364 N F N from the sleeping infant Christ, in the Escorial ; and the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon. Her own portrait in youth she was accounted very beautiful was perhaps her masterpiece ; it belongs to the Counts Zappi of Imola, the family into which Lavinia married. She is deemed on the whole a better painter than her father; from him naturally came her first instruction, but she gradually adopted the Caraccesque style, with strong quasi-Venetian colouring. She was elected into the Academy of Rome, and died in that city in 1614. FONTANA, PKOSPERO (1512-1597), a painter, was born in Bologna, and became a pupil of Innocenzo da Imola. He afterwards worked for Vasari and Pierino del Vaga. It was probably from Vasari that Fontana acquired a practice of offhand, self-displaying work. He undertook a multitude of commissions, and was so rapid that he painted, it is said, in a few weeks an entire hall in the Vitelli Palace at Citta di Castello. Along with daring, he had fertility of combination, and in works of parade he attained a certain measure of success, although his drawing was incorrect, and his mannerism palpable. He belongs to the degenerate period of the Bolognese school, under the influence chiefly of the imitators of Raphael Sabbatini, Sammachini, and Passerotti being three of his principal colleagues. His soundest successes were in portraiture, in which branch of art he stood so high that towards 1550 Michelangelo introduced him to Pope Julius III. as a portrait-painter ; and he was pensioned by this pope, and remained at the pontifical court with the three successors of Julius. Here he lived on a grand scale, and figured as a sort of arbiter and oracle among his professional brethren. Returning to Bologna, 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. His death took place in Rome in 1597. FONTANES, Louis, MARQUIS DE (1757-1821), French poet and politician, was born at Niort, in Poitou, March 6, 1757. He was a descendant of a noble Protestant family of Languedoc, banished by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, but afterwards converted to the Catholic faith and restored to their native land. Having completed his education at the college of Niort, he went in 1777, after the death of his father and brother, to Paris. He had already made several attempts in verse; and in 1778 he published a short descriptive poem entitled La Foret de Navarre. This procured him the notice and friendship of Ducis, and he was encouraged to persevere. During the next twelve years he published Le Cri de mon Cceur ; Le Jour des Marts dam une Campagne, an imitation of Gray s Elegy ; a translation of Pope s Essay on Man (1783), with an elegant introduction which attracted more attention than the poem itself ; Le Verger ; La Chartreuse de Paris ; and L Essai sur I Astronomie (1789). In this year appeared also his Epltre sur VEdit en Faveur des non- CatJwliques, which was crowned by the academy. The Revolution converted the poet into a journalist, and he took part in the editorship of the Mercure Francois and the Moderateur. Compelled to leave Paris after the death of the king, he withdrew to Lyons, where he married and remained till the arrival of Collot d Herbois in 1793. Driven again to lead a wandering life, he displayed at once his literary power, his patriotism, and his intrepidity in the eloquent petition on behalf of the Lyonnese victims of Collot d Herbois and his colleagues, which was presented to the convention in December of that year. For this bold appeal he was proscribed, and he owed his protection in concealment to the friendship of Madame Dufresnoy. After the fall of Robespierre, Fontanes was appointed pro fessor of belles lettres at the central school, and admitted a member of the Institute. About the same time he was associated with La Harpe in the conduct of the Memorial. For one of his articles he was condemned to banishment by the Directory and expelled from the Institute, He escaped to England, and there renewed his acquaintance with Chateaubriand, also an exile. Returning to France after the 18th Brumaire, he was soon after commissioned by the first consul to write the funeral oration on Washington, and this opened a new chapter in his life. Bonaparte, satisfied with the Eloge, admitted Fontanes to frequent in tercourse with him ; he was soon reinstated at the Institute, and became a member of the legislative body, of which in 1804 he was made president. He was also one of the first members of the Legion of Honour ; and in 1808 he was made grand master of the university. Fontanes was cen sured by the republican party for alleged servility to the emperor ; but apparently without reason. He was created count, and in 1810 was called to the senate. He voted for the deposition of Napoleon, retained his offices under the provisional government, and was made a peer by Louis XVIII. In February 1815 the post of grand master of the university was suppressed, and Fontanes was promoted grand cordon of the Legion of Honour. He remained passive during the Hundred Days, and after the second restoration of the Bourbons was made a privy councillor. The title of marquis was conferred on him in 1817. In January 1821 he was chosen president of the Societe" des Bonnes Lettres ; but his health had long been declining, and he died at Paris on the 17th of March of that year. He left unfinished a poem entitled La Grece Delivree, of which high expectations had been formed. A collected edition of the works of Fontanes was first published by Sainte-Beuve, with a critical and biographical memoir, in 1837. FONTARABIA. See FUENTEERABIA. FONTENAY-LE-COMTE, the chief town of an arron- dissement in the department of Vendee, France, is situated on both sides of the river Vendee at the point where it becomes navigable, 35 miles S,E. of La Roche-sur-Yon (Napoldon Vendee). The town has an antique and strag gling appearance, but there are some good houses in the suburbs. It possesses a communal college, a prison, a hospital, a theatre, the remains of an old castle which formerly belonged to the counts of Poitiers, and two old and beautiful churches, Notre Dame and St John. Both are of Romanesque architecture, terminated with Gothic spires, the spire of Notre Dame being 311 feet in height. The principal industries are the manufacture of coarse linen and woollen cloths, brewing, and tanning ; and there is a considerable trade in wine, fruits, timber, hemp, flax, and cattle. Fontenay occupies the site of an old Roman town. It was captured by the English in 1361, and during the wars of the Huguenots it was ten times besieged. Louis XIII. in 1621 ordered the demolition of its fortifications, and in 1649, during the rebellion against the parliament, it fell into the hands of the nobles of Poitou. In the time of the Revolution it was called Fontenay-le- Peuple. Population in 1876, 7309. FONTENELLE, BERNARD LE BOVIER DE (1657-1757), author of the Dialogues des Marts, Entretiens sur la Pluralite des Mondes, &c., was born at Rouen on the llth of February 1657, and died at 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 great Corneille. He was educated at the college of the Jesuits in his native city, and dis tinguished himself by the extraordinary precocity, as well
