HAYDN, JOSEPH. – Musician, b. at Rohrau (Lower Austria), 31 March 1732, d. at Vienna, 31 May 1809. In 1745 he entered as a choirboy the choir of St Stephen’s in Vienna, but had to leave in 1749 because of the change of voice; he then passed several years of poverty during which the young Haydn continued his studies while earning his living by playing in orchestras and for nocturnal serenades.
Introduced by Metastasio to Niccolò Porpora, from whom he received some advice on composition, he later entered the service of Baron von Fürnberg and then of Count Morzin. His condition improved when in 1766 he was engaged by Prince Esterházy as vice-director and, after a few years, as sole director of the musical chapel; in this office he remained for about thirty years. In 1790–92 he was in England for a series of concerts which met with great success, as is also attested by the conferment upon him of the degree of Doctor of Music by the University of Oxford; after a second sojourn in England (1794) he secured an economic independence which enabled him to spend the last years of his life in serenity.
Haydn’s fame rests chiefly on his instrumental music, which in its various forms was soon recognized as a model of classical balance. Besides numerous compositions for various instruments, his most original work is to be seen in his symphonies and quartets, in which thematic development asserts itself as the most characteristic element of the new instrumental style. While his theatrical production, occasionally composed for the festivities at the Esterházy court, may be considered secondary, his religious output is of considerable importance; twelve Masses have come down to us (the last six, more significant, written between 1796 and 1802), two Te Deums, a Stabat Mater and a Requiem, as well as numerous cantatas. In 1775 he composed the oratorio *Il ritorno di Tobia*, in 1785 *Le sette parole di Cristo sulla Croce* (an instrumental composition later reworked with the addition of vocal parts in 1801); but his last two oratorios, *Die Schöpfung* (1798) and *Die Jahreszeiten* (1801), in their broad symphonic-choral conception, summarize the finest qualities of the master’s spiritual expression.
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HAYEZ, FRANCESCO. – Painter, b. at Venice, 10 Feb. 1791, d. at Milan, 18 Feb. 1882. Pupil of Lattanzio Quarena and, at the Academy, of Teodoro Matteini, he won in 1809 the competition for the pension at Rome, where he met Canova, who greatly encouraged and protected him; having won in 1812 the grand prize of the Brera Academy with his neoclassical *Laocoön*, he remained in Rome for more than five years, studying not only the antique works but also the paintings of Ingres and Camuccini.
Returning to Venice in 1821, he went to Milan, attracted by the extraordinarily lively artistic environment. In Milan he first painted historical pictures in the Royal Palace, but soon was called to teach at the Brera Academy. Having initially oriented himself in the Roman milieu towards neoclassicism, which benefited him especially in technical discipline, he subsequently devoted himself to historical subjects painted with the aims and sensibility of a romantic (e.g. *Vespri siciliani*, Gallery of Modern Art, Rome; *Last Farewell of Juliet to Romeo*, Gallery of Modern Art, Milan), and above all to portraits, in which field he truly excelled for his acute interpretative sensitivity, technical mastery and exquisite chromatic sense. The portrait of Rossini, that of Alessandro Manzoni and that of Signora Luva, all in Milan, distributed between the Brera Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art, as well as that of the Princess of S. Antimo in the Museum of S. Martino at Naples, are undoubtedly among the most beautiful paintings of the 19th century.