professional brethren. Returning to Bologna, after doing some work in Fontainebleau and in Genoa, he opened a school of art, in which he became the preceptor of Lodovico and Agostino Caracci; but these pupils, standing forth as reformers and innovators, finally extinguished the academy and the vogue of Fontana. His subjects were in the way of sacred and profane history and of fable. He has left a large quantity of work in Bologna,—the picture of the “Adoration of the Magi,” in the church of S. Maria delle Grazie, being considered his masterpiece—not unlike the style of Paul Veronese. He died in Rome in 1597.
FONTANE, THEODOR (1819–1898), German poet and novelist,
was born at Neu-Ruppin on the 30th of December 1819. At
the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a chemist, and after
qualifying as an apothecary, he found employment in Leipzig
and Dresden. In 1844 he travelled in England, and settling
in Berlin devoted himself from 1849 to literature. He made
repeated journeys to England, interesting himself in old English
ballads, and as the first-fruits of his tours published Ein Sommer in London (1854); Aus England, Studien und Briefe (1860) and
Jenseit des Tweed, Bilder und Briefe aus Schottland (1860).
Fontane was particularly attached to the Mark of Brandenburg,
in which his home lay; he was proud of its past achievements,
and delighted in the growth of the capital city, Berlin. The
fascination which the country of his birth had for him may be
seen in his delightfully picturesque Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg (1862–1882, 4 vols.). He also described the wars of
Prussia in Der schleswig-holsteinische Krieg im Jahre 1864 (1866)
and Der deutsche Krieg von 1866 (1869). He proceeded to the
theatre of war in 1870, and, being taken prisoner at Vaucouleurs,
remained three months in captivity. His experiences he narrates
in Kriegsgefangen. Erlebtes 1870 (1871), and he published the
result of his observations of the campaign in Der Krieg gegen Frankreich 1870–71 (1874–1876). Like most of his contemporaries,
he at first sought inspiration for his poetry in the heroes
of other countries. His Gedichte (1851) and ballads Männer und Helden (1860) tell of England’s glories in bygone days. Then the
achievements of his own countrymen entered into rivalry, and
these, as an ardent patriot, he immortalized in poem and narrative.
It is, however, as a novelist that Fontane is best known.
His fine historical romance Vor dem Sturm (1878) was followed
by a series of novels of modern life: L’Adultera (1882); Schach von Wuthenow (1883); Irrungen, Wirrungen (1888); Stine (1890);
Unwiederbringlich (1891); Effi Briest (1895); Der Stechlin (1899),
in which with fine literary tact Fontane adapted the realistic
methods and social criticism of contemporary French fiction to
the conditions of Prussian life. He died on the 20th of September
1898 at Berlin.
Fontane’s Gesammelte Romane und Erzählungen were published in 12 vols. (1890–1891; 2nd ed., 1905). For his life see the autobiographical works Meine Kinderjahre (1894) and Von zwanzig bis dreissig (1898), also Briefe an seine Familie (1905); also F. Servaes, Theodor Fontane (1900).
FONTANES, LOUIS, Marquis de (1757–1821), French poet and
politician, was born at Niort (Deux Sèvres) on the 6th of March
1757. He belonged to a noble Protestant family of Languedoc
which had been reduced to poverty by the revocation of the edict
of Nantes. His father and grandfather remained Protestant,
but he was himself brought up as a Catholic. His parents died
in 1774–1775, and in 1777 Fontanes went to Paris, where he
found a friend in the dramatist J. F. Ducis. His first published
poems, some of which were inspired by English models, appeared
in the Almanach des Muses; “Le Cri de mon cœur,” describing
his own sad childhood, in 1778; and “La Forêt de Navarre”
in 1780. His translation from Alexander Pope, L’Essai sur l’homme,
was published with an elaborate preface in 1783, and
La Chartreuse and Le Jour des morts in the same year,
Le Verger in 1788 and his Épître sur l’édit en faveur des
non-catholiques, and the Essai sur l’astronomie in 1789.
Fontanes was a moderate reformer, and in 1790 he became
joint-editor of the Modérateur. He married at Lyons in 1792,
and his wife’s first child was born during their flight from the
siege of that town. Fontanes was in hiding in Paris when the four
citizens of Lyons were sent to the Convention to protest against
the cruelties of Collot d’Herbois. The petition was drawn up
by Fontanes, and the authorship being discovered, he fled from
Paris and found shelter at Sevran, near Livry, and afterwards
at Andelys. On the fall of Robespierre he was made professor
of literature in the École Centrale des Quatre-Nations, and he
was one of the original members of the Institute. In the
Mémorial, a journal edited by La Harpe, he discreetly advocated
reaction to the monarchical principle. He was exiled by the
Directory and made his way to London, where he was closely
associated with Chateaubriand. He soon returned to France,
and his admiration for Napoleon, who commissioned him to
write an éloge on Washington, secured his return to the Institute
and his political promotion. In 1802 he was elected to the legislative
chamber, of which he was president from 1804 to 1810.
Other honours and titles followed. He has been accused of
servility to Napoleon, but he had the courage to remonstrate
with him on the judicial murder of the duc d’Enghien, and as
grand master of the university of Paris (1808–1815) he consistently
supported religious and monarchical principles. He
acquiesced in the Bourbon restoration, and was made a marquis
in 1817. He died on the 17th of March 1821 in Paris, leaving
eight cantos of an unfinished epic poem entitled La Grèce sauvée.
The verse of Fontanes is polished and musical in the style of the 18th century. It was not collected until 1839, when Sainte-Beuve edited the Œuvres (2 vols.) of Fontanes, with a sympathetic critical study of the author and his career. But by that time the Romantic movement was in the ascendant and Fontanes met with small appreciation.
FONTENAY-LE-COMTE, a town of western France, capital
of an arrondissement in the department of Vendée 30 m. N.E.
of La Rochelle on the State railway between that town and
Saumur. Pop. (1906) town, 7639; commune, 10,326. Fontenay,
an ancient and straggling town, is situated a few miles south of
the forest of Vouvant and on both banks of the Vendée, at the
point where it becomes navigable. The church of Notre-Dame
(15th to 18th centuries), which has a fine spire and a richly
sculptured western entrance, and the church of St Jean (16th
and 17th centuries) are the chief religious buildings. The town
has several houses of the 16th and 17th centuries. The most
remarkable of these is the Hôtel de Terre Neuve (1595–1600),
which contains much rich decoration together with collections
of furniture and tapestry. Fontenay was the birthplace of many
prominent men during the 15th and 16th centuries, and the
Fontaine des Quatre-Tias, a fountain in the Renaissance style,
given to the town by King Francis I., commemorates the fact.
The chief square is named after François Viète, the great
mathematician, who was born at Fontenay in 1540. The public
institutions of the town include a tribunal of first instance and
a communal college. Among its industries are the manufacture
of felt hats, oil and soap and timber-sawing, flour-milling and
tanning. There is trade in horses, mules, timber, grain, fruit, &c.
Fontenay was in existence as early as the time of the Gauls. The affix of “comte” is said to have been applied to it when it was taken by King Louis IX. from the family of Lusignan and given to his brother Alphonse, count of Poitou, under whom it became capital of Bas-Poitou. Ceded to the English by the treaty of Brétigny in 1360 it was retaken in 1372 by Duguesclin. It suffered repeated capture during the Religious Wars of the 16th century, was dismantled in 1621 and was occupied both by the republicans and the Vendeans in the war of 1793. From 1790 to 1806 it was capital of the department of Vendée.
FONTENELLE, BERNARD LE BOVIER DE (1657–1757),
French author, was born at Rouen, on the 11th of February
1657. He died in Paris, on the 9th of January 1757, having
thus very nearly attained the age of 100 years. His father was
an advocate settled in Rouen, his mother a sister of the two
Corneille. He was educated at the college of the Jesuits in his
native city, and distinguished himself by the extraordinary
precocity and versatility of his talents. His teachers, who
readily appreciated these, were anxious for him to join their
