THE EXTERIOR.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
CHIMÈRES.]
I have already said enough in reference to the commanding position
occupied by Notre Dame among the monuments of Paris. The great
cathedral seen at a distance looks ancient indeed, but a closer
inspection proves to us that the hands of modern men have been at
work on it. Indeed, one writer goes so far as to regret that it has
been scraped and patched without, and bedizened and bedaubed within.
In the first edition of Victor Hugo’s famous novel, _Notre Dame_,
he tells us that if we examine one by one the traces of destruction
imprinted on this ancient church, the work of time would be found to
form the lesser portion--the worst destruction has been perpetrated
by men--especially by men of art. Since Hugo wrote this much more
“restoration” has been carried out at the metropolitan church of Paris.
But though I regret so-called “restoration” on principle, I cannot help
feeling that the work executed by M. Viollet-le-Duc and M. Lassus is
far less objectionable than it might have been. Fortunately, unlike so
many great Continental churches, Notre Dame stands free and clear,
and may be examined on all sides without difficulty. Indeed, it is now
perhaps somewhat too isolated at the west end. Of course it does not
possess one of those venerable closes, with a supplement of ancient
ecclesiastical buildings, which is the glory of the great churches of
our own land.
=The Façade.=--The west fronts of the greater Gothic churches of
France are as a rule the most majestic features of their exteriors. One
might write much to prove that the west front of Amiens or of Chartres
is superior to that of Notre Dame, but this, after all, is an arguable
question. When we stand in front of the church by the Seine we are
struck by the reticence, by the obvious disdain of the easily obtained
picturesque, which seem to have animated its designers. The thing is
symmetrical with a fine symmetry rare among buildings of the time.
Before we discuss the façade in detail, let us quote a translation of
Victor Hugo’s detailed description, in the romance already alluded to:
“Assuredly there are few finer pages of architecture than this façade,
in which, successively and at once, the three receding pointed portals;
the decorated and lace-like band of twenty-eight royal niches; the
vast central rose window flanked by the two lateral ones, like the
priest by the deacon and sub-deacon; the lofty yet slender gallery of
trefoiled arcading, which supports a heavy platform upon its light
and delicate columns; and lastly the two dark and massive towers with
their eaves of slate,[9]--harmonious parts of an entirely magnificent
whole,--rising one above another in five gigantic stories,--unfolding
themselves to the eye combined and unconfused, with innumerable details
of statuary and sculpture which powerfully emphasise the grandeur
of the _ensemble_: a vast symphony in stone, if one may say so--the
colossal work of a man and of a nation ... on each stone of which one
sees, in a hundred varieties, the fancy of the craftsman disciplined
by the artist: a kind of human creation, mighty and prolific as the
Divine Creation itself of which it seems to have caught the double
characteristics--variety, eternity.” In the last few phrases Victor
Hugo has, perhaps, been guilty of the licence readily granted to so
great a master of rhetoric; but the west front of Notre Dame was a
monument certain to appeal to a writer to whom none deny the gift
of eloquence. Even a specialist who scrupulously avoids rhapsody is
compelled to use superlatives in his description of this façade: “This
vast and superb design is not only the most elaborate that had been
produced up to its time, but in point of architectural grandeur it has
hardly ever been equalled.” Mr. C. H. Moore, in the book alluded to in
a former chapter, rightly insists that the component elements of the
front are so treated as to manifest the Gothic spirit not merely in the
portals, the arcades, and the apertures, but even in so comparatively
small a matter as the profiles of the mouldings.
[Footnote 9: These have been removed.]
[Illustration: STRING-COURSE ON THE WEST FRONT.
[_From Viollet-le-Duc._]]
The late P. G. Hamerton has well expressed a feeling of vague
disappointment which many persons who are not experts in Gothic
construction and decoration feel on seeing the west front: “May I
confess frankly,” says Mr. Hamerton, “that until I had carefully
studied it under the guidance of Viollet-le-Duc, the front of Notre
Dame never produced upon me the same effect as the west fronts of some
other French cathedrals of equal rank? I believe the reason to be that
Notre Dame is not so picturesque as some others, and does not so much
excite the imagination as they do. It is well ordered, and a perfectly
_sane_ piece of work (which Gothic architecture is not always), but it
has not the imaginative intricacy of Rouen, nor the rich exuberance of
Amiens and Reims, nor the fortress-like grandeur of Bourges, nor the
elegant variety of Chartres.... The truth is that the virtues of the
west front of Notre Dame are classic rather than romantic. Everything
in it seems the result of perfect knowledge and consummate calculation.
There are none of those mistakes which generally occur in a work of
wilder genius.”
[Illustration: CARVED FOLIAGE FROM THE PORTAIL DE LA VIERGE.
[_From Viollet-le-Duc._]]
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
PORTAIL DE LA SAINTE VIERGE.]
The sculptured decoration of the three great portals exceeds, if
not in actual ornateness, at all events in real beauty, that of any
cathedral in the west of Europe. Much of it has suffered at the hands
of the iconoclast, but, looking to the vicissitudes through which Notre
Dame has passed, it is wonderful that so much of the original sculpture
has been preserved. The recent restoration has been carried out with
a skill which is simply marvellous, and the uninformed observer may
easily be betrayed into the belief that he is looking at an unaltered
ancient work. Whether this is a gain or a loss each of us must decide
for himself. Some able writers have urged that the success with which
ancient work has been imitated shows that modern artists are capable
of the triumphs of the middle ages. Others dismiss the new work as an
unpardonable forgery. It is outside the scope of this book to attempt
to describe in detail the wealth of statuary and carving which the
thirteenth-century craftsmen and those of modern times have lavished on
these portals. For such a description we must refer the reader to the
voluminous accounts of Viollet-le-Duc and other writers. The sculptures
of the north door, called the _Portail de la Saint Vierge_, have been
described as constituting a complete poem in stone. Viollet-le-Duc
considered the portal as the masterpiece of French carving of the
early thirteenth century. I adapt the following description of the
chief sculptures from Mr. Lonergan: On the pedestal of the central
pier are bas reliefs representing the Creation of Eve, the Temptation
in the Garden of Eden, and the Ejection from Paradise. Above is the
Virgin crowned, and over her a small gabled construction referring to
the Ark of the Covenant. On the upper part of the arch in the lower
division are three prophets and three kings. In the second angels hold
the winding-sheet in which Mary’s body lies, near a coffin-shaped
tomb. Over this stands Christ with eight apostles. In the third
division we see Mary glorified. In the _voussure_ are sixty figures of
angels, patriarchs, kings and prophets as witnesses of the Virgin’s
glorification. Under the large statues are medallions referring to
incidents in the lives of those represented. Thirty-seven bas reliefs
ornament the sides and pillars, amongst them being the signs of the
zodiac and symbolic representations of the months of the year. The
ironwork of the doors of this and of the adjoining portals is of a
splendidly elaborate character, due, according to a quaint tradition,
to the skill and energy of the devil.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
FIGURE OF ST. MARCEL, PORTE SAINTE ANNE.]
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
THE LAST JUDGEMENT.
(From the central doorway.)]
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
TYMPANUM OF THE PORTE SAINTE ANNE.]
The _Central portal_ has suffered more from mutilation than those which
are on either side of it. In the eighteenth century the architect
Soufflot--a man who was nothing if not “classic”--removed the dividing
pier and cut away the lower division of the tympanum in order to
facilitate the passage of processions on high ceremonial occasions.
All traces of his vandalism have been removed, and the dividing pillar
bears a modern statue of Christ by Geoffroy Dechaume. The pedestal
is a pentagon, and has seven bas-relief medallions. At the sides are
the apostles, while in the medallions are represented the virtues
and vices. Traces of mutilation are apparent in much of this work.
The tympanum itself is devoted to the Last Judgment. “First we have
figures of the dead rising at the blast of the trumpet. Men and women
of all conditions and ranks wearily shake off the sleep of death.”
Also there is the Archangel, with representations on the right of “the
elect joyfully glancing heavenwards, while on the left the grinning
demons haul a row of chained souls to hell. Crowning all is seen the
Redeemer, showing the wounds in His hands. Near Him are two angels,
and behind the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist interceding on their
knees for fallen humanity. As a setting to this magnificent composition
are six rows of sculptured forms, making a _voussure_ or set of curves,
with figures of prophets, doctors, martyrs, devils, toads, damned
souls, and a hideous ape with crooked toes and fingernails. Some of
the ornamentation of the six ranges of arch curves is gruesome and
terrible. It relates either to the celestial or infernal results of
the last judgment.” In its original state this great doorway must have
been a work of unrivalled dignity. Nowhere else do we find carving more
expressive, nor more perfectly subordinated to the architectural scheme.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
APOSTLES.
(From the central doorway.)]
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
THE PORTE SAINTE ANNE.
(Figures from the Old Testament)]
The doorway on the south is variously described as the _Portal of St.
Anne_ or _St. Marcel_. According to some writers it is the most ancient
of the three, and contains fragments of “the sculpture which formerly
adorned the old church of St. Stephen (St. Etienne). These, it is said,
were executed at the expense of Etienne de Garlande, who died in 1142.
The dividing pier or _trumeau_ bears the statue of St. Marcel (see p.
33). The tympanum is adorned with the “History of Joachim and Anna,”
the “Marriage of the Virgin,” and the “Budding of Joseph’s Staff.” Each
side is occupied with four statues of saints of the Old Testament. The
four main buttresses which divide the façade perpendicularly into three
parts are pierced with niches containing statues on a level with the
vaulting of the portals. These statues represent Religion, Faith, St.
Denis, and St. Stephen.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
“CHIMÈRES.”]
The second story of the façade is occupied by a noble arcade which
shelters twenty-eight colossal statues. This is known as _La Galerie
des Rois_, and stretches across the entire width of the front. The
statues were formerly believed to be conventional representations
of the ancient kings of France, but they are doubtless intended for
the kings of Judah as ancestors of the Virgin. A similar feature
will be found as part of the façade of Amiens. There, however, the
statues are at a greater height from the ground, and are twenty-two
in number. Above the _Galerie des Rois_ at Paris there is a graceful
open arcade of slender arches and columns. The five large statues
here date only from the year 1854. The third main division has in
the centre a vast wheel window with open tracery, while in each of
the lateral bays we have pointed arches with twin pointed openings
and small circular panels in the tympanum. The vacant space in the
spandrels of each division is occupied by a trefoil panel. At Amiens
once more we meet with a main division similarly composed. At Notre
Dame, immediately over the division containing the wheel window, is an
open arcaded screen of gigantic proportions, surmounted by a parapet
or pierced cornice behind which rise the two towers. So dexterously
has this arcade been planned, so graceful are its lines, so delicate
its details, that the impression which it leaves on the mind--in
spite of the solidity of its construction and the vastness of its
scale--is almost that of some such unsubstantial material as lace. To
the platform supported by this screen everybody should ascend, if only
to make the acquaintance of the famous _Chimères_ or “_Devils of Notre
Dame_.” This collection of specimens of fantastic sculptured zoology is
without parallel in Europe. These weird beasts which scowl from their
point of vantage upon the French metropolis fascinated the great etcher
Méryon, and more recently they have formed the subject of a series of
admirable drawings by Mr. Joseph Pennell, the value of which has been
enhanced by an essay, partly descriptive, partly philosophical, from
the pen of the late R. A. M. Stevenson. The _chimères_ are not merely
curious examples of the extravagantly grotesque. Their horror lies, not
in their departure from natural forms, but in the fact that, while the
features of various beasts or monsters are retained, they are impressed
with characteristics of ferocity and cunning which are essentially
diabolical or suggestive of the lowest depths of human depravity. They
have nothing in common with the crude and impossible gargoyles so
frequently found in buildings erected when the pointed style was in
its decadence. Speaking roughly, their anatomy is possible: it is
conceivable that they should breathe and live.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
“CHIMÈRES.”]
Readers of Hugo’s _Notre Dame_ will remember his description of the
Archdeacon as he clung to the lead gutter of the tower: “Meanwhile he
felt himself going bit by bit; his fingers slipped upon the gutter;
he felt more and more the increasing weakness of his arms and the
weight of his body; the piece of lead which supported him inclined
more and more downwards. He saw beneath him, frightful to contemplate,
the pointed roof of St. Jean-le-Rond, small as a card bent double.
He looked, one after another, at the imperturbable sculptures of the
tower--like him suspended over the precipice--but without terror for
themselves or pity for him. All around him was stone,--before his eyes
the gaping monsters; in the Parvis below, the pavement; above his
head, Quasimodo weeping.”
[Illustration: “LE STRYGE,” ONE OF THE CHIMÈRAS OF NOTRE
DAME, WITH THE TOWER OF ST. JACQUES.
(After Méryon’s Etching.
_Insatiable vampire l’éternelle luxure,
Sur la grande cité convoite sa pâture._)]
The =Towers=, though not of precisely the same size, appear to
be so. The summit of the north tower is reached by an ascent of two
hundred and ninety-seven steps. Each of the towers is pierced with
coupled pointed openings and profusely enriched with mouldings and
gargoyles. Both of them terminate with open parapets, the staircases
ending in small turrets. The panorama of Paris from the top is
magnificent, while the view of Notre Dame itself reveals to the full
its structural beauty. Few sights are more impressive than that of the
great roof ridge of the church, broken by the graceful modern _flèche_,
and ending in the circular _chevet_. From this high place, likewise,
one is able fully to appreciate the grand arrangement of flying
buttresses, the forest of pinnacles, the host of gargoyles, statues,
and other sculptured ornaments which adorn the structure. Of the famous
peal of thirteen ancient _bells_ which formerly occupied the belfries
of the two towers, only one--_le bourdon de Notre Dame_--still remains.
It has announced to Paris most of the great victories of the French
army, and it still gives the signal to other bells to usher in the
great festivals of the Church. Of the other bells existing here, the
most interesting is one of Russian workmanship, which was brought from
Sebastopol.
[Illustration: THE ROOF-RIDGE OF NOTRE DAME.
(_From a drawing by Joseph Pennell, by
permission of the “Pall Mall Magazine.”_)]
The =Flèche=, over the crossing, was built in 1859-60, the ancient one
being destroyed in 1787 and replaced by a bulb-like structure which
was irreverently compared to a pepper box. To this circumstance Victor
Hugo alludes scornfully: “Un architecte de bon goût l’a amputé, et
a cru qu’il suffisait de masquer la plaie avec ce large emplâtre de
plomb, qui ressemble au couvercle d’une marmite.” In removing this
atrocity Viollet-le-Duc was assuredly performing a necessary service.
His elaborate though slender steeple is of oak covered with lead, and
weighs 750,000 kilos. It is ornamented with numberless crockets and
pierced with well-contrived openings. The base is led up to by tiers
of statues placed on brackets in the angles formed by the junction of
the roofs of the nave, transepts and choir. The ball below the cross
encloses reputed fragments of the cross and the crown of thorns. There
can be little doubt that Viollet-le-Duc, speaking generally, has
constructed a flèche which would have commended itself to mediæval
designers. It is interesting to note the slender character of the
structures which in France rise above the crossings, as compared with
the huge towers which occupy a like position in the English cathedrals
of Lincoln, Canterbury and York, or with the comparatively substantial
spires to be found at Salisbury, Norwich and Lichfield.
[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL FLÈCHE.
(_From “Paris à travers les Ages.”_)]
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
CLOCHETON OR TURRET--APSIDAL CHAPELS.]
=The Buttress System.=--The buttress system of Notre Dame has
been the subject of careful study and explanation by Mr. Moore. “In
the external system,” he remarks, “the flying buttresses were, as
at first constructed, magnificently developed, and were double in a
twofold sense. That is, the piers which divide the double aisles were
formerly carried up through the roof so as to form buttresses to the
vaulted triforium gallery, and, rising above the roof of this gallery,
they received the heads of the double flying buttresses over the outer
aisle, and gave foothold to another pair of arches over the triforium
gallery. The lower arch of the outer pair was above the aisle roof,
while the lower arch of the inner pair was beneath the roof of the
triforium. The principle of equilibrium maintained by opposing thrusts
was here completely developed; the inert principle no longer governs
the construction, though a survival of the former method of building is
found in the walls of the aisles and clerestory, which are no longer
necessary to the strength of the edifice.” The flying buttresses, as
we now see them, are (according to Viollet-le-Duc) alterations dating
from the early part of the thirteenth century. They consist of huge
arches clearing both aisles with a single span. The flying buttresses
of the upper tier are wonderfully light and elegant, looking always to
the large span which they have to clear. They join the space between
the windows of the clerestory to lofty upright buttresses terminating
in fine crocketed pinnacles and ornamented with an amazing wealth of
sculpture. The flying buttresses of the lower tier are thicker, and
most frequently spring from elaborate _clochetons_, one of which is
illustrated here.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
WINDOWS ON THE SOUTH SIDE.]
=The Windows= of Notre Dame are on the vast scale which is usual
in the greater Gothic churches of the Ile-de-France, and present a very
remarkable contrast to the small and simple windows which were deemed
sufficient by the builders of our own early cathedrals in the pointed
style. At Notre Dame the area of solid wall is slight in relation to
the area filled in with glass. It is not so much a case of windows in
walls, as of walls connecting windows. The external buttress system
and the internal vaulting system at Notre Dame comprise the essentials
of the structure, so that the walls are of the nature of enclosures
rather than necessary structural parts. We have travelled far from the
Romanesque principle, in which the walls were primarily weight-bearers.
The windows of the aisles and of the ambulatory are of great size and
display many differences of detail, but they nevertheless maintain a
general similarity, the designers, while appreciating the value of
uniformity, being too richly endowed with the prevailing fertility of
invention in matters of decorative detail exactly to repeat even the
most successful arrangement. Each is divided into two main pointed
lights, above which a large circle, quatrefoil or similar device,
occupies the head of the window, the arches also being cusped or foiled
in varying patterns. The main lights are again subdivided into two,
with trefoils or quatrefoils in the heads.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
TRIFORIUM WINDOWS.]
Above these noble windows are gabled heads whose sides are enriched
with crockets or cusps, their centres being occupied with circular
decorative panels, and their angles having small richly carved
bosses. Sometimes the canopies consist of beautiful open-work.
Everywhere grotesque gargoyles project between them, and the mouldings
terminate in corbels in the shape of small, highly wrought human
heads. This series of windows emphasises the prodigality with which
sculpture in human forms or in the forms of naturalistic or fantastic
animals is to be found in nearly all parts of Notre Dame. It is this
prodigality, wisely distributed, which places this cathedral in such
acute contrast--speaking from the standpoint of the uninitiated
observer--to our own early pointed structures. The upper aisle-wall
between the lower tier of flying buttresses is in some parts of the
building occupied by wheel windows of varied pattern, most elaborately
ornamented. But at the east end the triforium lights show another
device: two small arches have in the angle between them quatrefoiled
openings. It is notable that this dignified and beautiful device is
foreshadowed by some of the windows in the Byzantine church in Athens,
and even in the sixth-century church of Qualb Louzeh, in Central Syria.
The clerestory lights occupy the full width of the space between the
piers of the upper flying buttresses. Finally, at the base of the roof
runs an open-work parapet. As we have already observed, many of the
windows were hastily rebuilt after the fire of which we have previously
spoken.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
NORTH TRANSEPT FRONT.]
=North and South Transept Fronts.=--These, as we have seen, are
comparatively late work, but though subordinate to the great façade,
they are of intricate design and great ornateness. They fail of effect,
however, when they are compared with the monumental and inevitable
grandeur of the west front. The south façade, of the date 1257, is
undoubtedly the work of Jean de Chelles. An inscription tells us very
exactly that it was begun on the second day of the Ides of February,
in honour of the mother of Christ. There are writers who would have
us believe that to the work of de Chelles we should apply, if not the
word “debased,” at least the word “flamboyant.” For this there seems
to be no good reason, unless, indeed, we are prepared to allow that
systems of architectural classification are more important than the
buildings which are their subject-matter. It will be at once recognised
that the lateral fronts of Notre Dame--while they lack the elementary
grandeur so conspicuous in the works of the pioneers of Gothic in the
Ile-de-France--have nothing in common with the later Perpendicular
buildings of England, wherein decoration runs riot and construction
sometimes degenerates into trickery. The great feature of each of
these minor fronts is a vast rose window. It is difficult to repress
the feeling that these fronts have been deliberately constructed with
a view to lend emphasis to these lovely circular insertions, rich as
they are in appropriate tracery. Whether or not we are to limit the
work of Jean de Chelles to the southern front (or the lower portion
of it), or whether we are to attribute to him the opposite front and
the arrangement of chapels adjacent to and east of the transepts, is a
nice question. The documentary evidence, to which access is difficult,
would, indeed, appear narrowly to limit the work of Jean de Chelles to
that fragment with which he has been immemorially associated. But it
were unwise to rely too closely on ancient documents in which definite
statements of fact are not to be found. It is possible that, even if
Jean de Chelles did not personally superintend the erection of the
southern front, he designed the opposite front and the chapels in
question. He may, indeed, have left pupils fully acquainted with his
methods and nearly tied to him by bonds of sentiment, who in their own
productions perpetuated, not merely the main features of the style of
their master, but used exactly the same material as he employed. Once
more, the sculptor is prominent; once more, the structural parts are
adorned with beautiful statuary. The great point is that (using the
word as widely as it may fairly be used) uniformity is achieved. Of
Notre Dame we may say--what we cannot say of buildings possibly more
interesting to the architect and the antiquary--that from east to west,
from north to south, it strikes the observer as the splendid outcome
of a single imagination, or of a number of imaginations dominated by
the same impulse, rather than the haphazard result of peculiar and
fortuitous circumstances.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
TYMPANUM OF THE NORTH TRANSEPT DOORWAY.]
The sculpture of the portal of the North Transept is devoted to the
history of the Virgin--of whom the dividing pier between the doors
bears a beautiful statue. The carving in the lowest division of the
tympanum deals with the Birth of Christ, the Visit of the Magi, the
Presentation in the Temple, and the Flight into Egypt. The carving of
the other divisions refers to the history of Theophilus, a mythical
monk who signed a contract with the Devil, like Faust, but was saved by
the interference of the Virgin. On each side of the portal are three
empty niches. These, as well as the portal, possess canopies. An arcade
of lights is the chief feature, between the entrance and the great
rose window previously alluded to. The portal of the South Transept
has figures of Christ, St. Martin, St. Stephen, St. John the Baptist,
Moses, St. Denis, St. Thomas, St. Peter, St. Bartholomew, David,
and Aaron. The tympanum has a representation of the Martyrdom of St.
Stephen. This portal is seldom used. Again we have the arcade of lights
leading to the great rose. The gable end is in its turn pierced by
another smaller circular window of remarkable beauty. It will be seen
that while there are great differences between the fronts of the two
transepts, structurally they resemble one another.
Returning to the north side of the church, beneath one of the windows
belonging to a choir chapel is the well-known _Porte Rouge_, a delicate
masterpiece which we may probably attribute to the early part of the
fourteenth century. In its tympanum is represented the Coronation
of the Virgin, while in its vaulting we have scenes in the life
of St. Marcel. The door gained its name from the fact that it was
originally painted red. It seems always to have held a high place in
the affections of the Parisians. Victor Hugo appears specially to have
delighted in it, for he writes: “La petite Porte-Rouge atteint presque
les limites des délicatesses gothiques du quinzième siècle.” Near
the _Porte Rouge_, under the windows of the Choir chapels, are seven
bas-reliefs representing scenes from the Virgin’s life. They date from
the sixteenth century.
He must be insensible indeed to the grandeur of Gothic building who
fails to be impressed when he stands at the east end of Notre Dame.
There, in the great main circular sweep, we can appreciate the tiers of
buttresses, the spear-like forest of pinnacles, each one constructively
necessary, each duly subordinated to an ordered scheme, each wisely
and appropriately decorated. Standing here, we are indeed under the
spell of the august _ecclesia parisiaca_, the ancient silent witness of
changes so immense and so fruitful of result, of victories in the arts
alike of peace and war which have been of such profound consequence not
merely to Paris, and to France, but to mankind in general.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
THE INTERIOR FROM THE WEST END.]