"In order to reply to the above questions I, Le Vau,
architect in ordinary of the King's buildings, certify that,
having inspected the plan and the elevation of the flying
buttresses of the church of Nantes, which have been sent
me, having carefully examined and considered the whole, and
having even made some designs for altering and dispensing
with the chapels H H H; after having considered all that can
be done in this matter, I have come to the conclusion that
it cannot be accomplished without weakening and considerably
damaging the pillars of the choir, and the other aisles, and
destroying all symmetry; in a word, ruining it. I therefore
do not submit the design that I have made, for my opinion is
that the original design should be followed, and that the
church should be finished as it was begun; as nothing else
can be done save to the great prejudice of the said church.
In attestation of which I sign. 'LE VAU.'"
which gave the impression of enormous expenditure. He wrote on the 8th
of February, 1657:
"A gentleman of the neighbourhood, who is called Villevessin, told the
Queen that he was lately at Vaux, and that in the workshop he counted
nine hundred men. In order to avoid this as far as may be, you must
carry out my design of putting up screens, and keeping the doors shut.
I should be glad if you would advance all the work as far as possible
before the season when everybody goes into the country, and I want
you to avoid, as far as possible, having a large number of workpeople
together."[7]
If we compare the statement made by M. de Villevessin with a note
written by Foucquet on the 21st November, 1660, we may conclude that at
one time there were eighteen thousand workmen occupied on the buildings
and the gardens.[8]
Such works could not be kept secret. Colbert, jealous for his King and
perhaps for himself, came to visit them in secret. Watel, Foucquet's
steward--he who later entered the King's service, the story of whose
death is well known--Watel, faithful servant, surprised Colbert making
his inspection, and told his master. Foucquet took some precautions,
but none the less the matter created a bad impression at Court. One day
when the King, with Monsieur, was inspecting the building operations
at the Louvre, he complained to his brother that he had no money to
complete this great building. Whereupon Monsieur replied jokingly:
"Sire, Your Majesty need only become Superintendent of Finance for a
single year, and then you will have plenty of money for building."[9]
These immense works necessitated great institutions. Foucquet founded
at Maincy a hospital called La Charité, where the workmen were received
when they were ill.[10]
Tapestry rooms were also established at Maincy. There, according to Le
Brun's designs, were executed _Les Chasses de Méléagre_ and _l'Histoire
de Constantin._[11]
Le Brun himself settled at Maincy, with his wife Suzanne, in the autumn
of 1658.
This great artist did not merely provide cartoons for tapestry; he
decorated the ceilings of the halls of the château with allegorical
paintings. Several pieces of sculpture also were executed from his
drawings. Thus the four lions which are still seen at the foot of the
staircase leading to the great Terrace des Grottes were designed by
the painter; or, at least, so Mlle, de Scudéry says. These lions have
almost human countenances. We know that the art of the eighteenth
century was very free in its treatment of wild animals. The face
expresses pride as well as gentleness. Lying in its innocent claws is a
squirrel, pursued by a viper. Colbert again!
Now I must recall the great days of Vaux. They were not many, and the
most brilliant was the last.
After the marriage of the King and the Infanta at
Saint-Jean-de-Luz,[12] the Court took the road to Paris. It halted at
Fontainbleau, and Foucquet received it at Vaux with that audacious
magnificence which he preferred even to the realities of power. The
courtiers walked in the gardens, where the fountains were playing, and
a wonderful supper was served. The gazetteer Press has preserved for us
a list of the fruits and flowers which adorned the tables, as well as
"preserves of every colour, the fritters and pastries and other dishes
which were served there."[13]
A year later the Château de Vaux received the widow of Charles I,
Henriette of France, Queen of England. She was accompanied by her
daughter, Henrietta of England, and the Duc d'Orléans, her son-in-law.
Henrietta, or, to give her her title, Madame, was in all the brilliance
of her youth, had a genius both for affairs of gallantry and matters
of State. She lived as though in haste, consuming in coquetry and
in intrigue a life which was not fated to be a lone one. A woman of
this character, so nearly related to the King, was bound to interest
the ambitious Foucquet. He received her with all the refinements of
magnificence. After dinner he had a Comedy played before her. The
piece was by Molière himself, who was already greatly admired for his
naturalness and truth to life. The play was then completely new; it
had not been seen either by the town or the Court, it was _L'École des
Maris._[14]
Shortly afterwards the Château of Vaux was to witness a yet more
brilliant festivity--the last of all. When Foucquet invited the King,
he was possessed by a spirit of unwisdom and of error; all about him,
men and things alike, cried out to him in vain: Blind! blind!
The King set out from Fontainbleau on the 17th August, 1661, and came
to Vaux in a coach, in which he was accompanied by Monsieur, the
Comtesse d'Armagnac, the Duchesse de Valentinois and the Comtesse de
Guiche. The Queen-Mother came in her own coach, and Madame in her
litter. The young Queen, detained at Fontainebleau by her pregnancy,
was not present at that cruel festivity. More than six thousand persons
were invited. The King and the Court began by visiting the park. All
were loud in their admiration of the great fountains. "There was,"
says La Fontaine,[15] "great discussion as to which was the best,
the Cascade, the Wheat-Sheaf Jet, the Fountain of the Crown or the
Animals." The château also was inspected and Le Brun's pictures greatly
admired.
The King could ill contain his wrath at a display of luxury which
seemed stolen from him, and which he was later on to imitate at
Versailles, with all the diligence of a good pupil. He was angered,
so it is said,[16] by an allegorical picture into which Le Brun had
obviously introduced the portrait of Mademoiselle de la Vallière. The
fact may be doubted, but it is certain that the courtiers, with eyes
sharpened by envy, remarked on all the panelling Foucquet's device:
_"Quo non ascendant,"_ or _Quo non ascendet?_ accompanying a squirrel
(or foucquet) climbing up a tree. Louis XIV, according to Choisy,
conceived the idea of arresting his insolent subject on the spot, and
it was the Queen-Mother, who had long been Foucquet's friend, who
prevented him from doing so. But such impatience is not consistent with
that patient duplicity which the King displayed in this connection.
Almost at that very moment, did he not ask his hospitable subject for
another festival to celebrate the churching of the young Queen?[17]
After the château and grounds had been visited, there was a lottery in
which every guest won something: the ladies jewels, the men weapons.
Then a supper was served, provided by Watel, the cost of which was
valued at one hundred and twenty thousand livres. "Great were the
delicacy and the rarity of the dishes," says La Fontaine, "but greater
still the grace with which Monsieur le Surintendant and Madame la
Surintendante did the honours of their house." The pantry of the
château then contained at least thirty-six dozen plates of solid gold
and a service of the same metal.[18] After supper the guests went to
the Allée des Sapins, where a stage had been erected.
Mechanical stage effects were then much in vogue. Those of Vaux were
wonderful. The mechanism was the work of Torelli, and the scenery was
painted by Le Brun.
Deux enchanteurs pleins de savoir
Firent tant, par leur imposture,
Qu'on crut qu'ils avaient le pouvoir
De commander à la nature.
L'un de ces enchanteurs est le sieur Torelli,
Magicien expert et faiseur de miracles;
Et l'autre, c'est Lebrun, par qui Vaux embelli
Présente aux regardants mille rares spectacles.[19]
Rocks were seen to open, and statues moved.
The scene represented a grim rock in a lonely desert. Suddenly the rock
changed to a shell, and, the shell having opened, there came forth
a nymph. This was Béjart, who recited a prologue by Pellisson. "In
this prologue, Béjart, who represents the nymph of the fountain where
the action is taking place, commands the divinities, who are subject
to her, to leave the statues in which they are enshrined, and to
contribute with all their power to His Majesty's amusement. Straightway
the pedestals and the statues which adorn the stage move, and there
emerge from them, I know not how, fauns and bacchantes, who form a
ballet. It is very amusing to see a god of boundaries delivered of a
child which comes into the world dancing."
The ballet was followed by the play which had been conceived, written
and rehearsed in a fortnight. It was Molière's _Les Fâcheux._ The play,
as we know, has interludes of dancing, and concludes with a ballet.
"It is Terence," was the verdict. No doubt, but it is a devilish bad
Terence.
The night was one of those fiery nights of which Racine writes in the
most worldly of his tragedies. Fireworks shot into the air. There was
a rain of stars; then, when the King departed, the lantern on the dome
which surmounted the château burst into flames, vomiting sheaves of
rockets and fiery serpents. We know what a sad morrow succeeded that
splendid night.
My task is completed.
Madame Foucquet, of whose biography we have already given an outline,
obtained a legal separation of her property from her husband's before
the sentence of the 19th December, 1664. She was able to retain a
considerable part of her fortune. "On the 19th March, 1673, she bought
back from the creditors, for one million two hundred and fifty thousand
livres, the Viscounty of Melun, with the estate of Vaux, and made a
donation thereof to her son, Louis-Nicolas Fouquet, by various deeds,
dated 1683, 1689, 1703. Her son having died with out posterity in 1705,
she sold the estate on the 29th August, 1705, to Louis-Hector, Duc de
Villars, Marshal of France, who parted with it on the 27th August,
1764, to C.-Gabriel de Choiseul, Duc de Praslin and peer of France, for
one million six hundred thousand livres."[20] The château remained in
the family of Choiseul-Parslin until the 6th July, 1875.
By a piece of good fortune it then passed into the hands of M. A.
Sommier. From that day one may say that art and letters have been
vigilant in its preservation, for M. Sommier combines the most perfect
taste with a love of art, and Madame Sommier is the daughter of M. de
Barante, the famous historian.[21]
But for M. Sommier it was not enough to preserve this historical
monument. His artistic munificence was prepared for any sacrifice
in order to restore those cascades and grottos at which La Fontaine
had marvelled, and which had fallen into ruins, been overgrown with
brushwood, in which vipers lurked and rabbits burrowed. In this noble
task M. Sommier was fortunately aided by a learned architect, M.
Destailleurs. M. Rodolphe Pfnor, my collaborator and friend, holds it
an honour to associate himself with the praises which I here bestow
upon the understanding liberality of M. Sommier. M. Pfnor, by reason of
his skill in architecture and the arts of design, is competent to give
these praises a real and absolute value. Be it understood that I speak
for him as well as for myself.
It is just that art and letters should unite in congratulating M.
Sommier. The restorer of the Château de Vaux has deserved well of both.
It was reserved for him to realize in all its splendour _Le Songe
Vaux._ He has uttered the command in a voice which has been obeyed:
Fontaines, jaillissez,
Herbe tendre, croissez
Le long de ces rivages.
Venez, petits oiseaux,
Accorder vos ramages
Au doux bruit de leurs eaux.
[1] Bonnaffé, op. cit., p. 27.
[2] Guillet de Saint-Georges, in _Les Archives de l'Art_ _français,_
1853, Vol. III.
[3] Cf. Jal., Diet.
[4] Occupied successively by the President of the Chambre des Comptes,
Lambert Torigny; the Marquise du Chastelle; M. de La Haye; the Comte
de Montalivet; the Administrator of Lits Militaires; and Prince Adam
Czartoryski, the present owner (1888).
[5] Ad. Lance, _Dictionnaire des Architectes français,_ Paris, 1872, 2
vols. Article on Levau (Louis).
[6] _Archives de l'Art français,_ Vol. I, 1852.
[7] Letter cited by M. Pierre Clement, _Histoire de Colbert,_ p. 30.
[8] cite almost literally a phrase by M. Eugène Grésy. M. Grésy's
valuable work on the Château de Vaux is contained in _Les Archives de
l'Art français._ Vol. I, p. I _et seq._
[9] Cimber et Danjou, _Archives curieuses de l'Histoire de France,_
Second Series, Vol. VIII, p. 415 (Portraits de la Cour).
[10] M. Eugène Grésy, loc. cit., p. 7.
[11] It is well known that the Maincy factory, taken to Paris by
order of the King after Foucquet's disgrace, became the Gobelins.
(Lacordaire, article on the Gobelins, second ed., 1855, p. 65.) Cf.
also _L'Histoire de la Tapisserie,_ by J. Guiffrey.
[12] 9th June, 1660.
[13] Cf. Loret, letter of the 24th July, 1660.
[14] _Ibid.,_ letter of the 17th July, 1661.
[15] Letter to Maucroix, 9th ed., cited Vol. Ill, p. 301.
[16] Choisy, in his _Mémoires._ Ed. cited p. 587.
[17] Cf. La Fontaine, letter previously cited.
[18] Cf. Chéruel, loc. cit., who cites (Vol. II, p. 223) the portfolios
of Valiant, Vol. Ill, in the Biblio. Nat. MSS.
[19] La Fontaine, letter from Maucroix, Vol. Ill, p. 304.
[20] See the excursion made by the subscribers to _l'Ami des Monuments_
to the Château de Vaux-le-Praslin, or le Vicomte, near Melun, in
_l' Ami des Monuments,_ a magazine founded and edited by M. Charles
Normand, 1887, p. 301, No. 4.
[21] In the Château de Vaux one of the rooms on the first story, and
certainly the most beautiful, bears the name of the "Room of M. de
Barante." It has a ceiling which represents one of those nymphs of
Vaux which La Fontaine celebrated so charmingly. This ceiling has been
recently restored. M. Destailleurs has displayed great art in its
preservation.