des Sculptures Modernes, where we may trace the rapid decline and
utter degradation of French sculpture during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, and some signs of its recovery during the
revolutionary period. Many causes contributed to the decay; the
essentially bourgeois and commonplace taste of Colbert and the
influence of his artistic henchman, Lebrun; the slavish worship of
Graeco-Roman and Roman models, fostered by the creation of the Ecole de
Rome; and the teachings of critics like Lessing and Winkelmann, who
drew their inspiration not from pure Greek models, but from the
decadent and sterile art of the Empire, stored in the Vatican. Among
the artists whose individuality stands forth from the mass of
sculptures in these rooms is Charles Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720), who
gives his name to Room I. to the L. of the vestibule. His chief works
are in the "royal pandemonium," at Versailles, but in the vestibule
will be found excellent examples of his art, 555, Nymph with a shell,
and 560, Shepherd playing a flute. In Room I., 561, Marie Adelaide of
Savoy as Diana; 557, a fine bronze bust of the great Conde and a bust
of Ant. Coypel acquired in 1910, are worth attention, as is also 552,
the grand monument to Mazarin in Room II. Pierre Puget (1622-1694),
who gives his name to this hall, began his career as a carver of
figure-heads at the arsenals of Toulouse and Marseilles. He was the
chief exponent of the bombastic and exuberant art of the century, and
the inventor of the peculiar gusty draperies in statuary known as the
_coup de vent dans la statuaire_. 794, Milo (the famous athlete of
Crotona), attacked by a Lion, his most popular work, and 796, a
relief, Diogenes and Alexander, esteemed by Gonse one of the most
_eclatante_ creations of modern sculpture, will be found in this room.
Some bronzes, 702-704, Louis XIII., Anne of Austria, and the child
Louis XIV., from an old monument on the Pont au Change by Simon
Guillain (1581-1658) are of interest. The Coustous, Nicholas
(1658-1733) and Guillaume (1677-1746), nephews and pupils of Coysevox
are represented in Room III. 547, Apollo presenting the Image of Louis
XIV. to France (embrasure of window); 548, Adonis (centre of room);
549, Julius Caesar; and 550, Louis XV., are due to the former: the
statue of Louis' queen Maria Leczinska, 543, to the latter, whose
masterpiece, the Horse-tamers of Marly, stands at the entrance of the
Champs Elysees opposite Coysevox', Mercury and Fame on winged horses,
at the entrance to the Tuileries Gardens. J.B. Pigalle (1714-1785) is
but poorly represented by: 785, a bronze bust of Guerin; and 781, a
Mercury in lead, which has much suffered from exposure to the
atmosphere in the Luxembourg Gardens. A most talented portraitist in
marble was J.J. Caffieri (1725-1792), whose seven masterly busts in
the foyer of the Theatre Francais, paid for by free passes, which the
artist promptly sold, will be familiar to playgoers. His diploma work,
The River, 518 (L. of entrance), and a bust of the poet Nivelle de la
Chaussee, 519 (embrasure of window), will be found in this room. J.A.
Houdon (1741-1828), whose admirable bust of Moliere, and marvellously
vivid statue of the seated Voltaire--the greatest production of
eighteenth-century French sculpture--will be also known to playgoers
at the Francais, gives his name to Room IV. Few artists maintained so
high and consistent a standard of excellence.[201] 716 is a replica in
bronze of a statue of Diana, executed for the Empress Catherine II. of
Russia; 708, Diderot; 711, Rousseau; 712 Voltaire; 713, Franklin; 715,
Washington; 717, Mirabeau, are busts of revolutionary heroes of which
many replicas exist, executed at seventy-two francs each (if with
shoulders ninety-six francs), to save himself from starvation during
the revolutionary period. Two exquisitely charming terra-cotta busts
in glass cases of the children, Louise and Alexandre Brogniart, and
1034, 1035, the original busts in plaster of Mme. Houdon and Sabine
Houdon, will also be noted. Like Caffieri, Houdon was an _habitue_ of
the Francais, and in his old age would totter to the theatre supported
by his servant, to calmly sleep the performance out. A favourite
exponent of the suave and languishing style that appealed to the
decadent tastes of the age was Antoine Pajou (1730-1809) here
represented by 775, a Bacchante, and 772, Maria Leczinska as Charity.
Other two works by Pigalle, 782, Love and Friendship, and 783, bust of
Marshal Saxe, may be noticed before quitting this room. Room V. is
dedicated to A.D. Chaudet (1763-1810), whose diploma work, Phorbas and
OEdipus, 533, is here shown; 537, a Bacchante, is a rather poor
example of the art of Claude Michel (1738-1814), known as Clodion
whose popularity rivalled that of his master Pajou, and whose
prodigious output of marble and terra-cotta sculpture failed to keep
pace with the demands of his clients. 777 is Pajou's, The Forsaken
Psyche. By the seductive and sentimental Canova are 523 and 524,
variants of a favourite theme, Love and Psyche.[202] With some sense
of relief we enter the more invigorating atmosphere of Room VI., named
after the sturdy Francois Rude (1784-1855), who flung off the yoke of
the Roman classicists, and from whose simple, austere atelier issued
works instinct with a new life, such as the dramatic group, The
Departure of the Volunteers of 1792, on the E. base of the Triumphal
Arch of the Etoile. Rude, who rescued the art from the fetid
atmosphere of a corrupt society and emancipated it from a hide-bound
pedagogy, is here represented by his Jeanne d'Arc, 813; Maurice de
Saxe, 811; and 815, Napoleon awakening to Immortality, a model for a
monument to the Emperor. In the centre are 810, Mercury in bronze, and
the Neapolitan fisher lad (no number). Rude's contemporary and
fellow-liberator, David d'Angers (1789-1856), chiefly renowned for his
pediment sculpture on the Pantheon (p. 330) is here represented by
566, Philopoeman, the famous general of the Achaen League; busts of
Arago and of Beranger; 567 _bis_, Child and Grapes, and a series of
medals in the embrasures of the windows. Of Antoine Barye (1796-1875),
pupil of pere Rude and another victorious assailant of the "Bastille
of Classicism," this room exhibits three masterly works in bronze;
494, Centaur and Lapith; 495, Jaguar and Hare; and (no number), Tiger
and Crocodile. A later contemporary and excellent master was Jean
Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875), after whom Room VII. is named. Here
stand his models for the famous group, Dancing, which adorns the Opera
facade; and for The Four Quarters of the World, at the Fountain of the
Observatoire. Among others of his productions may be cited a bronze
group, Ugolino and his Children. In a new room (Salle Moderne) are
some more recent works transferred from the Luxembourg, among which is
Chapu's Joan of Arc.
[Footnote 201: _Copiez, copiez toujours et surtout copiez juste_ was
his favourite maxim.]
[Footnote 202: The best criticism passed on this facile artist was
uttered by Flaxman: "That man's hand is too great for his head."]
SECTION V
_The Louvre (continued)--Pictures: First Floor._
(_a_) FOREIGN SCHOOLS.
We enter by the Pavilion Denon, in the middle of the S. wing, opposite
the Squares du Louvre which are bounded on the W. by the Place du
Carrousel and the monument to Gambetta. Turning L. along the Galerie
Denon we mount the Escalier Daru to the first landing below the Winged
Victory (p. 341), turn R., ascend to a second landing, and on either
side find two charming frescoes from the Villa Lemmi, which was
decorated by Botticelli to celebrate the Nuptials of Lorenzo
Tornabuoni and Giovanna Albizzi.[203] To the L., 1297, The Three
Graces are presented to the bride; R., 1298, The Seven Liberal Arts to
the bridegroom. The latter fresco is generally believed to have been
the work of a pupil. On the wall that forms an angle with this is a
fresco, The Crucifixion, 1294, by Fra Angelico from the Dominican
monastery at Fiesole. A door L. of 1297 leads to
ROOM VII.
containing a small but choice collection of early Italian paintings,
all of which will repay careful study. We note on the entrance wall,
1260, a Virgin and Child by Cimabue--if indeed we may now assign any
work to that elusive personality.[204] L. of this is a genuine Giotto,
1312, described by Vasari: St. Francis receiving the Stigmata. In the
predella, Vision of Pope Innocent III.; Papal Confirmation of the
Rule; The Saint preaching to the Birds--each scene portrayed with all
the sweet simplicity of a chapter in the Fioretti. Below 1260 is a
predella, 1302, by Taddeo Gaddi: Death of the Baptist; the
Crucifixion; Martyrdom of the Saint. On the R. wall is 1301, a
conventional early Florentine Annunciation by Agnolo Gaddi, his pupil.
Among the early Sienese on the L. wall is 1383, a charming little
Simone Martini: Christ bearing the Cross. The gem of the collection
and one of the most precious pictures in Europe is 1290, on this wall,
Fra Angelico's Coronation of the Virgin, which Vasari declared might
have been painted by one of the blessed spirits or angels represented
in the picture, so unspeakably delightful were their forms; so gentle
and delicate their mien, so glorious their coloration. "Even so," he
adds, "must they be in heaven and I never gaze on this picture without
discovering fresh beauties, nor withdraw my eyes from it, satisfied
with seeing." The scenes in the predella are from the life of St.
Dominic and form an interesting parallel with those of the Giotto.
Other works by the angelic master are (L. of this) 1293, Martyrdom of
SS. Cosmas and Damian, and 1294A, The Resurrection: R. is 1291, The
Dance of Herodias. R. of 1383 is 1278 by Gentile da Fabriano: The
Presentation, a portion of a predella. To the same is also attributed
by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 1279, Virgin and Child and Donor, Pandolfo
Malatesta. 1422 _bis_, is by Pisanello: Portrait of a Princess of the
House of Este, identified by Mr G.F. Hill, from the sprig of juniper
in her dress, as Ginevra d'Este, married to Sigismondo Malatesta in
1435. R. of 1291 is 1319, the Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas by
Benozzo Gozzoli, described by Vasari. On opposite wall, 1272, formerly
assigned to Masaccio: portraits of Giotto, the artist himself Paolo
Uccelo, Donatello, Manetti and Brunelleschi; painted, says Vasari,
"that posterity might keep them in memory." R. of this is 1273, a
battle scene by the same, similar to that in our National Gallery.
Both had been badly restored even in Vasari's time. L. of 1272 are
1343 and 1344: a Nativity, and a Virgin and Child with Angels and
Saints adoring, by Fra Filippo Lippi. The former, according to
gossiping Vasari, was executed at the Convent of S. Margherita at
Prato where having been smitten by the _bellissima grazia ed aria_ of
one of the novices, Lucrezia Buti, Fra Lippo painted her portrait in
this picture, fell madly in love, and eloped[205] with her: the latter
exquisite painting Vasari extols as a most rare work which was held in
the greatest esteem by the masters of his day. Opposite on L. wall is
1525, a predella: Birth of the Virgin, considered by Crowe and
Cavalcaselle an excellent example of Luca Signorelli's art. R. wall,
1321, the Visitation, and 1322, an intimate domestic scene, painted
with much tenderness, a bibulous old Florentine magistrate bending to
embrace his little grandson, are masterly works by Domenico
Ghirlandaio. 1296, Virgin and Child and St. John, is a beautiful early
work by Botticelli, and 1367 is a like subject by Mainardi, in a
tondo, a popular form of composition invented by Botticelli. R. of
exit is 1295, a copy of the master's famous Madonna of the Magnificat
at Florence. L. wall, 1263, Virgin and Child, SS. Julian and Nicholas
by Lorenzo di Credi, highly eulogised by Vasari as the artist's most
careful work in oil wherein he surpassed himself. 1566 (L. of exit),
is an indifferent late painting by Perugino. In the lunette over the
door is a Raphael school fresco formerly attributed to the master and
bought for the sum of 207,000 francs in 1875! We now enter the long
GRANDE GALERIE, ROOM VI.
and begin with Section A. On the R. is 1565, Holy Family, by Perugino.
1567, Combat of Love and Chastity, by the same, was painted in 1505 to
the elaborate specification of the enthusiastic and acquisitive patron
of the renaissance, Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua, for her
famous "Grotta." The artist's slovenly execution of the work brought
him a well-deserved rebuke from the Marchioness. 1261, by Lorenzo
Costa, a flattering symbolic representation of the Court at Mantua was
also painted for her. Isabella, to whom a Cupid hands a laurel crown,
is seen standing near a grove of trees, surrounded by poets and
philosophers.
[Footnote 203: For further details, we may refer the reader to Vernon
Lee's essay: "Botticelli at the Villa Lemmi," _Juvenilia_ I.]
[Footnote 204: "It cannot be proved that a single picture attributed
to Cimabue was painted by him." Editorial Note to new edition of
_Crowe and Cavalcaselle_, I., p. 181.]
[Footnote 205: Crowe and Cavalcaselle, however, assign the work to
Pesellino, who is represented in this room by two small pictures, 1414
and 1415, on the wall.]
Among the Francias we distinguish, 1436, a Crucifixion; 1556 is a
Pieta by Cosimo Tura in the characteristic hard manner of the
Ferrarese master, being the upper portion of the central altar-piece,
Virgin and Child Enthroned, in the National Gallery; 1417, Virgin and
Child with two Saints, is a doubtful Pinturicchio; 1114, Virgin and
Child between SS. Jerome and Zanobi is a good example of
Albertinelli's pleasing but somewhat characterless style; 1516 and
1516A are two Andrea del Sartos; 1264 is another Lorenzo di Credi:
Christ and the Magdalen. Last of all we note 1418, a rather inky
Nativity, in the grand and broad-manner of the later Roman School by
Giulio Romano, much admired by Vasari.
We return to the L. wall and note 1526, Signorelli's Adoration of the
Magi; further on are 1154, an excellent Fra Bartolomeo, The Holy
Family, and 1153, The Annunciation, a graceful and suave composition,
original in treatment, by the same master. We pass to some more Andrea
del Sartos: 1515, according to Vasari, a _Nostra Donna bellissima_,
was painted in quick time for Francis I., and 1514, Charity, was
executed in Paris for the _gran re_ and highly esteemed by him. This
picture has much suffered by transference from the worm-eaten original
panel to canvas, in 1750, and by a later restoration in 1799. We are
soon arrested by some masterpieces of the Milanese school, and first
by the Da Vincis: 1599 is the famous Virgin of the Rocks, whose
genuineness is warmly championed by French critics as against the
similar picture in the National Gallery stoutly defended as the
original by English authorities. Professor Legros with impartial
judgment assures us that both are copies of a lost original; 1597, a
doubtful attribution, is a rather effeminate John the Baptist, by some
critics believed to be a second Gioconda portrait; 1600, the supposed
portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli, mistress of Ludovico il Moro, is also
ascribed by the official catalogue to Da Vinci. It would, however, be
hard to persuade us that Leonardo had any hand in this portrait,
excellent though it be, which seems rather by Beltraffio, Solario, or
another of the Milanese masters; 1602, Bacchus, is another doubtful
Leonardo. 1488, L. of 1597, is an admirable work by Sacchi: Four
Doctors of the Church with symbols of the Evangelists. By Solario, a
younger contemporary of Da Vinci, are 1532, a Crucifixion; 1530, a
masterpiece, the much admired Virgin of the Green Cushion; and 1533,
Head of the Baptist.
The sweet and tender Luini is seen almost at his best in 1355, Salome
with the Baptist's head: other works by him are 1362, Silence, and
1353, a Holy Family. At the end of this section hangs 1169,
Beltraffio's, Virgin of the Casio Family, esteemed by Vasari the
painter's best production. We proceed to Section B, same wall, where
hang two grand Mantegnas, painted for Isabella d'Este's "Grotta,"
towards the end of the artist's career. 1375, Parnassus, executed in
1497, represents the Triumph of Venus over Mars, celebrated by Apollo
and the Muses--a delightful group of partially draped female figures
dancing to Apollo's lyre; 1376, Triumph of Virtue (_virtu_, mental and
moral excellence) over the Vices of Sensuality and Sloth, a less
successful composition, executed in 1502. Another masterpiece is 1374,
Our Lady of Victory, a noble and virile work, painted in 1496 to
commemorate the defeat of the French at Taro in 1495 by Isabella's
consort, Francesco Gonzaga, the donor, who is seen kneeling in full
armour; 1373, is an earlier work, the central and most important of
the three sections of the predella of the Triptych at S. Zeno in
Verona--a powerful, reverent, though somewhat hard, conception
of the cardinal tragedy of Christianity. From Mantegna to his
brothers-in-law, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini and other Venetian
masters the transition is easy. The school is here represented by a
most valuable collection from Bartolomeo Vivarini, No. 1607, to
Guardi. 1158, Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Saints; and 1158A, a Man's
Portrait, are however dubious attributions. 1156, Two Portraits; and
1157, a Venetian Envoy at Cairo, are Gentile school works. 1134, by
Antonello da Messina, A Condottiere, is an amazingly vivid and
powerful portrait. Carpaccio's St. Stephen preaching at Jerusalem,
1211, is part of the _Historia_ of the Protomartyr, painted for St.
Stephen's Guild at Venice. The naive attempts at local colour--Turkish
women sitting on the ground in groups as they may still be seen in
Turkey to-day, and quaint architectural details--are noteworthy. Cima
is well represented by 1259, Virgin and Child, with the Baptist and
the Magdalen. 1351, A Holy Family, by Lotto, was formerly assigned to
Dosso Dossi. 1350 is an early and charming little work, St. Jerome, by
the same master. We return to Palma Vecchio's grand composition, 1399,
The Adoration of the Shepherds, which under a false signature, once
passed for a Titian. 1135, Holy Family, with SS. Sebastian and
Catherine, is a form of composition known as a Santa Conversazione,
which Palma brought to its ultimate perfection. The official catalogue
of 1903 persists in ascribing it to Giorgione. The claims of Palma
himself, Pellegrino da San Daniele, Cariani and Sebastiano del Piombo,
have all found protagonists among modern critics. How excellent a
standard of craftsmanship was maintained by the Venetian school is
well exemplified by 1673, a portrait by an unknown artist. 1352, The
Visitation, by Sebastiano del Piombo, although much injured by
restorers, is a fair example of that master's grandiose style in his
Roman period. We now reach the Titians. 1577 and 1580, are good
average _Sante Conversazioni_, the latter is, however, assigned by Mr.
Berenson to a pupil. 1581, The Supper at Emmaus, a mature and genuine
work; and 1578, the much-admired Virgin and Child with the Rabbit,
painted in 1530, next claim our attention. 1593 and 1591 are unknown
portraits, the former attributed by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to
Pordenone. On the R. wall opposite the Carpaccio is hung, 1587, a
magnificent work of the painter's[206] old age, Jupiter and Antiope,
unhappily much injured by fire and by more than one restoration. Two
characteristic _Sante Conversazioni_ from Bonifazio's atelier may next
be noted, 1172, over a doorway; and 1171, skied on the L. wall. The
later interpreters of the pomp and grandeur of the Venetian state,
Veronese and Tintoret, are represented to L. and R. by several typical
canvases. Among these we note, 1196 (L. wall), an excellent Veronese,
The Supper at Emmaus; and 1465, a sketch by Tintoret for the great
Paradiso in the Ducal Palace. The eighteenth-century masters
(following after the Jupiter and Antiope) are well exemplified in a
fine Canaletto, 1203, View of the Salute Church and the Grand Canal;
and several good examples of the more romantic Guardi. A Last Supper,
1547, and other works by Tiepolo, the last of the Venetian masters of
the grand style; and some Bassanos--1429, by Jacopo, Giov. da Bologna
is an admirable portrait--conclude the collection of Venetians. We
pass to the Italian Eclectics, the once admired but now depreciated
Carracci, Guido Reni and Domenichino. 1613, St. Cecilia, is a famous
picture by the last named. R. of the next section (C), are two
Peruginos; 1564, a beautiful tondo, Virgin and Child, Saints and
Angels; and 1566A, St. Sebastian, a careful and pleasing study of the
nude. We cross to the L. wall, rich with examples of Raphael, and of
his school; and turn first to a lovely little panel, 1509, Apollo and
Marsyas, of most enigmatical authorship,[207] bought in 1883 from Mr.
Morris Moore for 200,000 francs. Sold, in 1850, as a Mantegna, it has
since been variously assigned to Raphael, Perugino, Timoteo Viti, and
Francia. Perugino's influence, however, if not his hand, is
sufficiently obvious. 1506, unknown Portrait, is another doubtful
Raphael, confidently attributed by Morelli to Perugino's pupil,
Bacchiacca. We are on more certain ground with 1497, the popular
Virgin of the Diadem, undoubtedly designed by the master during his
Roman period, and probably executed by his pupil, Giulio Romano. 1501,
St. Margaret, painted during the same period for Francis I., was also,
according to Vasari, almost wholly executed by Giulio. This unhappy
picture was, however, _racommode_ (mended) in 1685, and since has been
severely mauled by restorers. 1507, Joan of Aragon: the head alone,
says Vasari, was painted by the master who left the portrait to be
completed by his famous pupil. 1499, the charming little Holy Family,
was probably executed by a pupil. 1508, two unknown portraits, has
small claim to be classed as a Raphael. The exquisite little panels,
1502 and 1503, of St. Michael and St. George, are, however, precious
and genuine works painted in 1504 at Urbino. They symbolise the
overthrow of the hated tyrant Caesar Borgia, and the return of the
exiled Duke Guidobaldo to his loving subjects. On the R. wall of
Section D. are hung some works by the Italian Naturalists (a seceding
school from the Eclectics), to whose chief representative Caravaggio
(called the anti-Christ of painting), is due 1121, Death of the
Virgin. This realistic representation of a sacred subject so shocked
the pious at Rome that it was removed from the church for which it was
painted. 1124, Portrait of Alof, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta,
brought the artist a chain of gold, two Turkish prisoners and a
knighthood. Salvator Rosa's Landscape, 1480; and a characteristic and
much-appreciated Battle Scene, 1479, hang on this wall.
[Footnote 206: Mr. H. Cook has, however, given reasons for post-dating
Titian's birth from 1477 to 1489-90, in spite of the master's twice
repeated assertion of his great age in letters to Charles V. See
_Nineteenth Century_ Magazine, 1902, p. 156.]
[Footnote 207: It is, however, accepted by Eugene Muentz as a genuine
Raphael, executed at Florence about 1507.]
We cross to the L. wall, devoted to the Spanish school. The recently
acquired El Greco (no number), King Ferdinand, is one of that master's
best works outside Spain. By Ribera, who was obviously much influenced
by the Italian Naturalists are: 1723, St. Paul the Hermit; 1722, The
Entombment; and 1721, Adoration of the Shepherds, the last a
masterpiece, wrought in the sombre manner of this powerful artist.
From the magnificent show of Murillos stands forth, 1709, The
Immaculate Conception, a favourite Spanish theme, by the most popular
of Spanish masters. This grandiose representation of the Woman of the
Apocalypse, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, was
acquired at the Soult sale in 1852 for 615,000 francs. From the same
collection came the superb composition 1710, The Birth of the Virgin,
of which a small sketch in oil is possessed by the National Gallery.
We cross to the R. wall where hangs 1716, The Miracle of S. Diego; at
the prayer of the saint, angels descend from heaven and prepare a
miraculous repast for his needy Franciscan friars, to the great
amazement of brother cook. Other Murillos, including a characteristic
Beggar Boy, 1717 (L. wall) will be seen on either side. By Velasquez,
the supreme master of the school are: (L. wall) 1734, Meeting of
Thirteen Spanish Gentlemen, Velasquez and Murillo standing left of the
group; and 1732, one of the many portraits scattered about Europe of
Philip IV. The sombre Zurbaran is represented by 1739 and 1738, A
Bishop's Funeral, and St. Pierre Nolasque and St. Raymond de Penafort.
Four portraits, 1704-1705B, by the facile and popular Madrid artist
Goya, should by no means be passed without notice. There follows next
a small collection of English paintings, rather indifferent in
quality, but historically of much interest, by reason of the
inspiration drawn from Constable and Bonington by the Barbizon school.
Bonington, whose untimely death was a grievous loss to modern art,
passed much of his time in Paris and was the link between the Valley
of the Stour and the Forest of Fontainebleau.
We pass to some productions of the German school. On the R. wall hang
2738 and 2738C, Episodes in the Life of St. Ursula by the Master of
St. Severin.[208] Opposite is 2737, an earlier specimen of the Cologne
school, Descent from the Cross, by the Master of St. Bartholomew. 2709
and 2709A, Head of an Old Man, and Head of a Child, are ascribed to
Albert Duerer. But the chief glory of this collection are the Holbein
portraits on the L. wall, four of which are of supreme excellence;
2715, Erasmus; 2714, William Wareham, Archbishop of Canterbury; 2713,
Nicholas Kratzer, Astrologer to Henry VIII.; and 2718, Anne of Cleves.
2719, Richard Southwell is a doubtful Holbein.
[Footnote 208: From an age when the personality of the painter was of
less importance than the subjects he painted, few names of German
artists have come down to us.]
Section E is filled with Flemish paintings. R. hangs, among other of
his works, Phil. de Champaigne's masterpiece, 1934, portraits of
Mother Catherine Agnes Arnaud and of his own daughter, Sister
Catherine, painted for the Convent of Port Royal. The intimate
association of this grave and virile artist, who settled at Paris when
nineteen years of age, with the austere and pious Jansenists of Port
Royal, is also traceable in 1928, The Last Supper. On the L. are some
excellent works by Rubens: 2075, Flight of Lot; 2077, Adoration of the
Magi; 2113, Portrait of Helen Fourment, the artist's second wife, and
their two children; 2144, Lady's Portrait, said to be that of Suzanne
Fourment. The ignoble Kermess, 2115, will be familiar to readers of
Zola.
Section F on the L. is occupied by a rich collection of Rembrandt's
works: 2548, the oft-reproduced Flayed Ox, is a masterly rendering of
an unattractive subject; no number, Old Man Reading; in 2547 the
artist has immortalised his faithful servant, Hendrickje Stoffels;
2536, Tobit and the Angel; 2549 and 2550, Bathsheba, and Susannah and
the Elders are two studies of the nude; 2542, The Joiner's Family,
formerly known as the Holy Family; 2540, Philosopher in Meditation.
2537, The Good Samaritan; and 2539, The Supper at Emmaus, are painted
with profound and reverent piety. Opposite the Rembrandts are Gerard
Dow's masterpiece; 2348, The Sick Woman, and other works by the same
artist. We now enter at the end of the Grande Galerie, the new
SALLE VANDYCK, ROOM XVII.
Here, among other portraits, by the first of portrait painters
(according to Reynolds) hangs the superb rendering of Charles I.,
1967, bought by Louis XV. for Madame du Barry's boudoir on the fiction
that it was a family picture, since the page holding the horse was
named Barry. Michelet says that he never visited the Louvre without
pausing to muse before this historic canvas.[209] Before we descend to
the new Rubens room we note by this master three large canvases, 2086,
2087, 2096: Birth of Marie de' Medici at Florence; her education; the
widowed Queen as Regent of France, which properly belong to the suite
of paintings exposed in the
SALLE DE RUBENS, ROOM XVIII.
to which we now descend. In this sumptuous hall, specially erected for
the purpose, are exhibited, with the three exceptions noted, the
famous paintings completed in 1625 by the artist and his pupils for
the Luxembourg Palace to the order of the Regent Marie. These spacious
and grandiose compositions illustrate in pompous and pagan symbolism
the chief events in her career: all the principal figures are due to
Reubens' own hand. Reynolds was wont to say of Reubens' colouring that
his figures looked as if they fed on roses: these, however, would seem
to have fed upon less ethereal diet. L. of entrance, 2085, The Three
Fates spinning Marie's destiny; L. wall, 2088, Reception of her
Portrait; R. wall, 2089, Her Marriage by Procuration to Henry--the
Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany, her uncle, places the ring on her
finger; L., 2090, Disembarkation at Marseilles; R., 2091, The Marriage
at Lyons; L., 2092, Birth of Louis XIII. at Fontainebleau; R., 2093,
Departure of Henry for Germany, who hands to his consort the symbols
of the Regency; L., 2094, Coronation of Marie at St. Denis: the dogs
are said to have been painted by Snyders; R., 2095, Apotheosis of
Henry. Like the ascending Faust in Henry's portly form,--
"Bleibt ein Erdenrest
Zu tragen peinlich."
L., 2097, Marie's journey to Anjou; R., 2098, Exchange at Hendaye of
the Princess Elizabeth of France affianced to Philip IV., and of Anne
of Austria, affianced to Louis XIII.; L., 2099, Felicity of the
Regency--this picture was hastily improvised at Paris; R., 2100, The
Majority of Louis XIII.; L., 2101, Escape of Marie from the Chateau of
Blois; R., 2102, Reconciliation with her son, Louis XIII., at Angers;
End wall, L., 2103, Conclusion of Peace; R., 2104, Meeting between
Marie and Louis in Olympia. R. of entrance, 2105, The Triumph of
Truth.
[Footnote 209: The picture subsequently found its way to the
apartments of Louis XVI., and followed him from Versailles to Paris.
The vacillation of this ill-fated monarch towards his advisers, says
Michelet, was much influenced by a fixed idea that Charles I. lost his
head for having made war on his people, and that James II. lost his
crown for having abandoned them.]
Enclosing this hall are a series of Cabinets XX.-XXXVI., containing a
large and important collection of works by the Netherland painters. We
ascend, turn R., and enter Room XX., which is devoted to Franz Hals
and contains 2386 and 2387, superb portraits of Nicholas van Beresteyn
and his wife; and 2388 the same, with their Family; 2383, Descartes.
Room XXI., Cuyp, after whom the room is named, is seen in four typical
works, 2341-2344; 2415 and 2414 are excellent Dutch Interiors by Peter
de Hoogh. In Room XXII. reigns the jovial Van Steen: two
characteristic paintings are here shown; 2578, Feast in an Inn, and
2580, Evil Company. 2587 is a masterly Terburg, The Amorous Soldier,
and 2459 a similar subject treated by Gabriel Metsu. Room XXIII. is
assigned to Van Goyen, and Room XXIV. to Adrian van Ostade, Hals'
pupil. In the latter room, 2495, the so-called Family of the Painter,
and 2496, The Schoolmaster, stand forth pre-eminent. 2509 and 2510,
Travellers Halting and a Winter Scene, are by Adrian's brother, Isaac.
Room XXV. is rich in landscapes by Ruysdael, of which 2557, The
Forest, and 2558, Tempest near the Dykes of Holland, are masterpieces:
2588, The Music Lesson, is a fine Terburg. Room XXVI., dedicated to
Hobbema, contains his fine landscapes: 2403, A Forest Scene, and 2404,
The Mill, and another exquisite Terburg, 2589, The Concert. Some
typical Paul Potters also hang here. We proceed round to Room XXIX.,
which holds a precious collection of Van Eycks and Memlings. 1986 is
an exquisite little masterpiece painted by Jean with infinite patience
and care, Virgin and Child and Donor. Fine Memlings are:--2024, The
Baptist; 2025, The Magdalen; 2027, Marriage of St. Catherine; 2028, a
Triptych--the Resurrection, St. Sebastian and the Ascension Here too
are hung, 1957, Gerard Dow's Wedding at Cana; 2196, Van der Weyden's
Descent from the Cross, and some excellent Flemish school paintings.
Room XXX. is the Quentin Matsys Room: 2029 is the well-known Banker
and his Wife, of which many replicas exist; 2030, by the same artist,
Virgin and Child. The fine example of the fifteenth-century painter,
known as the Master of the Death of Mary, 2738, hangs in this room.
This profoundly reverent and sincere work consists of: a central
panel, Descent from the Cross, below which is The Last Supper, and
above, in the lunette, St. Francis receiving the Stigmata; Friar Leo
is seen asleep against a rock. A remarkable work by Peter Brueghel,
The Blind leading the Blind, will also arrest attention. Room XXXI.,
named after Anthony More, contains a miscellaneous collection, among
which the artist's portraits (2481A) of Edward VI. of England, and of
(2479) a Spanish Dwarf, and Peter Brueghel's Village, 1918, and a
Country Dance, 1918B, are of chief interest. The Teniers Room, XXXII.,
shows some excellent works by the younger master: 2155, St. Peter
denies his Lord; 2156, The Prodigal Son; 2157, Works of Charity; 2158,
Temptation of St. Anthony. We next pass to three rooms in which are
hung works by Netherland artists, formerly in the La Caze collection,
among which, in Room XXXIII., are 2579, Van Steen's, Family Repast;
and 2454, Nicholas Maes', Grace before Meat. In XXXIV. are two
well-known works: 1916, Adrian Brouwer's, The Smoker; and 2384, The
Gipsy, a masterpiece by Franz Hals. A fine Vandyck, 1979, Head of an
Old Man; Rubens' portrait of Marie de' Medici, 2109; and a sketch in
oils, 2122, Elevation of the Cross, are in Room XXXV. We return to the
Salle Vandyck and the Grande Galerie, along which we retrace our steps
and enter, at its further end, the
SALON CARRE, ROOM IV.
where an assortment of masterpieces is hung from the various schools
we have visited. We begin with the Raphaels: On the L. (W. wall),
1496, La Belle Jardiniere, painted in 1507, is the most delightful of
the Florentine Madonnas for which it is said a flower-girl of Florence
sat; Vasari relates that the unfinished mantle was left to Ridolfo
Ghirlandaio to complete; 1498, The Holy Family, styled of Francis I.
and designed at Rome (1518) in the zenith of the artist's power, was
presented by Pope Leo X. to Francis' queen; the inky hand of Giulio
had no small part in the work. In the same year was painted 1504,
(diagonally opposite) the dramatic St. Michael, a picture which evoked
much interest at Rome, and whose coloration was adversely criticised
by Sebastiano del Piombo; here also the hand of Giulio is all too
apparent, and the picture, moreover, has suffered much in its
transference from wood to canvas. 1505, N. wall, the masterly and
authentic portrait of Baltazar Castiglione, was executed in 1506. On
the same wall among the Venetians we find the much-disputed Al Fresco
Concert, 1136, here ascribed to Giorgione, an ascription which has the
support of Morelli and Berenson. The magnificent Titian, 1590,
variously known as Titian and his Mistress, and the Lady with the
Mirror, is supposed to be the portraits of Duke Alfonso of Ferrara and
his mistress, Laura Diante, later his wife, the daughter of a poor
artizan who more than once sat to Titian as a model. The portrait on
the S. wall, 1592, The Man with the Glove, extolled by Vasari as an
_opera stupenda_, and 1584, The Entombment, on the E. wall, are the
two greatest Titians in the Louvre, where the artist's majesty and
power are displayed in their highest degree. 1583, The Crown of
Thorns, E. wall, is a work of the painter's old age.[210] The sensual
features of Francis I., 1588, S. wall, were painted from a medal.
[Footnote 210: See, however, note to p. 357.]
By Tintoret is 1464, Susannah; and by Veronese, the grand composition
that expatiates over the S. wall, 1192, known as The Marriage at Cana,
executed in his most pompous and stately manner for the refectory of
the Benedictine monastery of St. Giorgio Maggiore at Venice. The
artist is seen in the foreground playing a viol: Titian a bass viol.
Many other historical figures are more or less convincingly identified
by critics. On the opposite wall is another large refectory
composition, 1193, The Supper in the House of Simon the Pharisee. A
characteristic ceiling decoration, Rebellion and Treason, from the
Hall of the Council of the Ten at Venice; and 1190, N. wall, Holy
Family, are by the same artist. The Portrait, 1601, N. wall, by Da
Vinci of his friend Monna Lisa, wife of Fr. del Giocondo, known as La
Gioconda, is the most fascinating picture in Europe. A whole symphony
of praise has been lavished on this miraculously beautiful creation in
which psychical and physical perfection have been blended with potent
and subtle genius. 1598, S. wall, Virgin and Child and St. Anne,
attributed to the same, though of somewhat doubtful authenticity, is
worth careful study. By another Milanese master is 1354, S. wall,
Luini's Virgin and Sleeping Child. Of the two fine Correggios, 1117
and 1118, N. wall, The Marriage of St. Catherine, and Jupiter and
Antiope, the former is referred to by Vasari, in his life of Girolamo
da Carpi, as a divine thing, wherein the figures are so superlatively
beautiful that they seem to have been painted in Paradise; the latter
formed part of Isabella d'Este's collection, to which we have so often
referred. 1731, N. wall, is the marvellous portrait by Velasquez of
the Infanta Margarita Maria, Philip IV.'s fair-haired darling child by
his second wife. This is one of the most characteristic of the
master's work out of Spain, and profoundly influenced Manet and the
Modern Impressionist School. The great French master Poussin's typical
classical subject, 741, together with Jouvenet's masterpiece, 437,
Descent from the Cross, have also their place of honour in this Hall.
In the
SALLE DUCHATEL, ROOM V.
entered from the N.E. angle of this room, we find, R., some Luini
frescoes: 1359, 1360, the Nativity, and The Adoration of the Magi, and
1361, Christ Blessing, full of this master's tenderness and charm.
Some excellent portraits by Antonio Moro, 2480, 2481 and, a most
beautiful Memling, 2026, Virgin and Child with Donors, will also be
noted. As we pursue our way to the Escalier Daru at the end of the
room, we pass L. and R., one of the earliest and one of the latest
works of Ingres (p. 390), 421, OEdipus and the Sphinx, painted in
1808; and the most popular nude in the French school, 422, _La
Source_, painted in 1856.
(_b_) THE FRENCH SCHOOL.
The great schools of Christian painting in Western Europe which we
have reviewed, were born, grew and flourished in the free cities of
the Netherlands and of Italy. French masters working in Paris, Tours,
Dijon, Moulins, Aix, and Avignon, were inevitably subdued by the
dominant and powerful masters of the north and south, and how far they
succeeded in impressing a local and racial individuality on their
works is, and long will be, a fruitful theme for criticism. The
collection of French Primitifs of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, exhibited in Paris in 1904, and the publication of
Dimier's[211] uncompromising and powerful defence of those critics
who, like himself, deny the existence of any indigenous French School
of painting whatsoever, have recently concentrated the attention of
the artistic world on a passionately debated controversy. Undoubtedly
most of the examples of the so-called Franco-Flemish school which
formerly hung unquestioned among collections of Flemish paintings, did
when massed together, as they were in 1904 in the Pavilion de Marsan,
display more or less well-defined extra-Flemish characteristics--a
modern feeling for Nature and an intimate realism in the treatment of
landscapes, a freer, more supple and more vivacious drawing of the
human figure--reasonably explained by the theory of a school of
painters expressing independent local feeling and genius. But even if
all the paintings which the patriotic bias of French critics now
attributes to French or Franco-Flemish masters[212] be accepted, the
continuity is broken by many gaps which can only be filled by
assuming, after the fashion of biologists, the existence of missing
links.
[Footnote 211: _French Painting in the Sixteenth Century_, by L.
Dimier. 1904.]
[Footnote 212: A more rational classification into schools would
perhaps, as Dimier has hinted, follow the lines of racial
division--French and Teutonic. For many of the Flemish artists were
French in race, as, for instance, Roger Van der Weyden, who was known
to Italians as Rogerus Gallicus, and called himself Roger de la
Pasture.]
We make our way to the small but increasing collection of French
Primitifs possessed by the Louvre, along the Grande Galerie as far as
Section D. and, turning R., enter Rooms IX.-XIII. Beginning with Room
X., devoted to fifteenth-century masters, on the L. wall is 995,
Martyrdom of St. Denis, ascribed to the Burgundian Jean Malouet, court
painter of Jean sans Peur, and owing its completion to Henri
Bellechose, after the former's death in 1415. To L. of the main
subject, the saint is seen in prison, receiving the sacred Host from
the hands of Christ; 996, a Pieta on the L. wall has also been
attributed to Malouet. 999, L. wall, a portrait group of Jean Jouvenal
des Ursins and his family, by an unknown fifteenth-century artist, is
admirable in execution and important for contemporary costumes. Below
(1005A) is the fine picture so admired in the exhibition of the
Primitifs in 1904 by the Maitre de Moulins,[213] St Mary Magdalen and
Donatrix, eminently French in feeling. 1004 and 1005, portraits of the
Duke and Duchess of Bourbon, are now catalogued under this master's
name. The realistic Pieta (1001B) on the L. wall is assigned to the
school of Nicholas Froment of the papal city of Avignon. 288 and 289
at either end of the R. wall, portraits of Guillaume Jouvenal des
Ursins and of Charles VII., are by the well-known Jehan Fouquet of
Tours, who unites the gentleness of the Tuscan school with the
vivacity of the Gallic temperament. 998D, Virgin and Donors, is now
tentatively ascribed to the Master of the Legend of St. Ursula. We
next note a Crucifixion, the famous altar-piece (998A) of the
Parlement of Paris recently transferred from the Palais de Justice. To
the L. are St. Louis and the Baptist, R., St. Denis and Charlemagne;
in the background are seen the old Louvre and the abbey of St.
Germain. 998C is a similar altar-piece from St. Germain des Pres,
painted about 1490, Descent of the Cross; in the background are other
representations of the old Louvre, St. Germain and Montmartre. 304A,
portraits of good King Rene and his second wife Jeanne de Laval, by
Nicholas Froment of Avignon. (1001D) St. Helena and the Miracle of the
Cross, by an unknown artist, about 1480. R. of entrance, Christ, St.
Agricola and Donor, school of Avignon; below this hangs 997A, portrait
of the sinister Jean sans Peur, and 997B, portrait of Philip le Bon of
Burgundy, artist unknown. We pass to
ROOM XI.
which contains a series of most interesting historical portraits.
Among the sixteenth-century painters cited by Felibien,[214] the
Vasari of French painting, most of whom are but names to us, we may
distinguish the Clouet family of four generations. The senior Jehan,
born in Flanders in 1420, came to France in 1460 as painter to the
Duke of Burgundy. His son, also, named Jehan, figures in the Royal
accounts in 1528 as valet and court painter to Francis I., and was
known as Maitre Jehan or Jehanet. To him, an artist of great
simplicity and charm, are attributed 126 and 127, R. wall, portraits
of his royal master. Sons of the junior Jehan were Francois
(1500-1572), the best-known and most talented of the Clouets, who was
naturalised in 1541, and Jehan the younger, known as Clouet de Navarre
(1515-1589), court painter to Margaret of Valois. By the former, who
assisted his father during the last ten years of his life and
succeeded him as court painter, are two admirable portraits, 128 and
129, of Charles IX. and his queen, Elizabeth of Austria; 130, Henry
II., and (on the end wall) 131, the Duke of Guise, are also attributed
to him. To the latter artist is ascribed 134, Louis of St. Gelais.
Each of these elusive personalities, whose Flemish ancestry is
evident, was known as Maitre Jehanet, and much confusion has thus
arisen. We now turn to some portraits by unknown artists of the
period, among which may be noted: 1033, Henry III.; 132, Charles IX.;
1024, Diana of France, legitimised daughter of Henry II.; 1030,
Catherine de' Medici; 1035, Ball given by Henry III. in celebration
of the marriage of his favourite minion, Anne, Duke of Joyeuse, with
Margaret of Lorraine in 1581; the king is seen seated with his mother,
Catherine de' Medici, and his wife, Louise of Lorraine; the Duke of
Guise (le Balafre) leans against his chair. On the same wall are 1015,
Francois, Duke of Guise; and 1007, King Francis I. On the end wall,
1032, Henry III.; by the window opposite, 1022, the young Duke of
Alencon (p. 178), by no means ill-favoured; and 1023, Louise of
Lorraine, queen of Henry III. By a contemporary of the later Clouets,
Jean Cousin (1501-1589), is 155 on the L. wall, The Last Judgment.
Cousin was a versatile craftsman, and some stained glass by him still
exists at S. Gervais and in the chapel at Vincennes. Among other
artists mentioned by Felibien is Martin Freminet (1567-1616), whose
Mercury commanding AEneas to forsake Dido, 304, hangs on the end wall.
[Footnote 213: The late fifteenth-century artist, provisionally known
as the Master of Moulins and also as the Painter of the Bourbons, is
the author of the famous Triptych of the Cathedral of Moulins. Some
critics believe him to be identical with Jehan Perreal (Jehan de
Paris).]
[Footnote 214: _Entretiens sur les Vies et sur les Ouvrages des plus
Excellens Peintres Anciens et Modernes._ Andre Felibien. Paris,
1666-1688.]
[Illustration: THE TRIPTYCH OF MOULINS.
_Maitre de Moulins._]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA, WIFE OF CHARLES IX.
_Francois Clouet._]
The two years' sojourn of Solario in France at the invitation of the
Cardinal of Amboise, of Da Vinci at the solicitation of Louis XII.,
and the foundation of the school of Fontainebleau in 1530 by Rosso
(1496-1540), Primaticcio (1504-1570), and Nicolo dell' Abbate
(1512-1571), mark the eclipse of whatever schools of French painting
were then existing; for the grand manner and dramatic power of the
Italians, fostered by royal patronage, carried all before them. This
room possesses by Rosso, known as Maitre Roux, 1485, a Pieta, and
1486, The Challenge of the Pierides, and Primaticcio is represented by
some admirable drawings exhibited in cases in the centre of the room.
Readers of Vasari will remember numerous references in his pages to
Italian artists who went to serve, and agents employed to buy Italian
works for, the _gran re Francesco nel suo luogo di Fontainebleo_.
But the sterility of the Fontainebleau school may be inferred from the
fact that when Marie de' Medici desired to have the walls of the
Luxembourg royally decorated, she was compelled to have recourse to a
foreigner, Rubens. Neglecting for a moment Room XII. and turning to
ROOM XIII.
we come upon some charming works by the brothers Lenain, whom Felibien
dismisses in a few lines, while giving scores of pages to artists
whose names and works have long been forgotten. So little is known of
the brothers Antoine and Louis, who died in 1648, and Matthieu, who
survived them nearly thirty years, that critics have only partially
succeeded in differentiating their works, which are usually exhibited
under their united names. Obviously dominated by the Netherland
masters, their manner is yet pervaded by essentially French
qualities--a love of Nature and a certain atmosphere of poetry and
gentleness alien to the Flemish and Dutch schools. Nine of their works
are here seen. A Smithy, 540; Peasants playing at Cards, 546; and
Return from Haymaking, 542, are good examples. Skied in this room is
976, portrait of Louis XIII. by Simon Vouet (1590-1649), leader of the
new academic French school of the seventeenth century, an artist of
prodigious activity and master of the army of court painters who
served Louis XIV. Vouet, who had worked in Italy, acquired there the
grand and spacious manner of the later Venetians, which was admirably
adapted to the decorative requirements of his royal patrons. To his
pupil, Eustache Lesueur (1617-1655), is due 586, St. Bruno and his
Companions bestowing Alms, one of the famous series illustrating the
life of St. Bruno, of which the greater number are in
ROOM XII.
whither we now return. This eminently religious and tender artist is
well represented in the Louvre, and the sympathetic student will
appreciate the austere and sincere devotion expressed in these
pictures, painted for the brethren of the Charterhouse in the Rue
d'Enfer. The finest, a masterpiece, both in beauty of composition and
depth of feeling, is 584, The Death of St. Bruno. The artist's careful
application to his monumental task may be estimated by the fact that
146 preliminary drawings for this series are preserved in the Louvre.
Lesueur's modesty and high purpose went almost unheeded amid the
exultant prosperity of the fashionable courtier-artists of his day. We
retrace our steps, pass through Room XIII., turn R., and enter the
spacious
ROOM XIV.
also devoted to seventeenth-century artists. Lesueur is here seen in
another masterpiece; 560, R. wall, St. Paul at Ephesus, a _mai_[215]
picture; and 556, same wall, Christ bearing His Cross. The influence
of Raphael in the former is very apparent. The hierophant of the
school, Vouet, is represented in this room by some dozen examples,
among which hangs his masterpiece 971, L. wall, Presentation at the
Temple. A work, 25, Charity, by his short-lived rival, Jacques
Blanchard, (1600-1638), known in his day as the French Titian, may be
seen towards the end of this long gallery on the R. wall. A talented
artist too was Jean de Bologne, an Italian by birth and known as Le
Valentin (1591-1634). A good example of his style will be seen in 56
(same wall), Susannah. We now turn to Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665),
the greatest master of his age, whose exalted and lucid conceptions,
ripe scholarship, admirable art and fertility of invention, may be
adequately appreciated at the Louvre alone, which holds a matchless
collection of nearly fifty of his works. The visitor, fresh from the
rich and glowing colour, the grandeur and breadth of the later
Italians, will perchance experience a certain chill before the
sobriety, the cold intellectuality and severe classic reserve of this
powerful artist. Let us however remember his aim and ideal: to produce
a picture in which correct drawing and science of linear and aerial
perspective should subserve harmony of composition, lucid expression
and classic grace. To approach Poussin and his younger contemporary
Claude rightly, the traveller will do well to free his mind from
Ruskin's partial and prejudiced depreciation of these two supreme
masters, in order to effect an equally partial appreciation of
Turner.[216] The story of Poussin's single-minded and stubborn
application to his art cannot here be told. After a life of poverty at
Paris and two unsuccessful attempts to work his way to Rome, he at
length reached that Mecca of French artists, where a commission to
paint two pictures, now at Vienna, for Cardinal Barbarini, established
his reputation. Two of his works executed about 1630 during this first
Roman period hang here; 709 and 710, R. wall, The Rain of Manna, and,
The Philistines smitten by Plague. In 1640, after two years'
negotiations and the personal intervention of Louis XIII., he was
persuaded to return to Paris to take part in the decoration of the
Louvre; but in spite of his generous pay and of the fine _palazzetto_
and charming garden allotted to him for residence, the petty
jealousies, chicanery and low standard of his rivals, revolted his
artistic conscience: he obtained leave to return to Rome "to fetch his
wife," and never left the eternal city again. Two of his works painted
during this second and last Roman period are 717 (L. of entrance),
Institution of the Eucharist, and 735 (L. wall), a ceiling composition
executed for Richelieu, Time rescuing Truth from the assaults of Envy
and Discord, whose subjective interest is obvious; 704, L. of
entrance, Rebecca at the Well, is described at great length by
Felibien, who saw it in progress. It was painted (1648) for a rich
patron who desired a composition treated like Guido's Virgin, and
filled with several young girls of differing types of beauty. The
finished picture so delighted amateurs at Paris that large sums were
offered in vain to divert it from the fortunate possessor; 711, L.
wall, is the famous Judgment of Solomon (1649). On the same wall are
731, Echo and Narcissus; 734, his masterpiece, Shepherds of Arcady--a
group of shepherds of the Vale of Tempe in the heyday of health and
beauty, are arrested in their enjoyment of life by the warning
inscription on a tomb: _Et in arcadia ego_ (I, too, once lived in
Arcady); 736-739, The Four Seasons were painted (1660-1664) for
Richelieu. These beautiful compositions, more especially the last, The
Deluge, typifying winter, will repay careful study. On the R. wall
are, 724, the well-known Rape of the Sabine Women; 740, a most perfect
work of his maturity, Orpheus and Eurydice (1659); and 742, Apollo and
Daphne, his last work, left unfinished. Such are some of the more
striking manifestations of this remarkable genius who alone, says
Hazlitt, has the right to be considered as the painter of classical
antiquity. His integrity was so rigid that he once returned part of
the price paid for one of his works which he deemed excessive. To
the modern, Poussin is somewhat antipathetic by reason of his
scholarly aloofness and insensibility to the passions and actualities
of life. As Reynolds remarked: he lived and conversed with ancient
statues so long, that he was better acquainted with them than with the
people around him, and had studied the ancients so much, that he had
acquired a habit of thinking in their way. He saw Nature through the
glass of Time, says Hazlitt, and his friend Dom Bonaventura tells how
he often met the solitary artist sketching in the Forum or returning
from the Campagna with specimens of moss, pebbles, flowers, etc., to
be used as models. When asked the secret of his artistic perfection,
he would modestly answer: "_Je n'ai rien neglige._"
[Footnote 215: The Goldsmiths' Guild of Paris was accustomed, from
1630-1701, to present to Notre Dame an _ex-voto_ picture every
May-day, painted by the most renowned artist of the time.]
[Footnote 216: The reader may be referred to Hazlitt's essay, _On a
Landscape of Nicholas Poussin_, as an antidote to Ruskin's wayward
criticism.]
[Illustration: SHEPHERDS OF ARCADY.
_Poussin._]
Claude Gelee (1600-1682) known as Claude, and one of the greatest
names in the history of modern painting, also spent most of his
artistic career at Rome. He was the first to bring the glory of the
sun and the sun-steeped atmosphere on to canvas. He touches a new
chord in the symphony of colour and by his poetic charm and romantic
feeling stirs a deeper emotion. He, too, was a strenuous, implacable
worker, a loving student of Nature, passing days in silent abstraction
before her varying moods.
The Louvre possesses sixteen Claudes, among which we may emphasise on
the L. wall, 310, View of a Port; 311, a poetic and glowing
representation of the Roman Forum, before the old Campo Vaccino, with
its romantic and picturesque aspect, had been excavated by modern
archaeologists. 314 and 316, Landing of Cleopatra at Tarsis, and Ulysses
restoring Chryseis to her father, are typical imaginary classic
compositions and variations on the artist's favourite theme--the effects
of sunlight on an atmosphere of varying luminosity and on the limpid,
rippling waves of the sea. We now come to the grand monarque of the
arts at Paris during the century, Charles Lebrun (1619-1690), founder of
the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture that finally eclipsed the
old Painters' Guild which, from the thirteenth century, had monopolised
the exercise of the art at Paris. So tyrannous had the Guild become
that, in 1646, it ordered the number of court painters to be reduced to
four each for the king and queen. An attempt to apply this regulation to
the painters lodged at the Louvre roused Lebrun's hostility, who induced
the regent, Anne of Austria, to found a rival Academie Royale on the
model of the famous Academy of St. Luke at Florence. Twelve _anciens_
were chosen by lot and the new Academy, Lebrun at its head, was
inaugurated on 1st February 1648. The angry Guild swooped down on the
Academy on 19th March, armed with a police warrant, to seize all its
pictures and effects, a blow which Lebrun parried by a royal decree
annulling the warrant. Hereupon the Guild organised their own Academy of
St. Luke under the leadership of Vouet and Mignard, and after some
temporary reconciliations and as many bickerings and hostilities, Lebrun
won Mazarin's favour by a judicious gift of two paintings, and the
Academie Royale obtained in 1658 a new constitution, an increase of
members to forty, free quarters, and pensions, which, under Colbert,
were raised to 4,000 livres. The Guild fought hard and won some
concessions, but the Academie Royale remained supreme, and both were
finally overwhelmed in the revolutionary storm.
[Illustration: LANDING OF CLEOPATRA AT TARSUS.
_Lorrain._]
In 1661 Lebrun was commanded by Louis XIV. to paint cartoons for
tapestry illustrating the life of Alexander the Great. Five of these
huge canvases hang in this room, R. and L., 509-513; 511, R. wall, The
Family of Darius at Alexander's Feet, so charmed the king that he
appointed Lebrun first royal painter, and granted him a patent of
nobility. For thirty years the royal favourite was sole arbiter of
taste and ruled supreme over the arts, until his star paled before the
rising luminary, his rival Mignard. Lebrun's best work is to be seen
at Versailles, but 510, R. wall, The Battle of Arbela, is an excellent
example of his facile and adroit style. In 1686 the old favourite was
commanded by Louis to paint a rival picture to Mignard's, Christ
bearing His Cross, which was incensed with extravagant adulation by
the courtiers. Lebrun set to work and in three months completed his
Christ on the Cross, which the king loudly appreciated. Both pictures,
630 and 500, now hang on the L. wall a few paces from each other.
Pierre Mignard (1612-1695) was a fellow-pupil with Lebrun under Vouet,
and like him in early years a sojourner in Rome: his popular Madonnas,
modelled from his Italian wife, added a new word (_mignardes_) to the
French language. One such, 628, hangs a little further along this
wall. In 1657 he won royal favour by a portrait of the young Louis, a
branch of art in which he excelled. Mignard was a supple flatterer,
and Louis sat to him many times. Once, later in the monarch's life,
his royal sitter asked if he observed any change. "Sire," answered the
courtly painter, "I only perceive a few more victories on your brow."
A portrait of Madame de Maintenon, 639, is seen (L. wall) in this
room. Mignard's greatest work, however, great in range if not in art,
is the painting of the cupola of the church at the Val de Grace, which
is not only an indifferent painting, but was the occasion of a bad
poem by his friend Moliere.[217] Two other eminent portraitists,
Nicholas Largilliere (1656-1746), and Hyacinth Rigaud (1659-1743),
may now fitly be considered.
[Footnote 217: _La Gloire du Dome du Val de Grace._ The subject of the
picture is La Gloire des Bienheureux, and contains 200 figures.]
By Rigaud, who was regarded as the first painter of Europe for truth
of resemblance united with magnificence of presentment, are: a
masterly portrait of Bossuet, 783; and a superb rendering of the
_roi-soleil_, 781, both on the L. wall. Further along, on the same
wall, are 784, portrait of his mother in two aspects painted for the
sculptor Coysevox; and his last work, 780, Presentation at the Temple.
Rigaud was especially successful with the rich bourgeoisie of Paris,
and later became court painter, supreme in expressing the grandiose
and inflated pomposities of the age. He, says Reynolds, in the tumour
of his presumptuous loftiness, was the perfect example of Du Pile's
rules, that bid painters so to draw their portraits that they seem to
speak and say to us: "Stop, look at me! I am that invincible king:
majesty surrounds me. Look! I am that valiant soldier: I struck terror
everywhere. I am that great minister, etc." By Largilliere, who lacks
the psychological insight of his contemporary, is, L. wall, 483,
Portrait of the Comte de la Chartre. He was a master of the
accessories and upholstery of portraiture and painted some 1500
sitters during his long career, part of which was passed in England as
court painter to Charles II. and James II. A third successful
portraitist was Jean Marc Nattier (1685-1766), whose ingenious and
compliant art aimed at endowing a commonplace sitter with distinction
and grace, and who generally was able to strike a happy medium between
flattery and truth. Better represented at Versailles, he is but poorly
seen here in 657, R. wall, A Magdalen, and 661A, L. wall, Unknown
Portrait. 441 is an interesting portrait of Fagon, Louis XIV.'s
favourite physician, by Jean Jouvenet (1644-1717), known as Le Grand,
a talented and docile pupil of Lebrun, whose four large compositions
executed for the church of St. Martin des Champs, 432-435, are hung in
this room. 434, R. wall, Resurrection of Lazarus, is perhaps the best.
His works are a connecting link between the pompous spread-eagle
manner of the _Siecle de Louis XIV._ and the gay abandonment and
heartless frivolity of the reign of Louis XV. We pass from this room
to the Collection of Portraits in
ROOM XV.
of which some few possess artistic importance and many historical
interest. We bestow what attention we may desire and pass direct to
ROOM XVI.
devoted to seventeenth-century art. Chief among the painters who
interpreted the refined sensuality and more pleasant vices of the age,
yet not of them, was Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), the melancholy youth
from French Flanders, who began by painting St. Nicholases at three
francs a week and his board, but who soon invented a new manner and
became famous as the _Peintre des Scenes Galantes_. These scenes of
coquetry, frivolity and amorous dalliance, with their patched,
powdered and scented ladies and gallants, toying with life in a land
where, like that of the Lotus Eaters, it seems always afternoon, he
clothes with a refined and delicate vesture of grace and fascination.
He has a poetic touch for landscape and a tender, pathetic sense of
the tears in mortal things which make him akin to Virgil in
literature, for over the languorous and swooning air and sun-steeped
glades the coming tempest lours. His success, as Walter Pater
suggests, in painting these vain and perishable graces of the
drawing-room and garden-comedy of life, with the delicate odour of
decay which rises from the soil, was probably due to the fact that he
despised them. The whole age of the Revolution lies between these
irresponsible and gay courtiers in the _scenes galantes_ of Watteau
and the virile peasant scenes in the "epic of toil" painted by Millet.
In this room hangs his Academy picture, the Embarkation for Cythera,
982, L. wall, its colour unhappily almost worn away by over cleaning.
His pupils, Pater (1696-1736), and Lancret (1690-1743), imitated his
style, but were unable to soar to the higher plane of their master's
genius. The former is represented by a Fete Champetre, 689, R. wall:
the latter by the Four Seasons, 462-465, R. wall; on the L. wall, 468,
The Music Lesson, and 469, Innocence, both from the Palace of
Fontainebleau. The Fete Galante dies with these artists whom we shall
meet again better represented in the Salle La Caze. A famous
contemporary of Pater and Lancret and first painter to the king was
Charles Antoine Coypel (1694-1752), grandson of Noel Coypel
(1629-1707), and son of Antoine (1661-1722), both of whom are
represented in the Louvre (Rooms XIV.-XVI., 157-166, and 167-175), His
Perseus and Andromeda, 180, hangs R. of the entrance of this room.
Charles Andre Vanloo (1705-1765), known as Carle Vanloo, (whose
grandfather, Jacob Vanloo, is represented by two pictures, 2451, 2452,
hung among the Dutch artists in Rooms XXIV. and XXVI.), enjoyed a
great vogue in his day. His facile drawing and riotous colour
temporarily enriched the language with a new verb--to _vanlooter_.
899, on the L. wall, A Hunting Picnic, is an admirable specimen of his
supple talent. The flaunting sensuality of Francois Boucher
(1703-1770), and of Jean Honore Fragonnard (1732-1806), who lavished
undoubted genius and ignoble industry in the service of the depraved
boudoir tastes of the Pompadours and Du Barrys that ruled at
Versailles, are seen here and in the Salle la Caze in all their
eloquent vulgarity. That Boucher had in him the elements of a great
painter may be inferred from the charming little sketch, 30, R. wall,
Diana, and from the excellent interior, 50A, L. wall, Breakfast. His
popular pastoral scenes, executed with amazing facility, with their
beribboned shepherds and dainty shepherdesses, are exemplified in 32
and 33, R. wall, and 34 and 35, L. wall. Other works by this fluent
servant of La Pompadour are 31, R. wall, Venus commanding Vulcan to
forge arms for AEneas, and 36, L. wall, Vulcan presenting them to
Venus. Boucher with all his faults was a grand decorative artist of
extraordinary versatility, but the loose habits and careless methods
of his later days are reflected in slovenly drawing and waning powers
of invention. Reynolds, who visited him in Paris, noted the change,
and describes how he found the artist at work on a large picture
without studies or models of any kind, and on expressing his surprise,
was told by Boucher that he did in earlier days use them, but had
dispensed with them for many years. Fragonnard, who on his return from
Rome, had set about some canvases in the grand traditional style of
the earlier masters, of which an example may be seen in 290, R. wall,
Coresus[218] and Callirrhoe, soon perceived that fame lay not in that
direction, and devoted himself with exuberant talent and
unconscionable facility to satisfy the frivolous tastes and refined
animality of royal and courtly patrons. For it was a time when life
was envisaged as a perpetual feast of enjoyment; a vision of roguish
eyes and rouged and patched faces of sprightly beribboned and perfumed
gallants, playing at shepherds and shepherdesses, of luxurious
sensuality untrammelled by a Christianity minus the Ten Commandments,
soon to be hustled away by the robust and democratic ideals of David.
Another early work of Fragonnard in this room is 291, R. wall, The
Music Lesson: some of his more characteristic productions we shall
meet with in the Salle La Caze. A somewhat feeble protest against the
prevailing vulgarity and debasement of contemporary art was made by
Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) and Jean Baptiste Greuze
(1725-1805) in their rendering of scenes of domesticity and of the
pathos of simple lives. Chardin is well seen in this room in his
laborious studies of still life, 89 and 90, L. wall, diploma works,
and in 91 and 92, same wall, The Industrious Mother, and Grace before
Meat. The last, a delightful work, won for the artist Diderot's
powerful advocacy, and made him the popular interpreter of bourgeois
intimacies. Other patient studies of still life are: 95, 96, 101, and
102; and R. wall 94. On the same wall hang, 97, The Ape as Antiquary,
and 99, The Housewife. If Chardin touches the border-line between
sentiment and sentimentality, Greuze (end wall) in 369, Return of the
Prodigal; 370, A Father's Crime; and 371, The Undutiful Son, certainly
oversteps it. Each of these became the theme of extravagant eulogy and
didactic preachments by Diderot, his literary protagonist, who hailed
him as a French Hogarth making Virtue amiable and Vice odious. An even
more equivocal note is struck (L. wall) in 372A, The Milkmaid; and
372, The Broken Pitcher, where as Gautier acutely remarks, the artist
contrives to make Virtue exhale the same sensual delight as Vice
had done, and to suggest that Innocence will fall an easy victim to
temptation. Madame Du Barry was much attracted by the latter picture
and possessed a replica of it. Other works and studies, R. wall, by
the artist are in this room. 368, end wall, Severus Reproaching
Caracalla, was painted as a diploma picture. But Greuze essayed here a
flight beyond his powers: to his profound disgust the Academy refused
to admit him as an historical, and classed him as a _genre_ painter.
No survey of eighteenth century French painting would be complete
without some reference to Claude Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), the famous
marine and landscape artist, whose paintings of the principal ports of
France are hung in the Musee de la Marine on the second floor. Here we
may distinguish among some score of his works: 921, The Bathers; 923,
A Landscape; and 932, A Seascape: The Setting Sun, all on the L. wall.
[Illustration: EMBARKATION FOR THE ISLAND OF CYTHERA. _Watteau._]
[Footnote 218: Coresus, a priest of Bacchus at Calydon, whose love was
scorned by the nymph Callirrhoe, called forth a pestilence on the
land. The Calydonians, ordered by the oracle to sacrifice the nymph,
led her to the altar. Coresus, forgetting his resentment, sacrificed
himself instead of her, who, conscious of ingratitude, killed herself
at a fountain.]
[Illustration: GRACE BEFORE MEAT.
_Chardin._]
It will now be opportune to make our way to the La Caze collection. We
pass out from the end of this room and descend the Escalier Daru to
the first landing; then ascend L. of the Victory of Samothrace to the
Rotonde, pass direct through the Salle des Bijoux, and turn L. through
Room II. to
ROOM I.
The La Caze collection. We note on the R. wall, an excellent Lenain,
548, A Peasant Meal, and some admirable portraits by Largilliere,
484-491, of which the last, Portrait of the Artist, his Wife and
Daughter, is a masterly work. Among the fine portraits by Rigaud,
791-795, that of the Young Duke of Lesdiguieres, stands pre-eminent.
We cross to the L. wall, where the rich collection of works by
Watteau and his followers is placed: 983, Gilles, a scene from a
Comedy, is one of Watteau's most precious pictures. Near it are: 984,
The Disdainful; 986, Gathering in a Park. 985, Sly-Puss, a charming
little picture, is followed by 988, 989, 990 and 992, four other
studies. 991 is a carefully finished classical subject, Jupiter and
Antiope. Near these are grouped: 470-473, four small works by Lancret,
and 690-693, a like number of typical variations of the _scene
galante_ by Pater. We next note 659, a fine portrait group by Nattier:
Mlle. de Lambec as Minerva, arming her brother the young Count of
Brienne. To the same skilful portraitist are due: 660, a Knight of
Malta; and 661, A Daughter of Louis XV. as a Vestal Virgin. By Boucher
are: 48, R. of entrance, The Painter in his Studio, and R. wall, 47,
The Three Graces; 46 and 49, L. wall, Venus and Vulcan, and Vulcan's
Forge. Fragonnard is represented by some of his characteristic works
executed with wonderful sleight of hand, 292-301. The prevailing taste
of his patrons may be judged by 295, L. wall, a sketch of one of his
most successful and oftenest repeated subjects. On this same wall are
a varied series of Chardin's studies of still life; a poor replica,
93, of his Grace before Meat; 104, The Ape as Painter, and other
similar homely subjects.
Here also are two historical revolutionary portraits by Greuze: 378,
The Girondin, Gensonne, and 379, the Poet-Deputy, Fabre d'Eglantine.
Among the later Venetians are some Tintorets, R. wall: 1468, Susannah;
1469, Virgin and Child, Saints and Donor; 1470, Portrait of Pietro
Mocenigo. Spanish art is represented by a fine but unpleasing Ribera,
1725, Boy with a Club-foot, and to Velasquez are ascribed: 1735, The
Infanta Maria Teresa, Queen of Louis XIV.; 1736, Unknown Portrait;
1733, L. of entrance, Philip IV. 1945 and 1946, R. wall, the Provost
and Sheriffs, and Jean de Mesme, President of the Parlement of Paris,
are excellent examples of Philippe de Champaigne's austere and honest
art.
From the studios of Boucher and of Comte Joseph Marie Vien (1716-1809)
there came towards the end of the eighteenth century the virile,
revolutionary figure of Jacques Louis David (1748-1825), who burst
like a thunderstorm on the corrupt artistic atmosphere of the age,
sweetening and bracing French art for half a century. Shocked by the
slovenly drawing and vulgarity of the fashionable masters, and nursed
on Plutarch, he applied himself to the study of the antique with a
determination to rejuvenate the painter's art and establish a school,
drawing its inspiration from heroic Greece and Rome. The successive
phases of this potent but rather theatrical genius may be well
followed in the Louvre. Neglecting for the present his earlier and
pre-revolutionary works, we retrace our steps through Room II. noting
in passing, 143, The Funeral at Ornans (a remarkable, realistic
painting by a later revolutionary, to whom we shall return) and enter
ROOM III.
on the L. wall of which hangs 188, David's famous canvas: The Sabine
Women, over which he brooded during his imprisonment in the Luxembourg
after the Thermidorian reaction. David regarded this composition as
the most successful expression of his theory of art. He studied whole
libraries of antiquities and vainly imagined it to be the most "Greek"
of all his works. Nothing, however, could be farther removed from the
tranquil self-restraint and noble simplicity of Greek art than these
self-conscious, histrionic groups of figures, without one touch of
naturalness. The old preoccupation with classic models inherited from
Poussin and the Roman school, still dominates even this revolutionary
artist, who best displays his great genius when he forgets his
theories and paints direct from life, as in 199, Mme. Recamier; and
198 (opposite wall), Pius VII. David's fierce Jacobinism (he had been
a member of the terrible Committee of Public Safety) did not prevent
him from worshipping the rising star of the First Consul, who, on
assuming the Imperial crown, appointed him court painter and
commissioned him to execute, 202A, Consecration of Napoleon I. at
Notre Dame. In this grandiose historic scene, containing at least 150
portraits, the eye is at once drawn to the central actor who, having
crowned himself, is placing a diadem on the kneeling Josephine's brow.
The story runs, that David had originally drawn Pope Pius VII. with
hands on knees. Bonaparte entering the studio, at once ordered the
artist to represent the pontiff in the act of blessing, exclaiming: "I
didn't bring him all this way to do nothing." For this picture and for
the Distribution of the Eagles 180,000 francs were paid.
[Illustration: MADAME RECAMIER. _David._]
Among the painters of the new school was Pierre Prud'hon (1758-1823),
whose fame was made by two pictures, 747 and 756, on opposite walls,
first exhibited in 1808: Justice and Divine Wrath pursuing Crime; and
the graceful but somewhat invertebrate, Rape of Psyche. 746, an
Assumption, was executed for the Tuileries Chapel in 1819. Other works
by this master, whose Correggiosity is evident, hang in the room. Two
famous pupils of David were Francois Pascal Simon Gerard (1770-1837)
and Antoine Jean Gros (1771-1835). By the former, known as the King of
Painters and Painter of Kings, are: 328, Love and Psyche; and 332, a
charming portrait of the painter Isabey and his daughter. By the
latter, who owed the Imperial favour to the good graces of Josephine,
are: 391, Bonaparte at Arcole; 392A, Lieut. Sarloveze, a typical
Beau-Sabreur portrait; and 388, Bonaparte visiting victims of the
Plague at Jaffa, a striking composition, which advanced the artist to
the front rank of his profession. Gros was the parent of the grand
battle-pictures of the future; the painter of the Napoleonic epos.
Young artists were wont to attach a sprig of laurel to this work in
which the first signs of the coming storm of Romanticism are
discerned.
The real champion of the movement was, however, Jean Louis Andre
Theodore Gericault (1791-1824), whose epoch-making picture, 338, The
Raft of the Medusa, we now observe. This daring and passionate revolt
from frigid classicism and preoccupation with a conventional antiquity
was received but coldly by the professional critics on its appearance
in 1819, though with enthusiasm by the people. Failing to find a buyer
at Paris, its exhibition in England by a speculator, proved a
financial success. 339-343, are military subjects of lesser range by
this young innovator: 348, Epsom Races, was painted in England in
1821, three years before his premature death. To follow on with the
French school we retrace our steps by the Rotonde and the Escalier
Daru through Room XVI. to Room XV., L. of which, is the entrance to
ROOM VIII.
We revert to David whose Oath of the Horatii, 189, exhibited in 1785;
and The Lictors bearing to Brutus the Bodies of his Sons, 191,
exhibited in the fateful year 1789, hang skied on the R. wall. These
paintings, hailed with prodigious enthusiasm, revolutionised the
fashions and tastes of the day and gave artistic expression to the
coming political and social changes. 200A on the same wall, The Three
Ladies of Ghent, was painted during the artist's exile in Belgium,
for the old Terrorist was naturally not a _persona grata_ to the
restored Bourbons. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1857), the most
famous of David's pupils, two of whose works we have seen in Room V.,
was the bitterest opponent of the new Romantic school and steadfast
champion of his master's artistic ideal. To him more than to any other
teacher is due the tradition of clean, correct and comely drawing that
characterises the French school. It is somewhat difficult perhaps for
a foreigner, observing the paintings by Ingres in this room, fully to
comprehend[219] the reverence in which he is held by his countrymen.
More than once Professor Legros has described to the present writer
the thrill of emotion that passed through him and his fellow-students
when they saw the aged master enter the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Paris.
If, however, the visitor will inspect the marvellous Ingres drawings
in the Salle des Desseins (p. 394), he will appreciate his genius more
adequately. The master's chief work in the present room is 417, R.
wall, Apotheosis of Homer, a ceiling composition in which the
arch-poet, laurel-crowned, has at his footstool seated figures
symbolising the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_, while the most famous poets
and philosophers of the ages are grouped below him. The Odalisque,
422B, L. wall, is a characteristic nude, and a few other subject
pictures will be noted. Among his portraits, 418, Cherubini; 428B,
Bertier de Vaux, are generally regarded as masterpieces. Ingres
despised colour, he never appealed to the emotions; his type of beauty
is external and soulless, and he leaves the spectator cold.
[Footnote 219: Whistler, while disliking his art, was wont to wish he
had been his pupil.]
Meanwhile the new Romantic school of brilliant colourists grew and
flourished. Ary Scheffer, Delaroche, Delacroix, cradled in the storms
of the revolutionary period, are all represented around us. The
sentimental Ary Scheffer (1795-1858) is seen, L. wall, in 841, St.
Augustine and St. Monica, an immensely popular but affected and feeble
composition. Some portraits by this artist may be also found on the
walls. Greater than he in breadth of composition, opulence of colour
and artistic virtuosity, was Paul Delaroche, whose Death of Queen
Elizabeth, 216, end wall, now asserts itself. His greatest work,
however, and one which won him much fame, is his well-known Hemicycle
in the Beaux Arts (p. 319). A twin spirit with Gericault was the
impetuous Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863), who is more
fully hung in this collection. Of the brilliant compositions which
with indefatigable industry he poured forth in the heyday of the
movement, we may note some excellent examples: 212, L. wall, The Wreck
of Don Juan; 211, L. wall, Jewish Wedding at Morocco; and, 213,
Capture of Constantinople by the Venetians and Franks. Earlier works
are, 207, R. of entrance, Virgil and Dante nearing the City of Dis,
executed with feverish energy in a few weeks for the Salon of 1822;
and 208, L. of entrance, The Massacre of Scio, a glowing canvas
painted in 1834. Jean Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864), the Lesueur of
the century, and like him uniting artistic genius and wide erudition
with profound religious faith and true modesty, is represented most
poorly of all; 284, Portrait of a Young Girl being the only example of
this master's work here. Flandrin can only be truly appreciated in the
church of St. Germain des Pres (p. 320). Before we turn to the
Barbizon painters, we note Gros' fine composition, 389, L. wall,
Napoleon at Eylau; and 390, R. wall, Francis I. and Charles V.
visiting the Tombs at St. Denis.
With Theodore Rousseau (1812-1867), the all-father of the modern
French landscape school, and chief of the little band of enthusiasts
who grouped themselves about him at Barbizon, we touch the greatest
artistic movement of the age. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875),
the ever-young and gentle spirit, the tenderest emanation of the
century; Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875), the inspired and cultured
peasant, mightiest of them all, grand and solemn interpreter of the
fundamental and tragic pathos of human toil, ever discerning God's
image in the most bent and ill-shapen of his creatures; Constant
Troyon (1810-1865), the grandest animal painter of his day; Narcisse
Diaz de la Pena (1809-1876), once a poor errand lad with a maimed leg,
painter of forest depths and of the rich hues of summer foliage;
Charles Francois Daubigny (1817-1878), latest of the little band,
faithful and tender student of nature, painter of the countryside, of
the murmuring waters of the Seine and the Oise--these once despised
and rejected of men have long won fame and appreciation. No princely
patronage shone on them in their early struggles nor smoothed their
path; they wrought out the beauty of their souls under the hard
discipline of poverty in loving and awful communion with Nature. They
have revealed to us new tones of colour in the air, in the forest and
the plain, and a new sense of the pathos and beauty in simple lives
and common things.
827, L. wall, is Rousseau's Forest at Fontainebleau, a fine effect of
setting sun and loving representation of his favourite tree, the oak;
829 and 830, R. wall, are also by this master. On the same wall 643,
Millet's Spring, whose coloration at first sight may seem forced and
strange, is absolutely faithful to Nature, as the writer who once
observed similar colour effects in the forest can testify. 644, The
Gleaners, "the three fates of poverty," is, next to the Angelus, the
most popular of Millet's works. Corot, the Theocritus of modern
painting, is represented by 138, the lovely and poetical Morning, 141,
Souvenir de Mortefontaine and 141 _bis_, Castelgandolfo. R. and L.
are, 889 and 890, two grand and massive compositions by Troyon: Oxen
going to the Plough; and, The Return to the Farm: landscapes that
smell of the very earth, and rendered with a marvellous breadth of
style and penetrating sympathy; 184, end wall, and 185, R. of
entrance, Grape Harvest in Burgundy, and Spring, are by Daubigny.
One of the most aggressive, ebullient and individual of painters was
Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), whose harshly realistic Funeral at Ornans
we have seen in Room II. In 1855 Courbet, finding his works badly hung
in the International Exhibition at Paris, erected a wooden shed near
the entrance, where he exhibited thirty-eight of his large pictures,
and defiantly painted outside in big letters--REALISM: G. COURBET.
Strong of body and coarse in habit, this _peintre-animal_, as he was
called, delighted to _epater le bourgeois_, and painted his studies of
the nude with a brutal reality that stripped the female form of all
the beauty and grace with which the superior ideality of man has
invested it. This swashbuckler of realism, who despised the old
masters, denounced imagination as humbug, and would have great men,
railway stations, factories and mines painted as the _verites vraies_,
the saints and miracles of the age, was, however, often better than
his artistic creed, and is here represented by some pleasing
Fontainebleau pictures: L. wall, 147, Deer in Covert; R. wall, 66,
Source of the Puits Noir, and L., 147 _bis_, The Waves, a most
powerful and original interpretation of the sombre majesty of the sea.
For in truth the creed of Realism, whether in literature or in art,
involves a fallacy, and the creations of the imaginative and
idealistic faculty in man are as real as those which result from the
faculty of seeing mean things meanly and coarse things coarsely.
Courbet's violent revolutionary nature nearly cost him his life in
1848 and involved him in the Commune in 1871, during which he presided
over the destruction of the Vendome Column (though he saved the
Luxembourg and the Thiers' collection from the violence of the
people). Poor Courbet, mulcted in enormous damages for his share in
the overthrow of the Column, was ruined and died in exile. A more
potent revolutionist, the arch-Impressionist Manet and founder of the
school, has at length forced the portals of the Louvre and is
represented by the celebrated Olympia, 204, around which so many
fierce battles were waged in 1865.
We proceed to supplement this small collection of Barbizon pictures by
a visit to the recently acquired (1903) Thomy-Thiery and Chauchard
collections. Returning to the Salle La Caze by Room XVI., and the
Escalier Daru, we issue from it, pass direct before us and continue
through the rooms devoted to exhibits of furniture (in Hall II. is a
superb specimen of cabinet-work--Louis XV.'s writing-table). Turning
R., we then enter a series of Cabinets, containing an admirable and
most important collection of drawings, beginning with the early
Italian masters and following on chronologically to the later Italians
and to the German, Netherland and French masters. If the visitor have
leisure he will be repaid by returning at some convenient time to
study these carefully. But even the most hurried traveller should not
omit to glance through them, and more especially at the lovely Da
Vincis in the second cabinet and the Ingres drawings further along.
Arrived at the end, we shall find on our L. a wooden staircase, which
we mount and reach
ROOM XXXVII.
the Salle Francaise de 1830. Here are exhibited Delaroche's Princes in
the Tower; Flandrin's Portrait of Mme. Vinet and some early works of
the Barbizon school; Corot, 139, the Forum at Rome; 140, the
Colosseum; 141F, The Belfry at Douai and others. Millet's sketch of
the Church at Greville, 641, was found in his studio after his death;
another study is 642, The Bathers; 644A, The Seamstress, 642A is a
portrait of the artist's sister-in-law. By Rousseau are two small
landscapes, 831 and 832; and The Landes, 830, a masterpiece. Diaz and
Dupre are seen in a number of studies and paintings.
ROOM XXXVIII.
contains the Thomy-Thiery pictures, excellently hung and forming one
of the most rich and precious collections in the Louvre. On the R.
wall as we enter are a numerous series of _genre_ paintings, happily
conceived and wrought by Alexandre Gabriel Decamps (1803-1860). This
room holds many excellent Rousseaus, among which are: 2896, Banks of
the Loire; 2900, an excellent study of his favourite Oak Trees; 2901,
The Pyrenees; 2903, Springtide. Millet is well represented by a
priceless little collection: 2892, The Binders; 2890, The
Rubbish-burners; 2893, The Winnower; 2894, A Motherly Precaution;
2895, The Wood Chopper. By Corot are shown no less than twelve
examples: 2801-2812. All are most exquisitely poetical and delicate,
but we may specially note: 2804, Shepherds' Dance at Sorrento; 2805,
The Pollard Willows; 2806, Souvenir of Italy; 2807, The Pond; 2808,
Entrance to a Village; 2810, View of Sin-le-Noble; 2811, Evening. A
magnificent set of Troyons next claims our admiration, eleven in all,
2906-2916, of which: 2913, Girl with Turkeys; 2909, Morning; 2914, The
Barrier; 2916, The Heights of Suresnes, are superlative. The ten Diaz
pictures, 2854-2863, are of perhaps lesser interest, although they
will all repay careful attention. Of Daubigny's intimate landscapes
thirteen are offered to our appreciation, 2813-2825, among which:
2821, The Thames at Erith; 2822, The Mill at Gyliers; and 2824,
Morning, are notable. By the melancholy and poetical Jules Dupre
(1812-1889), whose landscapes oft breathe the tragic pathos of storm
and desolation, and who is said to have broken into a passionate
outburst of tears and sobs as he watched the magnificent spectacle of
a nocturnal tempest, are twelve compositions, 2864-2875; and let us
not omit some half-score Delacroix, 2843-2853, among which is a rare
religious subject, 2849, Christ on the Cross. The glass cases in the
centre of the room exhibit a numerous collection of bronzes by Barye,
whom we have seen among the modern sculptors in Room VI.
[Illustration: THE BINDERS.
_Millet._]
[Illustration: LANDSCAPE.
_Corot._]
ROOM XXXIX.
is the Salle Francaise du Second Empire and contains Horace Vernet's
well known, The Barriere de Clichy, Defence of Paris in 1814; and Ary
Scheffer's, Death of Gericault. 2938 is the great caricaturist
Daumier's portrait of Theodore Rousseau. Numerous examples of the
myopic art of Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891) will attract
attention in this Room. To reach the Chauchard collection,
provisionally exhibited in the old Colonial office, we descend to the
first floor, traverse the Grande Galerie and the new Rubens Room.
This, _prodigieux accroissement de richesses_, as it is termed by the
official catalogue, contains a large number of masterpieces by the
Barbizon painters and raises the Louvre collections of that school to
supreme importance. No less than eight Millet's are included, the most
famous of which, if not the greatest, The Angelus, 102, is much faded,
but always attracts a crowd of admirers. 103, Woman at the Well, is a
scene at the artist's birthplace; 104, is one of the most inspired of
the master's creations, The Shepherdess watching her Flock. 99, The
Winnower; 105, Girl with a Distaff, and 106, The Sheep Fold--a lovely
pastoral scene by night. Among the twenty-six Corots are many of his
finest works; 6, Goatherd playing the Flute; 8, The Dance of the
Nymphs; 15, Rest beneath the Willows; 16, The Ford; 20, Forest Glade:
Souvenir of Ville Avray; 24, Dance of Shepherdesses; 27, The Mill of
St. Nicholas-les-Arras. Some noble Rousseaus are included: 107, Avenue
in the Forest of d'Isle-Adam; 108, Pond by the Wayside; 112, Road in
the Forest of Fontainebleau. Troyon's score of canvases make a brave
show: 127, The White Cow, painted in 1856, was a favourite of the
artist who kept it by him until his death and bequeathed it to his
mother. By Charles Jacque, the painter of sheep, three works are shown
including 72, The Great Sheepfold. Daubigny, Descamps, Diaz and others
of the school are well represented in the collection. Admirers of "the
little master of little pictures" will find among the twenty-six
Meissonier's, which the Chauchard bequest brings to the Louvre, two of
the most famous of his works: 87, The Napoleonic picture, Campaign of
France, 1814; and 80, Amateurs of Painting. All these examples of the
most successful but least inspired of modern artists exemplify his
patient, concentrated, meticulous style. By an ingenious fiction that
the installation is only provisional, six characteristic Venetian
pictures by the veteran, Ziem, have been retained in the
collection.[220] 136, is, however, wrongly named, and should read
Scene from the Giudecca.
[Footnote 220: Pictures by living artists are excluded from the
Louvre.]
We have completed our rapid survey of the chief paintings in the
Louvre, for the more recent developments of French art must be sought
in the Luxembourg, where they are all too inadequately represented.
The self-imposed limitations of this work will not carry us thither,
but the most cursory visit to the Louvre would be incomplete without
some notice of the collections of Persian and Egyptian art which we
may conveniently glance at on our way as we leave. Descending to the
first floor by the staircase up which we mounted, we turn obliquely to
the R. and enter the E. gallery containing the Persian terra-cotta
reliefs and other objects from the royal palace of Darius, and
Artaxerxes,[221] his son, at Susa, including the marvellous coloured
Frieze of the Archers; one of the colossal capitals (restored), that
supported the roof of the Throne Room; a model of the same; and some
fine terra-cotta reliefs of Lions and of winged Bulls.
[Footnote 221: The student of history will not need to be reminded
that the famous retreat of the Ten Thousand, so dramatically described
by Xenophon, was occasioned by the death in battle of their ally
Cyrus, in his ill-omened attempt to dispossess his brother,
Artaxerxes, of the crown of Persia.]
We pass on through the Mediaeval and Renaissance collections, turn an
angle R., and enter the South Gallery, where some remarkable specimens
of ancient art will be found among the Egyptian Antiquities. The
painted statue (Hall III.) of the Seated Scribe is one of the most
precious examples the world possesses of an art admirable in its
naturalism and power of vivid portraiture, and the charming figure of
a priestess, known as _Dame Toui_, exquisitely wrought in wood, is
equally noteworthy. A superb example of a royal papyrus of the Book of
the Dead will also invite attention. We pass on through a suite of
beautifully decorated rooms filled with a choice collection of
Etruscan and Greek Ceramic art, each of which offers a rich feast of
beauty and historic interest.
At length we reach again the collection of paintings, Room III.,
whence we may pass through the Salle des Bijoux with a small exhibit
of ancient jewellery, to the Rotonde, and turning L., enter the
magnificent Galerie d'Apollon (the old Petite Galerie of Henry IV.),
and examine the wealth of enamels; the exquisite productions of the
goldsmith's art as applied to the sacred vessels of the church;
precious stones; cameos; and such as remain of the old crown jewels.
We may leave the palace by returning to the Rotonde; pass through the
Salle La Caze and descend the Escalier Henry II. to the L., noting the
caissons of its ceiling, decorated by Jean Goujon, and reach the
Quadrangle under the Pavilion de l'Horloge, where we began our visit;
or we pass from the Rotonde down the Escalier Daru to the exit in the
Pavilion Denon, which gives on the Squares du Louvre. In the latter
case it will be of some interest before leaving to pass for a moment
by the exit and along the Galerie Mollien, where on the R. among the
models of Roman masterpieces executed for Francis I., under
Primaticcio's supervision, will be found one of the Laocoon, which
shows its condition before Bernini's bungling restoration had deformed
the group. To the unsated sightseer there yet remain the rich and
comprehensive collections of Egyptian and Asiatic antiquities on the
ground floor of the E. wing entered on either side of the E. portal.
SECTION VI
_The Ville (S. of the Rue St. Antoine)--The Hotel de Ville[222]--St.
Gervais--Hotel Beauvais--Hotel of the Provost of Paris--SS. Paul and
Louis--Hotel de Mayenne--Site of the Bastille--Bibliotheque de
l'Arsenal[223]--Hotel Fieubert--Hotel de Sens--Isle St. Louis._
[Footnote 222: Open, 2-4, by ticket obtained at the Secretary's
office.]
[Footnote 223: Open, 10-4, daily, except Chief Festivals.]
We take the _Metropolitain_ to the Hotel de Ville station and make our
way to the Place de l'Hotel de Ville, formerly Place de Greve, a
little W. of the station.
In 1141 a sloping bank of sand (greve), to the E. of the Rue St.
Martin and facing the old port of the Nautae at St. Landry on the
island of the Cite, was ceded by royal charter, to the burgesses of
Paris for a payment of seventy livres. "It is void of houses," says
the charter, "and is called the _gravia_, and is situated where the
old market-place (_vetus forum_) existed." This was the origin of the
famous Place de Greve,[224] where throbbed the very heart of civic,
commercial and industrial Paris. On its eastern side stood the old
Maison aux Piliers, a long, low building, whose upper floor was
supported by columns. Here every revolutionary and democratic movement
has been organised, from the days of Marcel to those of the Communes
of 1789--when the last Provost of the Merchants met his death--and of
1871, when the fine old Renaissance Hotel de Ville was destroyed by
fire. The place of sand was much smaller in olden times, and from
1310, when Philip the Fair burned three heretics, to September, 1822,
when the last political offenders, the four serjeants of Rochelle,
were executed, and to July 1830, when the last murderer was hung
there, has soaked up the blood of many a famous enemy of State and
Church and of innumerable notorious and obscure criminals, including
the infamous Marquise de Brinvilliers, who was burned alive, and
Cartouche, broken on the wheel. A permanent gibbet stood there and a
market cross, and there during the English wars the infuriated
Parisians tied the hands and feet of hundreds of English prisoners
taken at Pontoise and flung them into the Seine. Every St. John's
eve--the church and cloister of St. Jean stood behind the Hotel de
Ville--a great bonfire was lighted in the Place de Greve, fireworks
were let off, and a salvo of artillery celebrated the festival. When
the relations between Crown and Commune were felicitous the king
himself would take part in the _fete_ and fire the pile with a torch
of white wax decorated with crimson velvet. A royal supper and ball in
the Grande Salle concluded the revels. Not infrequently the ashes at
the stake where a poor wretch had met his doom had scarcely cooled
before the joyous flames and fireworks of the Feu de St. Jean burst
forth, and the very day after the execution of the Count of Bouteville
the people were dancing round the fires of St. John. The present Hotel
de Ville, by Ballu and Deperthes, completed in 1882,[225] is one of
the finest modern edifices in Europe, and contains some of the most
important productions of contemporary French painters and sculptors:
Puvis de Chavannes, Carolus Duran, Benjamin Constant, Jean Paul
Laurens, Carriere Dalou, Chapu and others.
[Footnote 224: The masons of Paris were wont to stand on the Place
waiting to be hired, and sometimes contrived to exact higher wages.
Hence the origin of the term _faire greve_ (to go out on strike).]
[Footnote 225: Charles Normand, founder of the Societe des Amis des
Monuments, appeals for information concerning the fate of the old
inscription commemorating the laying of the foundation stone of the
former Hotel de Ville in 1533. It is said to have been appropriated
(_se serait empare_) by an Englishman in 1874.]
We pass to the E. of the Hotel, where stands the church of St. Gervais
and St. Protais, whose facade by Solomon Debrosse (1617) "is
regarded," says Felibien (1725), "as a masterpiece of art by the
best architectural authorities" ("_les plus intelligens en
architecture_"). The church, which has been several times rebuilt,
occupies the site of the old sixth-century building, near which stood
the elm tree where suitors waited for justice to be done by the early
kings. "_Attendre sous l'orme_" ("To wait under the elm") is still a
proverbial expression for waiting till Doomsday.
[Illustration: ST. GERVAIS.]
The lofty Gothic interior, dating from the late fifteenth century, is
lighted by some sixteenth and seventeenth-century stained glass, and
among the pictures that have escaped transportation to the Louvre may be
noted a lunette over the clergy stalls R. of the nave, God the Father,
by Perugino; and a remarkable tempera painting, The Passion, attributed
to Duerer's pupil, Aldegraever, in the fifth chapel, L. aisle. The curious
old panelled and painted little Chapelle Scarron (fourth to the L.) and
the sixteenth-century carved choir stalls from the abbey church of Port
Royal are of interest: the beautiful vaulting of the Lady Chapel is also
noteworthy. Some good modern paintings may be seen (with difficulty) in
the side chapels. The Rue Francois Miron leading E. from the Place St.
Gervais was part of the Rue St. Antoine, before the cutting of the Rue
de Rivoli, and the chief artery from the E. to the centre of Paris. On
the R. of this street, No. 26, Rue Geoffrey l'Asnier, is the fine portal
of the seventeenth-century Hotel de Chalons, where the whilom ambassador
to England, Antoine de la Borderie, lived (1608). Yet further on in the
Rue Francois Miron is the Rue de Jouy: at No. 7, is the charming Hotel
d'Aumont by Hardouin Mansard. We continue our eastward way along the Rue
Francois Miron and among other interesting houses note No. 68, the
princely Hotel de Beauvais, erected 1660, for Anne of Austria's
favourite _femme de chambre_, Catherine Henriette Belier, wife of Pierre
Beauvais. The street facade has been much disfigured and the magnificent
wrought-iron balcony, whence Anne, Mazarin and Turenne, together with
the Queen of England, watched the solemn entry of Louis XIV. and his
consort Maria Therese, has been destroyed: but the beautiful circular
porch with its Doric columns and metopes and the stately courtyard where
the architect, Jean Lepautre, has triumphed over the irregularity of the
site and created a marvellous symmetry of form--all this still remains,
together with the noble stairway on the L., decorated by the Flemish
sculptor, Desjardins. In the house at the sign of the Falcon which
formerly stood on this spot, Tasso in the splendour of his early years
was lodged by his patron, the Cardinal d'Este, and composed the greater
part of the _Gerusalemme Liberata_. The Rue Francois Miron is continued
by the Rue St. Antoine: at No. 119, we enter the Passage Charlemagne and
pass to the second courtyard where remains a goodly portion of the old
Hotel of the Royal Provost of Paris,[226] given to Aubriot by Charles V.
At No. 101 is the site of one of the gates of the Philip Augustus wall
and at No. 99 stands the Jesuit Church of St. Paul and St. Louis, in the
typical baroque style so familiar to visitors to Rome. The once lavishly
decorated interior has suffered much from the Revolutionists. Germain
Pilon's Virgin still remains in the chapel L. of the high altar, but the
four angels in silver that sustained the hearts of Louis XIII. and XIV.,
and the noble bronze statues from the mausoleum of the Princes of Conde,
admired by Bernini, are only a memory. At No. 65, a malodorous court
leads to the old vaulted entrance to the charnel-houses of St. Paul,
where Rabelais and the Man with the Iron Mask were buried;[227] and to
the R. of this vault a narrow street leads to the Marche Ste. Catherine
on the site of the canons' houses of the monastery of Ste. Catherine du
Val des Ecoliers (p. 124). At the corner of the Rue du Petit Musc is the
magnificent Hotel de Mayenne, begun by Du Cerceau for Diana of Poitiers
and completed for the Duke of Mayenne, leader of the forces of the
League: this too has a fine courtyard. The chamber in which the leaders
of the League met and decided to assassinate Henry III. still exists. An
inscription over No. 5 marks the site of the forecourt of the Bastille
where the revolutionists penetrated on 14th July: on the pavement in
front of No. 1 and across the end of the street and in front of No. 5
Place de la Bastille, round the opposite corner, lines of white stones
mark part of the huge space on which the gloomy and sinister old
fortress stood. We turn S.W. by the Boulevard Henry IV., past the
imposing new barracks of the Garde Republicaine, and then L. by the Rue
de Sully. At No. 3 we enter the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal, one of the
most important libraries of Paris, where an attendant will show Sully's
private cabinet and antechamber, with the rich decorations as they were
left by his successor, including a ceiling painted by Vouet. Many an
intimate outpouring of the Victor of Ivry's domestic woes did Sully
endure here--complaints of his ill-tempered Marie's scoldings, the
contrast between his lawful wife's sour greetings and the endearing
graces and merry, roguish charms of his mistresses; their quarrels and
exactions. All of which the great minister would listen to reprovingly,
and exhort his dejected royal master not to permit himself, who had
vanquished the hosts of his enemies in battle, to be overcome by a
woman's petulancy. To the S. of the library the Boulevard Morland marks
the channel which separated the Isle de Louviers from the N. bank of the
river. We return to the Boulevard Henry IV. and cross to the Quai des
Celestins, where on our L. stands part of a tower of the Bastille,
discovered in 1899 during the construction of the Metropolitan Railway
and transferred here. At the corner of the Rue du Petit Musc opposite,
is the fine Hotel Fieubert, erected by Hardouin Mansard (1671) on part
of the site of the Royal Hotel St. Paul. The principal facade, 2 _bis_
Quai des Celestins, has unhappily been irretrievably spoilt by
subsequent additions. Continuing westward, we note No. 32, the site of
the Tour Barbeau of the Philip Augustus wall. An inscription bids us
remember that there stood the old Tennis Court of the Croix Noire, where
Moliere's troupe of the Illustre Theatre performed in 1645. Turning R.
up the Rue Falconnier, we come upon (L.) the grand old fifteenth-century
palace of the archbishops of Sens (p. 114), now a glass merchant's
warehouse. We regain the Place de l'Hotel de Ville by the Quai of the
same name, or cross the Pont Marie, and stroll about the quiet streets
of the Isle St. Louis (p. 214), and return by the Pont Louis Philippe at
its western extremity.
[Illustration: HOTEL OF THE PROVOST OF PARIS.]
[Footnote 226: All demolished (1911).]
[Footnote 227: Under process of demolition (1911).]
SECTION VII
_The Ville (N. of the Rue St. Antoine)--Tour St. Jacques--Rue St.
Martin--St. Merri--Rue de Venise--Les Billettes--Hotels du
Soubise,[228] de Hollande, de Rohan[229]--Musee Carnavalet[230]--Place
Royale--Musee Victor Hugo[230]--Hotel de Sully._
[Footnote 228: Open Sundays, 12-3.]
[Footnote 229: Open Thursdays at 2 o'clock by a permit from the
Director.]
[Footnote 230: Open daily (except Monday) 10-4 or 5 (1 fr.).
Thursdays and Sundays free. Closed till 12.30 Tuesdays.]
Two parallel historic roads named of St. Martin and of St. Denis cut
northwards through the mass of houses that now crowd the Marais: the
latter, the Grande Chaussee de Monseigneur St. Denis, to the shrine of
the martyred saint of Lutetia, the former, the great Roman Street
which led to the provinces of the north.
[Illustration: WEST DOOR OF ST. MERRI.]
We set forth northwards from the Place du Chatelet, at the foot of the
Pont au Change, where stood the massive pile of the Grande Chatelet,
originally built to defend the bridge from the Norman pirates as the
Petit Chatelet was to defend the Petit Pont. It subsequently became
the official seat and prison of the Provost of Paris, where he held
his criminal court and organised the City Watch, and was demolished in
1802. Below this festered an irregular maze of slums, the aggregation
of seven centuries, the most fetid, insanitary and criminal quarter of
Paris, known as the Vallee de Misere, which only disappeared in 1855.
On our R. soars the beautiful flamboyant Gothic tower, all that
remains of the great church of St. Jacques de la Boucherie. This fine
monument was saved by the good sense of the architect Giraud who, when
the church was sold to the housebreakers during the Revolution,
inserted a clause in the warrant exempting the tower from demolition.
It was afterwards used as a lead foundry and twice narrowly escaped
destruction by fire. Purchased by the Ville, it seemed safe at last,
but again it was threatened in 1853 by the prolongation of the Rue de
Rivoli: luckily, however, the new street just passed by on the north.
The statue of Pascal under the vaulting reminds the traveller that the
great thinker conducted some barometrical experiments on the summit,
and the statues of the patron saints of craftsmen in the niches, that
under its shadow the industrial arts were practised. We ascend the Rue
St. Martin from the N.E. corner of the Square, and on our R. find the
late Gothic church of St. Merri, built on the site of the
seventh-century Chapel of St. Pierre, where Odo Falconarius, one of
the defenders of Paris in the siege of 886, is known to have been
buried. We enter for the sake of the beautiful sixteenth-century glass
in the choir and a curious old painting of the same epoch in the first
chapel beyond the entrance to the sacristy, Ste. Genevieve and her
Flock, with a view of Paris in the background. We continue to ascend
the street, noting No. 122, an old fountain and some reliefs, and soon
reach, R. and L., the quaint and narrow mediaeval Rue de Venise,
formerly the Ruelle des Usuriers, home of the Law speculators (p.
242). At No. 27, L. of the Rue St. Martin and corner of the Rue
Quincampoix, is the old inn of the Epee de Bois (now a l'Arrivee de
Venise), where Prince de Hoorn and two other nobles assassinated and
robbed a banker in open day and were broken alive on the wheel in the
Place de Greve. Mirabeau and L. Racine, with other wits are said to
have met there and Mazarin granted letters patent to a company of
dancing masters who taught there, under the direction of the Roi des
Violins: from these modest beginnings grew the National Academy of
Dancing. We return E. along the Rue de Venise and pass to its end;
then cross obliquely to the R. and continue E., along the Rue Simon le
Franc, traversing the Rue du Temple, to the Rue des Blancs Manteaux.
This we follow still eastward to its intersection with Rue des
Archives. Turning down this street to the R. we cross, and at Nos. 24
or 26 enter the fifteenth-century cloister (restored) of the monastery
of the Billettes, founded at the end of the thirteenth century to
commemorate the miracle of the Sacred Host, which had defied the
efforts of Jonathan, the Jew to destroy it by steel, fire and
boiling water. The chapel, built on the site of the Jew's house in
1294, was rebuilt in 1754, and is now a Protestant church. The
miraculous Host was preserved as late as the early eighteenth century
in St. Jean en Greve, and carried annually in procession on the octave
of Corpus Christi. We return northwards along the Rue des Archives,
and reach at the corner of the Rue des Francs Bourgeois the fine
pseudo-classic Hotel de Soubise, now the National Archives, erected in
1704 for the Princesse de Soubise on the site of the old Hotel of the
Constable of France, Olivier de Clisson, where Charles VI., after his
terrible vengeance on the revolted burgesses, agreed to remit further
punishment, and where the Duke of Clarence established himself at the
time of the English occupation. It became later (1553) the fortress of
the Guises and rivalled the Louvre in strength and splendour. The
picturesque Gothic portal (restored) of the old Hotel de Clisson still
exists higher up the Rue des Archives. The lavishly decorated Hotel de
Soubise, entered from the Rue des Francs Bourgeois, in which are
exhibited historical documents and other objects of profound interest,
though bereft of much of its former splendour is well worth a visit.
The sumptuous chambers contain much characteristic and well-preserved
decorative work by Boucher, Natoire, Carle Vanloo and others.[231]
Opposite the hotel and between Nos. 59 and 57 may be seen a portion
of a tower, repaired in brick, of the old Philip Augustus wall, and in
the courtyard of the Mont de Piete (No. 55) the line of the wall is
traced: a nearer view of the tower may be obtained from the courtyard
to the R.
[Footnote 231: At the north end of the Rue des Archives is the site,
now a square and a market, of the grisly old fortress of the Knights
Templars, whose walls and towers and round church were still standing
a century ago. The enclosure was a famous place of refuge for
insolvent debtors and political offenders, and sheltered Rousseau in
1765 when a _lettre de cachet_ was issued for his arrest. In the
gloomy keep, which was not destroyed until 1811, were imprisoned the
royal family of France after the abandonment of the Tuileries on 10th
August 1792. The old market of the Temple, the centre of the _petites
industries_ of Paris, has been recently demolished. West of this is
the huge Museum of the Arts and Crafts (Conservatoire des Arts et
Metiers), on the site of the abbatial buildings and lands of St.
Martin of the Fields, still preserving in its structure the beautiful
thirteenth-century church and refectory of the Abbey.]
[Illustration: CLOISTER OF THE BILLETTES, FIFTEENTH CENTURY.]
[Illustration: ARCHIVES NATIONALES, HOTEL SOUBISE, SHOWING TOWERS OF
HOTEL DE CLISSON.]
[Illustration: TOWER AT THE CORNER OF THE RUE VIELLE DU TEMPLE.]
We proceed eastward past the rebuilt church of the Blancs Manteaux and
at the corner of the Rue Vieille du Temple find a charming Gothic
tourelle (restored), all that remains of the mansion built in 1528 by
Jean de la Balue. Descending the Rue Vieille du Temple to the R., we
may examine (No. 47) the old Hotel de Hollande, erected in 1638, where
the Dutch ambassadors resided; and ascending, at No. 87, we find the
Hotel de Rohan (1712), home of the Cardinal de Rohan of
diamond-necklace fame, now the Imprimerie Nationale. The Salon des
Singes, charmingly decorated by Huet, and other interesting rooms are
shown. The fine relief by Le Lorrain of the Horses of Apollo in a
passage to the R. of the courtyard should by no means be missed. We
return to the Rue des Francs Bourgeois, and at No. 38 find an
inscription[232] over the entrance to a picturesque court which marks
the place where the Duke of Orleans was assassinated by Jean Sans Peur
(p. 132). Still proceeding E. we pass yet more interesting domestic
architecture--No. 31, Hotel d'Albret, where goody Scarron used to
visit Madame de Montespan and where she was appointed governess to the
royal bastards; 25, Hotel de Lamoignon, once occupied by Diana of
France, daughter of Henry II., and where Malesherbes was born.
[Footnote 232: Removed to give place to the name of a firm of
wholesale chemists (1911).]
Nos. 14 and 16, corner of the Rue de Sevigne, is the Hotel de
Carnavalet, a magnificent renaissance mansion, in raising which no
less than four famous architects had part--Lescot, Bullant, Du Cerceau
and the elder Mansard. For twenty years (1677-1697) it was the home of
Madame Sevigne, queen of letter-writers. Her _Carnavalette_, as she
delighted to call it, is now the civic museum of Paris. The beautiful
reliefs over the entrance, including the two superb lions against a
background of trophies, are by Goujon, as are also the satyrs' heads
on the keystones of the arcades of the courtyard. The Four Seasons and
some of the lateral figures that decorate the courtyard were designed
by him. In the centre stands a bronze statue of Louis XIV as a Roman
conqueror, by Coysevox, which once stood on the Place de Greve before
the old Hotel de Ville. The museum, which contains a collection,[233]
historic and prehistoric, relating to the city of Paris, is especially
rich in objects, all carefully labelled, illustrating the great
Revolution, and is of profound interest to students of that period:
the second floor is devoted to the last siege of Paris. From the
museum we fare yet further E. along the Rue des Francs Bourgeois to
the Place Royale (now des Vosges), the site of the Palace of the
Tournelles, once a favourite pleasure-house with a fair garden, of the
kings of France, and where the Duke of Bedford lived during the
English occupation, projecting to transform it into an English park
for his exclusive use. There the ill-fated Henry II. lay eleven days
in excruciating agony (p. 172), calling for his _seule princesse_, the
beloved Diana, while Catherine, like a she-dragon, watched lest her
rival entered. After his death the palace becoming hateful to
Catherine, she had it demolished. It was subsequently used as a
horse-market, and there the three minions of Henry III. began their
bloody duel with the three bullies of the Duke of Guise at five in
the morning of 27th April 1578, and fought on until every one was
either slain or severely wounded.
[Footnote 233: Recently augmented.]
How different is the present aspect of this once courtly square! Here
noble gentlemen in dazzling armour jousted, while from the windows of
each of the thirty-five pavilions, gentle dames and demoiselles smiled
gracious guerdon to their cavaliers. Around the bronze statue of Louis
XIII., proudly erect on the noble horse cast by Daniello da Volterra,
in the midst of the gardens, fine ladies were carried in their
sedan-chairs and angry gallants fought out their quarrels. And now on
this royal Place, the Perle du Marais, the scene of these brilliant
revels, peaceful inhabitants of the east of Paris sun themselves and
children play. Bronze horse and royal rider went to the melting pot of
the Revolution to be forged into cannon that defeated and humbled the
allied kings of Europe, and a feeble marble equestrian statue, erected
under the Restoration, occupies its place.
We cross the Square obliquely and at No. 6, Victor Hugo's old house,
find a delightful little museum of portraits, busts, casts,
illustrations of his works in various mediums, and personal and
intimate objects belonging to the poet. It was at this house that in
1847 the two greatest novelists of their age met. Dickens has
described how he was welcomed with infinite courtesy and grace by
Hugo, a noble, compact, closely-buttoned figure, with ample dark hair
falling loosely over his clean-shaven face and with features never so
keenly intellectual, and softened by a sweet gentility. We leave the
Place by the S. exit, and entering the Rue St. Antoine turn R. to No.
62, where stands the Hotel de Sully, built by Du Cerceau in 1634. The
stately but now rather grimy inner courtyard is little altered, but
the fine facade has been disfigured by the erection of a mean
building between the wings. We return from the Metropolitain station
at the end of the Rue Francois Miron.
[Illustration: PLACE DES VOSGES, MAISON DE VICTOR HUGO.]
SECTION VIII
_Rue St. Denis--Fontaine des Innocents--Tower of Jean sans Peur--Cour
des Miracles--St. Eustache--The Halles--St. Germain l'Auxerrois._