THE LOUVRE.
Paris, the magnificent, has thousands of structures that are worth a
voyage across the Atlantic to see, but there is in all that wonderful
city no one that is so utterly bewildering in its magnificence as the
massive pile, the Louvre, one of the largest as well as grandest places
in the world. Its long galleries and beautiful salons, with hundreds of
winds and turns, form a labyrinth in which, without a guide, one may
almost be lost.
It required a great deal of time to build the Louvre, as its completion
was being continually retarded. But through all the years and the
changes in the styles of architecture, a general oneness of plan was
maintained, and the noble structure, though constructed piece-meal, is
consistent and symmetrical.
It is admirably located near the banks of the Seine, and with the
Tuileries, occupies forty acres of ground. It is of a quadrilateral
form, enclosing an immense square. Approaching it from the Place du
Royale, its imposing front challenges attention and then invites study.
Admiration is excited by the solidity, as well as symmetry of the pile,
and this is increased by its elaborate ornamentation.
Such buildings are impossible in this day and age of the world. Private
means are not sufficient. An American railroad magnate might do
something in this direction, but when the idea of expending even a few
paltry millions upon a residence for himself comes to him, he puts it
off till after he has attempted a corner in some stock or another, which
generally makes a lame duck of him, and he is glad to retire to the
humble mansion which he always has--in his wife's name.
[Sidenote: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LEADERSHIP.]
Modern governments cannot do it, for they haven't the facilities of the
ancient Kings for this kind of work. All that the old French Kings had
to do when they wanted a palace of this kind was to call upon the
workmen of the nation, with spears, and set them about it, and feed them
upon black bread and very sour and cheap wine, and take possession of
the stone quarries and the lumber mills, and put it up. The painters and
sculptors and the makers of the furnishings they were compelled to pay,
but that was nothing. An extra tax on everything the people lived upon
was levied and collected with great vigor and much certainty, and so
without any bother or worry the King had a new palace, with fountains,
and trees, and flowers, and pictures, and statuary, and all that sort of
thing, in the most gorgeous style. A French King, a few hundred years
ago, had what an American would not unjustly style a soft thing of it.
It was a good situation to hold, and I don't wonder that Nobles fought
to be Kings, and Kings struggled to be Emperors. Everybody wants power.
And this reminds me of a little incident that happened in my own beloved
America, illustrative of this principle. In a certain county in the good
State of Ohio was, and is, a township called Cranberry, inhabited
largely by Germans and those of German descent. These Germans, without
exception, adhered to one political party, and all voted one way, and
their devotion to their party was such that it was considered an
unpardonable sin to "scratch" a ticket, or in any way run counter to the
action of their convention. In politics they were as regular as a horse
in a bark-mill.
One man, always the stoutest and best one physically, of the party,
stood at the polls, and every one of his organization as he came to vote
was expected to show his ticket to this recognized King, that it might
be made certain that no one scratched or acted unorthodox. This man was
by right entitled to a county office, and held one as long as he could
maintain his position at home.
One Peter Feltzer had been King of Cranberry for a great many years, and
by virtue of his position had been successively Commissioner, Treasurer,
Representative, and, in fact, had gone up and down the ladder of earthly
glory a great many times, and was waxing as full of glory and honors as
he was of years.
There was a young man named Meyer, who had an idea that he wanted to
hold a county office, and live at the county seat, and spend his time in
drinking beer, at good pay, and he knew there was but one road to this
summit of human bliss, and that was over Feltzer's body. So one election
day he presented himself at the polls, and ignoring Feltzer, offered a
folded ballot.
[Illustration: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE KINGSHIP.]
"Mike, show me dot dicket!" exclaimed Feltzer.
"Yoo shust go mit hell!" was Meyer's answer.
[Sidenote: ART IN THE LOUVRE.]
Feltzer divined the meaning of this revolt at once. He knew that this
was a challenge to mortal combat, and that the prize of the victor was
the crown. Meyer was a splendid young man, built like a bull, and only
thirty. Feltzer had been, in his day, more than a match for him; but
alas, he was sixty, and had been enervated by the soft allurements of
official position. However, he determined not to die without a struggle,
and so laying off their coats, at it they went. Meyer had no easy
contract. Feltzer was fighting for life, and the contest was long and
severe. Youth finally triumphed, and Feltzer, after half an hour of
rolling in the mud, admitted defeat. Meyer sprang gaily to his feet, and
seizing Feltzer's hickory club exclaimed to the bystanders, "Now, yoo
men vat vants to vote will shust show _me_ your dickets!"
They accepted their new ruler the same as the French do, and he was
elected to an office the ensuing Fall, and ever since, for aught I know.
He held it, anyhow, till some younger man deposed him.
This has nothing to do with the Louvre, except as showing that humanity
is the same everywhere. If any other moral can be got out of it I have
no objection.
All over the Louvre are statues of men who are famous in French
history--those who have achieved fame in art, science, literature or
war. They are here, and in stone that will last for ages; longer,
probably, than the memory of the acts that placed them there.
On the north side of the Place Napoleon there is a wonderful Corinthian
colonnade, over the columns of which are heroic statues of eighty-six
celebrated men, and on the balustrade are sixty-five allegorical groups,
wonderful in design and execution, and so, all the way around the
enormous building, story after story is burdened with works of art.
Wondrous works, artistically bestowed, always profuse, but never
overdone. Every column, every window-cap, even the ledges just under the
projection of the roof, bear the impress of genius. There are statues,
medallions, large groups illustrating important events in the history of
France, exquisitely carved by master hands, on all four sides of the
exterior, all symmetrical in design and faultless in proportion.
The interior is in keeping with the exterior. The noble pile is a fit
repository for what it contains. The one hundred and forty salons into
which the Louvre is divided are marvels of artistic beauty. Intended for
the abode of royalty, it was royally constructed. The kingly builders
did not spare the sweat or blood of their subjects. They set out to have
a royal palais, and they did not allow the miseries of a few millions of
their people to stand in the way of its achievement.
The most beautiful of them all is the Galerie d'Apollon, the
ornamentation of which, in beauty of design and skill in execution, is
marvelous. It is of itself a study. The vaulted ceiling is filled with
paintings by Le Brun, one of the greatest of the French masters. The
cornices and corners are ornamented with beautiful designs in gilt,
elaborately wrought, and on the walls are portraits of French artists in
gobelin tapestry, making it one of the finest collections of this kind
of work extant. There is a perfection in the drawing that is remarkable,
and the coloring is exquisite, the various shades and tints blending
with a nicety that makes one almost feel that they were done by artists
with brush and paint.
Tapestry, as a rule, has small degree of expression in face and feature,
but in these every feature is faithfully reproduced, and the whole
figure is strikingly life-like.
This room has a history. It was originally built by Henry IV., and was
burned in 1661. During the reign of Louis XIV. the work of
reconstruction was begun, Le Brun furnishing the designs. His death in
1690 put a stop to the work, and for a century and a half it stood in an
unfinished condition. In 1848 work was resumed, and in three years it
was finished as it now stands.
There are scores of other rooms of quite as much interest. In all, the
frescoes and wall paintings are incomparable, and though the galleries
aggregate over a mile and a half in length, in no place is there a
barren spot. The great masters, through all these ages, gave to it their
best years and their best work, and so long as the Louvre remains these
rooms will be monuments of their genius.
[Sidenote: THE REASON FOR THE COMMUNE.]
The Louvre is inseparable from the history of France. In all the
upheavals, the tearings down and overturnings, it has been a central
figure. It was from the Louvre on that dreadful night in August, 1572,
that Charles IX. fired the shot that was the signal for the horrible
massacre of St. Bartholomew, which ended in the indiscriminate slaughter
of the Huguenots, and from that time on to the present it has been the
stage on which tragedies have been enacted. It figured in the terrible
days of the Commune, in 1871, and but for an almost Providential
interference, would have passed into history as a memory.
The Louvre has always been the especial object of the hatred of the
Parisian mob, and no wonder. Every stone laid was so much bread taken
from the mouths of French workingmen; every stroke of a chisel, every
inch of the wonderful pile, was a robbery of himself of whatever it
cost. It was the habitation of a nobility, supported in luxury at the
expense of the French people.
It is all well enough to talk of reason, but there is no reason in a
revolution. The Parisian whose wife and family were living in garrets
and cellars, eating black bread and drinking sour wine, could not be
reasoned with when he caught glimpses of the luxurious salons in which
the few took their pleasure. He could not be expected to have much
reason when he got a smell of the delicacies of the royal table, and
thought of the scant fare on which he was compelled to subsist. His
garret and thin pallet did not contrast well with the gorgeous
apartments and silken couches of his royal masters, nor did the offal
with which he was fed compare pleasantly with the wild profusion of
dainties which they rioted upon.
It was nightingale tongues _versus_ offal--it was poverty in the extreme
_versus_ prodigal waste.
And then the arrogance of these tyrants! They held the commoners as an
inferior race, as another creation, much as the Southern planter used to
hold his slaves.
One of the ancient nobility replied to a demand from the workingmen for
better food: "The animals! Let them eat grass!" It is no wonder, a few
months later, when this silken lord was beheaded, that the mob carried
his head upon a pike with a tuft of grass in his set jaws.
It is no wonder that when the mob, starved and frozen to a point where
death was preferable to life, wrested the power from the nobility and
controlled Paris, that it should blindly destroy everything that
symbolized royalty, everything that smacked of class rule.
True, the Commune should not have destroyed fountains, and statuary, and
paintings, but it must be said that they did not destroy these priceless
works for the mere sake of destroying them. The statues symbolized
royalty. It was not a Venus that was the object of their hatred--the
Venus was their wrong, in stone.
[Illustration: OF THE COMMUNE.]
There is much to be said about these Parisian mobs, and whoever knows of
the sufferings of the people, even under the mildest form of royalty,
cannot wholly condemn. The many laboring for the few; the man with a
hungry wife and pallid children does not care much for the art that his
oppressors delight in. He looks at immortal work through eyes dimmed
with suffering and half blinded with tears, and it is not singular that
in his rage he strikes blindly.
[Sidenote: THE COMMUNE.]
At this time Napoleon had fought an unprovoked war, and to perpetuate
his dynasty had dragged from their wretched homes thousands of the youth
of France, and had been driven back by the Prussians in utter and
entire humiliation. Had he crushed Prussia, the glory of the achievement
would have atoned in some degree for its cost; but to bear the burden of
defeat in shame and humiliation was too much, and though a Republic
followed, the Commune was not satisfied. It would not trust the
Republic. It looked upon the Republic as a partial change--it wanted a
radical one; and, with the childishness peculiar to the French, they
commenced the work of reconstruction by destroying what was their own,
and which would delight them as much under the Republic of the future as
it had their oppressors in the Monarchies of the past.
English, American or German people would have done differently. If these
wonderful works reminded them too much of their sufferings to be
pleasant, they would have been sold to other nations, and the proceeds
devoted to the payment of the national debt.
It is well for the world that so much of the Louvre was preserved, for
there are other nations than France that have an interest in it. Art has
no nationality--it is the property of the world.
The Communists ruined many of the finest works in the lower part of the
building, but fortunately their ravages were confined to a small space.
More important matters occupied their attention, and the Louvre was
virtually spared. It was set on fire, however, and the magnificent
library of ninety thousand volumes was entirely destroyed, and many
works of art were injured, but the troops of the Republic arrived in
time to arrest the progress of the flames, and the building was
preserved.
The first floor of the building is devoted wholly to ancient sculpture,
and a wilderness there is of it. Too much of it, in fact, unless one has
time for its study. You stop a moment to admire a Psyche; you have only
time to glance at the Caryatides in the hall in which Henri IV.
celebrated his marriage with Margaret of Valois; you pass through the
Salle du Gladiateur, containing the Borghese Gladiator, the famous work
made familiar through copies of it; you look down a long hall filled
with wonderful statues and see at the farther end the outline of a
figure whose very pose is a poem. The room is hung in crimson velvet,
and the light, soft and subdued, makes the figure seem almost that of a
living, breathing being. At this distance the effect is wonderful. There
was great genius in making the sculpture; there was almost as much in
placing it.
There is a long vista of beautiful statues lining the way on either side
to the crimson chamber, which, with its gentle lights and shades, makes
the picture perfect, and as one feels the delight of the scene wonder
ceases at the ravings of artists and lovers of art over the Venus of
Milo.
There, in the center of the crimson room, stands the armless figure
whose perfection of form and face has never been equaled. It stands
alone, with nothing near to distract the mind by divided attention, and
as the lover of the beautiful looks upon the wondrous beauty of that
speechless yet speaking statue, admiration ripens into adoration.
Even Tibbitts and the faro bankeress stood still and silent before it
for full twenty minutes, and no greater compliment was ever paid a work
of art. It interested even them.
The figure compels feeling. You do not feel that you are enjoying rare
sculpture, but your sympathies go out to the beautiful form before you,
not in cold marble but in life--real life, with all the tender qualities
belonging in nature to such a perfect face and figure.
This may be gush, but there is something about this block of marble that
is fascinating beyond expression. In it art has conquered material. The
marble lives and breathes. It is marble, but it is marble endowed with
life. Or, rather it is not marble, it is life resembling marble. It is a
dream caught and materialized. If it is not nature, it is more than
nature. It is a poet's idea of what nature should be.
[Sidenote: A VERY PRETTY ART SPEECH.]
Whether it be the face with the wonderful features that almost speak, or
the form so graceful in pose, or the combination of both, cannot be
said; but the effect is produced, and no one can withstand the silent
appeal made by this creation of an unequaled genius. It is something of
which one cannot tire. The oftener it is seen the greater the
impression. It can never be forgotten, nor can it be described. It
cannot be reproduced, either in marble or oil. There are innumerable
copies of it the world over, but to feel and realize the absolute
perfection of the work the original must be seen. No copy can do it
justice.
The great trouble with the Louvre is there is too much of it. If one
could live to the age of Methusaleh it would all be very well, but
unfortunately life is short. You wish you had not so much to see, for
you want to see it all, and the very wealth is bewildering. Recollection
becomes confusing and mixed.
Of course every one selects some one picture or statue which impresses
him to the point of carrying away a memory thereof. We had among us a
young American physician who stood in the orthodox pose before the
Gladiator. Having studied anatomy, muscles and things of that nature
were just in his way. He stood for full twenty minutes wrapped in what
he desired us to understand as ecstacy, and then delivered himself
thus:--
"A----! This is the very actuality of the ideality of individuality."
It was a very pretty speech, and the fact that he had lain awake all the
night before arranging it, and that he pulled us all around to the
Gladiator to get his chance of firing it off did not detract from its
merit. No one knew what it meant, but the words were mouth filling, and
it did as well as though it had some glimmer of meaning. There is
nothing in art like good sounding words.
From the ground-floor you ascend a broad stair-case, exquisitely carved.
You come into another wilderness, only this is in canvas, instead of
marble. Every school in the world is represented here, for when the
French potentate was not able to buy he could always sieze. You don't
stop to inquire how the collection was made; it is here, and to an
American, or any other foreigner, that is sufficient. We come to enjoy
the pictures, and we don't care whether they were purchased or taken by
force. There are, as I said, one hundred and forty of these salons, and
you must go through them all. There are galleries devoted to the French
school, ancient and modern, the Italian school, the German, Dutch,
Flemish, and Spanish, and you come away feeling a sort of satisfaction
that it has been done; but no man living, in the time one usually has in
Paris, can get a good idea of what is there gathered. Four miles of art
is rather too much for one short effort. It is bewildering in its very
profusion. One may be fond of art, but not educated to the point of
taking so much of it in systematically. Nevertheless, days spent in
collections like the Louvre are too good to miss. Some of it will stick
to you if you cannot carry it all away.
[Illustration: TIBBITTS AND THE FARO BANKERESS ENJOYING ART.]
[Sidenote: TWO PEOPLE'S DELIGHT IN ART.]
Tibbitts and the faro bankeress were delighted. Tibbitts, with an eye to
speculation, made elaborate calculation as to the cost of the entire
collection, and wondered whether or not a good thing could not be made
by buying it all up and exhibiting it in New York.
That was the delight he got out of it.
The faro bankeress protested that she had never enjoyed art so much, and
had never before known the delight that was in it. From several of the
female figures she had got ideas of lace that were entirely new to her,
and she had found and fixed in her mind a design for a fancy dress for
Lulu, which she should have made the next day. She wondered if she could
borrow the picture to show to the modiste. She had no idea that the
ladies of ancient days dressed in such good taste, or that they had such
wonderful material to dress with. Some of the costumes she had studied
were altogether too sweet for anything.
And that was the delight she got out of it.
[Illustration]