The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (169 page)

(1426–64).
Florentine goldsmith, engraver, designer, and craftsman in
niello
(a type of decorative metal inlay).
Vasari
asserts that he was the inventor of copper engraving and although this claim has been discredited, Finiguerra was certainly one of the earliest to use that medium, which was first developed in Italy as an extension of
niello
work, in which he was the most famous practitioner of his day. He was a pupil of
Ghiberti
and seems to have collaborated with Antonio del
Pollaiuolo
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Fitzwilliam Museum
.

The museum and art gallery of the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 and is one of the oldest public museums in Great Britain. Like the
Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford it has been built up almost entirely from private benefactions. The founder, the 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam (1745–1816), bequeathed to the University a typical gentleman's collection of the 18th cent., which included Italian High
Renaissance
paintings, and the best collection of
Rembrandt
etchings then in England. He also left £100,000 for a building, which was begun in 1837 by George Basevi , continued by C. R. Cockerell after Basevi's death in 1845, and finished by E. M. Barry in 1875. It opened to the public in 1848. Among the bequests to the museum the most noteworthy after the founder's was that of Charles Brinsley Marlay (1831–1912), which enriched all departments. Sir Sydney Cockerell (1867–1962) has been the most remarkable director of the museum (1908–37). According to
The Dictionary of National Biography
, he ‘transformed a dreary and ill-hung provincial gallery into one which set a new standard of excellence which was to influence museums all over the world. This he achieved by the skilful and uncrowded display of pictures against suitable backgrounds, and by the introduction of fine pieces of furniture, Persian rugs, and flowers provided and arranged by lady admirers, fired by his enthusiasm.’ In Cockerell's own words, ‘I found it a pig stye, I turned it into a palace.’ The museum's collections are now extremely wideranging; the areas of greatest richness include Italian painting and Greek coins.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

fixative
.

A liquid applied to drawings in
chalk
,
charcoal
, or
pastel
(usually by means of spraying) to prevent the
pigments
from rubbing off, by binding them together and securing them to the
ground
. It is most needed for pastels, but it tends to reduce their brilliance.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Flack , Audrey
.

See
SUPERREALISM
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1809–64).
French painter. He was one of the favourite pupils of
Ingres
and won the
Prix de Rome
in 1830. In Italy he was influenced by the monumental decorative tradition and after his return to Paris in 1838 he became the leading muralist of his day, painting vast compositions in such churches as St Vincent-de-Paul (1849–53) and St Germain-des-Prés (1856–61) in Paris. He was a zealous but rather frigid upholder of Ingres's theories. Flandrin was an excellent portraitist and also painted historical and mythological works. He came from a family of artists. His brothers
Auguste
(1804–43) and
Paul
(1811–1902) were pupils of Ingres, and concentrated mainly on portraiture and landscape respectively; his son
Paul Hippolyte
(1856–1921) painted religious, historical, and
genre
scenes.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1755–1826).
English sculptor, draughtsman, and designer, an outstanding figure of the
Neoclassical
movement. He was the son of a moulder of plaster figures, and after studying at the
Royal Academy
School (where he met his life-long friend
Blake
) he worked for the potter Josiah Wedgwood from 1775 to 1787. The designs he produced for Wedgwood not only strengthened his interest in
antique
art but also developed the innate sensitivity to line that was his greatest gift. At the same time he gradually built up a practice as a sculptor. In 1787 he went to Rome to direct the Wedgwood studio and stayed for seven years. While there he drew his illustrations, much influenced by Greek vase painting, to the
Iliad
and the
Odyssey
, engraved and published in Rome in 1793, followed by illustrations to Aeschylus (1795) and Dante (1802). These engravings, which are of exceptional purity of outline, were republished in several editions, and won him international fame. His later illustrations to Hesiod (1817) were engraved by Blake . He returned to England in 1794 with a well-established reputation and immediately became a busy sculptor. His monument to the poet William Collins (Chichester Cathedral, 1795) and the more important one to Lord Mansfield (Westminster Abbey, 1795–1801) were commissioned while he was in Rome. His enormous practice as a maker of monuments included large groups with free-standing figures (
Lord Nelson
, St Paul's Cathedral, 1809), but his most characteristic work appears in simpler and smaller monuments, sometimes cut in low
relief
. In these his great gift for linear design was given full play. Flaxman was appointed the first Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy in 1810 and his reputation among Neoclassical sculptors was exceeded only by those of
Canova
and possibly
Thorvaldsen
. He was one of the first English artists to be famous outside his own country, although his reputation and influence were based principally on engravings after his drawings rather than his sculpture. University College London has a large collection of Flaxman's drawings and models, and examples of his monuments can be seen in churches throughout England.