The part of the _Louvre_, which, with the two sides of the old
building, forms the perfect square, three hundred and seventy-eight
feet[2] in extent, called the _New Louvre_, consists in two double
façades, which are still unfinished. LE VEAU, and after him D'ORBAY,
were the architects under whose direction this augmentation was made
by order of Lewis XIV.
That king at first resolved to continue the _Louvre_ on the plan
begun by Francis I.: for some time he caused it to be pursued, but
having conceived a more grand and magnificent design, he ordered the
foundation of the superb edifice now standing, to be laid on the 17th
of October 1665, under the administration of COLBERT.
Through a natural prejudice, Lewis XIV. thought that he could find no
where but in Italy an artist sufficiently skilful to execute his
projects of magnificence. He sent for the Cavaliere BERNINI from
Rome. This artist, whose reputation was established, was received in
France with all the pomp due to princes of the blood. The king
ordered that, in the towns through which he might pass, he should be
complimented and receive presents from the corporations, &c.
BERNINI was loaded with wealth and honours: notwithstanding the
prepossession of the court in favour of this Italian architect,
notwithstanding his talents, he did not succeed in his enterprise.
After having forwarded the foundation of this edifice, he made a
pretext of the impossibility of spending the winter in a climate
colder than that of Italy. "He was promised," says St. Foix, "three
thousand louis a year if he would stay; but," he said, "he would
positively go and die in his _own_ country." On the eve of his
departure, the king sent him three thousand louis, with the grant of
a pension of five hundred. He received the whole with great coolness.
Several celebrated architects now entered the lists to complete this
grand undertaking.--MANSARD presented his plans, with which COLBERT
was extremely pleased: the king also approved of them, and absolutely
insisted on their being executed without any alteration. MANSARD
replied that he would rather renounce the glory of building this
edifice than the liberty of correcting himself, and changing his
design when he thought he could improve it. Among the competitors was
CLAUDE PERRAULT, that physician so defamed by Boileau, the poet. His
plans were preferred, and merited the preference. Many pleasantries
were circulated at the expense of the new medical architect; and
PERRAULT replied to those sarcasms by producing the beautiful
colonnade of the _Louvre_, the master-piece of French architecture,
and the admiration of all Europe.
The façade of this colonnade, which is of the Corinthian order; is
five hundred and twenty-five feet in length: it is divided into two
peristyles and three avant-corps. The principal gate is in the centre
avant-corps, which is decorated with eight double columns, crowned by
a pediment, whose raking cornices are composed of two stones only,
each fifty-four feet in length by eight in breadth, though no more
than eighteen inches in thickness. They were taken from the quarries
of Meudon, and formed but one single block, which was sawed into two.
The other two avant-corps are ornamented by six pilasters, and two
columns of the same order, and disposed in the same manner. On the
top, in lieu of a ridged roof, is a terrace, bordered by a stone
balustrade, the pedestals of which are intended to bear trophies
intermixed with vases.
PERRAULT'S enemies disputed with him the invention of this
master-piece. They maintained that it belonged to LE VEAU, the
architect; but, since the discovery of the original manuscript and
drawings of PERRAULT, there no longer remains a doubt respecting
the real author of this beautiful production.
In front of this magnificent colonnade, a multitude of salesmen erect
their stalls, and there display quantities of old clothes, rags, &c.
This contrast, as Mercier justly remarks, still speaks to the eye of
the attentive observer. It is the image of all the rest, grandeur and
beggary, side by side.
However, it is not on the _outside_ of these walls only, that beggary
has been so nearly allied to grandeur. At least we have a solitary
instance of this truth of a very sinking nature.
Cardinal de Retz tells us, that going one morning to the _Louvre_ to
see the Queen of England, he found her in the chamber of her
daughter, aftenwards Dutchess of Orleans, and that she said to him:
"You see, I come to keep Henriette company: the poor girl could not
leave her bed to-day, for want of fuel."--It is true, he adds, that,
for six months past Cardinal Mazarin had not paid her pension; the
tradesmen, would no longer give her credit, and she had not a piece
of wood to warm her.
Like St. Paul's in London, the façade of the _Louvre_ cannot be seen
to the best advantage, on account of the proximity of the surrounding
buildings; and, like many other great undertakings too, will,
probably, never be completed, but remain a monument of the fickleness
of the nation.
Lewis XIV, after having for a long time made the _Louvre_ his
residence; abandoned it for _Versailles_: "Sire," said Dufreny once
to that prince, "I never look at the _New Louvre_, without
exclaiming, superb monument of the magnificence of our greatest
kings, you would have been finished, had you been given to one of the
begging orders of friars!" From that period, the _Louvre_ was wholly
consecrated to the sittings of different academies, and to the
accommodation of several men of science and artists, to whom free
apartments were allotted.
I much regret having, for this year at least, lost a sight here,
which I should have viewed with no inconsiderable degree of
attention. This is the