Wren had his way: the Trinity court is three-sided. Elmes, in his Life of Wren, says that the additions to Trinity College, Cambridge, were going on at the same time, but this is a characteristic and obvious blunder, for the letter from Wren to the authorities of Trinity, quoted by Elmes, refers to the filling of the library arches with “relieves of stone, of which I have seen the effect abroad in good buildings.” Wren’s journey abroad did not take place until the summer of 1665, and occupied about eight months. He started for Paris in the first week of July, bearing a letter to the Earl of St. Albans, who represented English virtuosity in the French capital. So much we know from the reprint in Parentalia of a letter which returned thanks to a friend for getting him the introduction; but the chief value of it for us is that Wren took the opportunity to record some of his impressions. He was enchanted with the collections of rarities that he saw, and no doubt pleased himself with infinite conversations about science and philosophy with the scores of distinguished men he must have met. But, unhappily, he was too busy to keep a diary or to write home at length, and we have to be content with a few, albeit precious, obiter dicta.
“... I hope I shall give you a very good Account of all the best Artists of France; my Business now is to pry into Trades and Arts, I put myself into all Shapes to humour them; ’tis a Comedy to me, and tho’ sometimes expenceful, I am loth yet to leave it.”
Wren had a delightful and fruitful visit.
“I have,” he wrote, “busied myself in surveying the most esteem’d Fabricks of Paris, and the Country round; the Louvre for a while was my daily Object, where no less than a thousand Hands are constantly employ’d in the Works; some in laying mighty Foundations, some in raising the Stories, Columns, Entablements, etc., with vast Stones, by great and useful Engines; others in Carving, Inlaying of Marbles, Plaistering, Painting, Gilding, etc., Which altogether make a School of Architecture, the best probably, at this Day in Europe. The College of The four Nations is usually admir’d, but the Artist hath purposely set it ill-favouredly that he might shew his Wit in struggling with an inconvenient Situation.” This last is a shrewd bit of criticism which did not apply to Wren’s own work, for he always made the best of his opportunities.
It was the Abbé Charles who introduced him to Bernini, “who shew’d me his Designs for the Louvre and of the King’s Statue ... his design of the Louvre I would have given my skin for, but the old reserv’d Italian gave me but a few Minutes view; it was five little Designs in Paper, for which he hath receiv’d as many thousand Pistoles; I had only Time to copy it in my Fancy and Memory; I shall be able by Discourse, and a Crayon, to give you a tolerable account of it.”
He had evidently planned to spend at least six months in studying French architecture, for he wrote: “My Lord Berkley returns to England at Christmas, when I propose to take the Opportunity of his Company, and by that Time, to perfect what I have on the Anvil: Observations of the present State of Architecture, Arts and Manufactures in France.”
Unhappily, his sight-seeing seems to have absorbed all his time in Paris, and when he got back the torrent of work carried him along and made impossible the fulfilment of the final promise of this letter. Wren had an easy pen, and it is sad to think that what he had “on the Anvil” never got into the muddled mass of manuscript from which his son compiled the Parentalia. What would we not give for more portraits of French architects and artists like his thumb-nail sketch of Bernini, that “old reserv’d Italian” whose plans for the Louvre never went any further? In the result, we have lost the observations which would have been a great addition to the literature of architecture. He did not confine himself to the buildings of Paris. “The Palace, or if you please, the Cabinet of Versailles call’d me twice to view it; the Mixtures of Brick, Stone, blue Tile and Gold make it look like a rich Livery: Not an Inch within but is crowded with little Curiosities of Ornaments: the Women, as they make here the Language and Fashions, and meddle with Politicks and Philosophy, so they sway also in Architecture; Works of Filgrand, and little Knacks are in great Vogue; but Building certainty ought to have the Attribute of eternal, and therefore, the only Thing uncapable of new Fashions. The masculine Furniture of Palais Mazarine pleas’d me much better where is a great and noble Collection of antique Statues and Bustos.”
PLATE II
WREN AS A MAN OF FORTY.