the walls. Several great painters have worked immediately on the plaster, with- out the intervention of any guide whatever. The preparation of the walls is an object of especial care. All the mortar should be fresh work, and of clean sand and good lime. When the rough coat is perfectly dry and hard, the smoother layers are added of the most carefully prepared mortar. In Munich, where fresco painting has been revived with some success during the present century, the lime is some- times slaked several years before it is used, and is kept, after thorough stirring and reduction to an impalpable consistency, in a pit covered with clean sand a foot or more in thickness, over which earth is laid. Pure rain or dis- tilled water should be used in mixing it, and also perfectly clean sand. The rough coat be- ing dampened till it will absorb no more water, the finer plaster is laid on, and when this be- gins to set a still finer coat, called by the Ital- ians the intonaco, and containing a smaller proportion of sand, is applied. Before this dries, the design must be transferred to it and the painting completed ; consequently only small portions of a fresco can be executed at one time. The drying may be checked by oc- casional sprinkling with water, or by keeping wet sheets pressed to the design, as it is at- tached to the wall. The joinings or lines be- tween the work of one day and that of the next are made to coincide with lines in the composition, or take place in shadows. As any retouching is impracticable, the painter must work rapidly before the ground becomes too dry to take the colors. If others are after- ward applied mixed with size, white of egg, or