Philosophic and Social Movement.—In France also the Classical revival was due to the momentum of writers and thinkers, impelled, however, in the first place, not so much by æsthetic considerations as by philosophic. It represented a revolution against the degradation of individual and national life, the corruption of the ruling forces of Church and State, the soulless frippery of courtiers and the abject destitution of the masses of the proletariat. The last term was revived from the vocabulary of Imperial Rome and designated the peasantry and labourers of all kinds, whose duty was to labour for the benefit of the privileged classes and whose sole right was that of propagating their species.
The protest against this social rottenness was voiced by Jean Jacques Rousseau in treatises on “The Inequality of Conditions” and “The Social Contract” and by Diderot and the other Encyclopædists, who in the form of a dictionary, the first volume of which appeared in 1751, not only disseminated information but sought to guide thought, especially as to the rights and duties of government and the governed. Notwithstanding the effort of Church and State alike to strangle this intellectual and social movement, its influence spread not alone in France but throughout Europe and reached the American Colonies.
Example of Rome.—Gradually the traditions of Roman culture inherent in the French led them to reason that, since the evils of the State had grown out of the autocracy of Louis XIV, who emulated the authority and magnificence of a Cæsar, alleviation was to be sought in a return to the frugal living and high patriotic thinking of the Early Roman Republic. Suddenly, while all thoughts were being directed to this model, the young painter, Jacques Louis David, returned from Rome and exhibited at the Salon of 1785 his “Oath of the Horatii.” The picture marked the beginning of a new epoch. It gave concrete expression to the fluid thought of the time. The austerity of the early Roman ideal became the watchword and the aim of the many as well as of the few intellectuals. Men began to address one another as Citoyens. When the Revolution burst, David was made Minister of the Fine Arts and dictated the style of fashions and furniture, based on Roman models. From their places in the National Assembly the orators, clad in Roman togas, emulated the oratory of Cicero in his attack on the corrupt Catiline.
Then came the victories of Napoleon, and the ideal of a united and powerful France dictating policies to Europe took the place of the ideal of “Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality.” David turning his coat and, vying with the rest in acclaiming Napoleon Emperor, painted pictures of Imperial magnificence and designed the so-called Empire furniture and costumes to suit the new ideas of splendour. Napoleon himself emulated the Roman Emperors by becoming a great constructor; on the one hand, prescribing a codified system of law, based on that of Justinian, and on the other patronising the construction of buildings of Imperial grandeur.
In later years, when after an interregnum of the Bourbon Kings Napoleon III snatched the crown, he too was ambitious to be the patron of great building achievements.
Such, in sketch, was the background of the Classical Revival in France.
Panthéon.—The first notable example is that of the Panthéon, originally dedicated to the patron saint of Paris, S. Geneviève. Erected (1755-81) during the reign of Louis XV, by J. J. Soufflot, its plan is a Greek cross, four halls surrounding a central one which is surmounted by a dome. The latter is composed of three shells, the exterior presenting a rare blend of grace and dignity, though the peristyle of Corinthian columns which forms the drum is somewhat lacking in force because of the absence of bases to attach the columns to the stylobate. The façades are of monumental simplicity, consisting of solid masonry unbroken by windows and crowned with a chaste but emphatic cornice; the sole departure from the severity of design being a magnificent portico of Corinthian columns. The vaulted halls have been decorated in recent years by some of the foremost painters of France; but most of the work is pictorial rather than mural, and serves to accentuate the superior decorative quality of the panels by Puvis de Chavannes, which commemorate incidents in the life of Ste. Geneviève.
Imperial Period.—This example of correct classicalism, designed in protest against the rococo of its time, is also by its originality of treatment in marked contrast to the great production of the imperial period—the Madeleine (1804). Dedicated to Glory, it is a direct imitation of a Roman Corinthian temple of vast size; the only deviation from the antique model being the vaulting of the interior, which, inclining toward the Byzantine method, consists of three flattish pendentive domes, pierced with large eyes, the sole source of light to the interior.
Another imitation of the Roman model is the Arc de Triomphe in the Place du Carrousel, commemorating the victories of 1805 and intended as a principal entrance to the Tuileries Palace. On the other hand, the Arc de l’Etoile, largest of all triumphal arches, being 162 feet high by 147 feet wide, represents a free translation of the antique into an imposing design, sufficiently modern to form a fitting background to the passionate intensity of François Rude’s sculptured group of the Volunteers of 1792, known as La Marseillaise. These, and other classical structures, which were planned by Napoleon, were completed after the restoration of the Bourbons.
Between 1830 and 1850 an echo of the Neo-Greek movement was heard in France, but French logic repudiated the direct imitation of Greek forms and strove to reflect the Greek spirit only in a superior refinement of feeling. Its chief exponents were Duc, Duban, and Labrouste, who are represented, respectively, by the remodelling of the Palais de Justice, the Library of the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Library of Ste. Geneviève.