Joseph Fesch
| His Eminence Joseph Fesch | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal-Archbishop of Lyon | |
 Cardinal Fesch by Charles Meynier |
|
| See | Lyon |
| Enthroned | 15 August 1802 |
| Reign ended | 13 May 1839 |
| Other posts | Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Vittoria (1803–1822); in commendam (1822–1839) Cardinal-Priest of San Lorenzo in Lucina Grand Almoner of France (1805 - 1814) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1787 |
| Consecration | 15 August 1802 by Giovanni Battista Caprara |
| Created Cardinal | 17 January 1803 |
| Rank | Cardinal-Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 January 1763 Ajaccio, Kingdom of France |
| Died | 13 May 1839 (aged 76) Rome, Papal States |
| Nationality | French |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Coat of arms |  |
Joseph Fesch (January 3, 1763 – May 13, 1839) was a French cardinal, closely associated with the family of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was also one of the most famous art collectors of his period.
Contents |
Biography [edit]
Fesch was born at Ajaccio in Corsica. His father, a Swiss officer in the service of the Genoese Republic, had married the mother of Laetitia Bonaparte, after the death of her first husband. Fesch therefore fulfilled the role of an uncle to the young Bonapartes, and after the 1791 death of Luciano Buonaparte, archdeacon of Ajaccio, he became for a time the protector and patron of the family. In 1789, when the French Revolution broke out, he was archdeacon of Ajaccio, and, like the majority of the Corsicans, he felt repugnance for many of the acts of the French government during that period; in particular he protested against the application to Corsica of the act known as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790). As provost of the "chapter" in that city he directly felt the pressure of events; for on the suppression of religious orders and corporations, he was constrained to retire into private life.
Thereafter he shared the fortunes of the Napoleon Bonaparte family in the intrigues and strifes which ensued. Drawn gradually into espousing the French cause against Pasquale Paoli and the Anglophiles, he was forced to leave Corsica and to proceed with Laetitia and her son to Toulon, in early autumn, 1793. Failing to find clerical duties at that time (the Reign of Terror), he took several posts in civil life, until on the appointment of Napoleon Bonaparte to the command of the French "Army of Italy" he became a commissary attached to that army. This part of his career is obscure, but his fortunes rose rapidly when Napoleon became First Consul, after the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (November 1799). When the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion was in the mind of the First Consul, Fesch resumed his clerical vocation and took an active part in the complex negotiations which led to the signing of the Concordat with the Holy See on July 15, 1801. His reward came in being made Archbishop of Lyon in August 1802. Six months later he received a further reward for his past services, being raised to the dignity of cardinal.
Appointed by Napoleon 4 April 1803 to succeed Cacault on the latter's retirement from the position of French ambassador at Rome,[1] Fesch was assisted by Châteaubriand, but soon sharply differed with him on many questions. Towards the close of 1804, Napoleon entrusted to Fesch the difficult task of securing the presence of Pope Pius VII at the forthcoming coronation of the emperor at Notre Dame, Paris (December 2, 1804). His tact in overcoming the reluctance of the pope (it was only eight months after the execution of the duc d'Enghien) received further recognition. He received the grand cordon of the Legion d'Honneur, became grand-almoner of the empire and had a seat in the French senate. He was to receive further honours. In 1806 one of the most influential of the German clerics, Karl von Dalberg, then prince-bishop of Regensburg, chose him to be his coadjutor and designated him as his successor.
Subsequent events damaged his prospects. In the course of the years 1806-1807 Napoleon came into sharp collision with the pope on various matters both political and religious. Fesch sought in vain to reconcile them. Napoleon was inexorable in his demands, and Pius VII refused to give way where the discipline and vital interests of the church seemed to be threatened. The emperor several times rebuked Fesch for what he thought to be weakness and ingratitude. It is clear, however, that the cardinal went as far as possible in counselling the submission of the spiritual to the civil power. For a time he was not on speaking terms with the pope; and Napoleon recalled him from Rome.
Affairs came to a crisis in the year 1809, when Napoleon issued at Vienna the decree of May 17, ordering the annexation of the Papal States to the French empire. In that year Napoleon conferred on Fesch the archbishopric of Paris, but he refused the honour. He, however, consented to take part in an ecclesiastical commission formed by the emperor from among the dignitaries of the Gallican Church, but in 1810 the commission was dissolved. The hopes of Fesch with respect to Regensburg were also damped by an arrangement of the year 1810 whereby Regensburg was absorbed in Bavaria.
In the year 1811 the emperor convoked a national council of Gallican clerics for the discussion of church affairs, and Fesch was appointed to preside over their deliberations. Here again, however, he failed to satisfy the inflexible emperor and was dismissed to his diocese. The friction between uncle and nephew became more acute in the following year. In June 1812, Pius VII was brought from his first place of detention, Savona, to Fontainebleau, where he was kept under surveillance in the hope that he would give way in certain matters relating to the Concordat and in other clerical affairs. Fesch ventured to write to the aged pontiff a letter which came into the hands of the emperor. His anger against Fesch was such that he stopped the sum of 150,000 forms which had been accorded to him.
The disasters of the years 1812-1813 brought Napoleon to treat Pius VII with more lenity and the position of Fesch thus became for a time less difficult. On the first abdication of Napoleon (April 11, 1814) and the restoration of the Bourbons, he, however, retired to Rome where he received a welcome. The events of the Hundred Days (March–June, 1815) brought him back to France; he resumed his archiepiscopal duties at Lyon and was further named a member of the senate. On the second abdication of the emperor (June 22, 1815) Fesch retired to Rome, where he spent the rest of his days in dignified ease, surrounded by numerous masterpieces of art, many of which he bequeathed to the cities of Lyon and Ajaccio. He died at Rome.
Paintings owned by Fesch [edit]
The Fesch collection included almost 16,000 paintings (not all at the same time). The core was Italian works of the Renaissance to the 18th century, but Fesch also had a number of Dutch Golden Age paintings and contemporary French works,[2] as well as a number of classical sculptures. Fesch was a fairly early collector of Quattrocento paintings, or "Italian Primitives". The Musée Fesch, Ajaccio contains much of Fesch's collection, including works by Botticelli, Giovanni Bellini, Titian and others. Another part, including the works considered most important, was sold by auction in 1845. Paintings not in Lyons or Ajaccio include:[3]
- The Entombment (Michelangelo), National Gallery, London
- St. Jerome in the Wilderness, Leonardo da Vinci, Vatican Museums
- Adoration of the Shepherds (Giorgione), NGA, Washington, who also have a Nativity by Perino del Vaga, Saint Martin Dividing His Cloak by Jan Boeckhorst and The Larder by Antonio Maria Vassallo.[4]
- Mond Crucifixion, Raphael, National Gallery, London
- Portrait of a Seated Woman with a Handkerchief, now attributed to Carel Fabritius rather than Rembrandt, Art Gallery of Ontario, Totonto.
- Adoration of the Magi, Bramantino, National Gallery, London, who have other works including a Philippe de Champaigne Vision of St Joseph, a Vincenzo Foppa & a Botticelli.
- Last Judgement Fra Angelico, in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.
- The Broken Mirror, Greuze, Wallace Collection, London, who have another Greuze, an Anthony van Dyck Virgin and Child, a Philippe de Champaigne Annunciation, and a Hobbema.
- Hunting in the Lagoon, Vittore Carpaccio, Getty Museum, originally part of the same composition as his Two Venetian Ladies
- Saints George and Dominic, side panels from an altarpiece, Carlo Crivelli, Metropolitan Museum of Art[5]
- Lamentation of Christ, Scipione Pulzone, MMA
Notes [edit]
- ^ Goyau, Catholic Encyclopedia.
- ^ Cardinal Fesch and the art of his time, exhibition
- ^ Getty Provenance Index Databases
- ^ NGA Fesch
- ^ MMA, Crivelli
See also [edit]
References [edit]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.The following references are given for the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article on Joseph Fesch:
- Jean Baptiste Lyonnet, Le Cardinal Fesch (2 vols., Lyon, 1841)
- Louis Gustave Ricard, Le Cardinal Fesch (Paris, 1893)
- Henri Welschinger, Le Pape et l'empereur, 1804-1815 (Paris, 1905)
- Frédéric Masson, Napoleon et sa famille (4 vols., Paris, 1897–1900)
Pierre-Louis-Théophile-Georges Goyau (1913). "Joseph Fesch". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
External links [edit]
- The Age of Napoleon, which includes an entire chapter on Fesch
- "Fesch, Joseph". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
- Spencer Napoleonica Collection at Newberry Library
Coat of arms of S.E. Cardinal Joseph Fesch
|
