[177] At the Capuchins, then at the Augustins, then at Versailles.
[178] See, on these monuments, Lenoir, p. 98, 101, 102. That of Mazarin is now at the Louvre; that of Colbert has been restored to the Church of St. Eustache, and that of Lebrun to the Church St. Nicholas du Chardonnet, as well as the mausoleum, so expressive but a little overstrained, of the mother of Lebrun, by Tuby, and the mausoleum of Jerome Bignon, the celebrated Councillor of State, who died in 1656.
[179] Quatremère de Quincy, Histoire de la Vie et des Ouvrages de plus Célèbres Architectes, vol. ii., p. 145:—"There could scarcely be found in any country an ensemble so grand, which offers with so much unity and regularity an aspect at once more varied and picturesque, especially in the façade of the entrance." Unfortunately this unity has disappeared, thanks to the constructions that have since been added to the primitive work.
[180] In order to appreciate the beauty of the Sorbonne, one must stand in the lower part of the great court, and from that point consider the effect of the successive elevation, at first of the other part of the court, then of the different stories of the portico, then of the portico itself, of the church, and, finally, of the dome.
[181] Quatremère de Quincy, Ibid., p. 257:—"The cupola of this edifice is one of the finest in Europe."
[182] We do not speak of the colonnade of the Louvre by Perrault, because in spite of its grand qualities, it begins the decline and marks the passage from the serious to the academic style, from originality to imitation, from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth.
[183] See the engraving of Pérelle. Sauval, vol. ii., p. 66 and p. 131, says that the hôtel of Condé was magnificently built, that it was the most magnificent of the time.
[184] Notice of Guillet de St. Georges, recently published (see the [Appendix]):—"Nearly at the same time the Princess-dowager de Condé, Charlotte-Marguerite de Montmorency, mother of the late prince, had an oratory painted by Lesueur in the hôtel of Condé. The altar-piece represents a Nativity, that of the ceiling a Celestial Glory. The wainscot is enriched with several figures and with a quantity of ornaments worked with great care."
[185] The Pantheon is an imitation of the St. Paul's of London, which is itself a very sad imitation of St. Peter's of Rome. The only merit of the Pantheon is its situation on the summit of the hill of St. Geneviève, from which it overlooks that part of the town, and is seen on different sides to a considerable distance. Put in its place the Val-de-Grâce of Lemercier with the dome of Lemuet, and judge what would be the effect of such an edifice!
[186] In the first rank of the intelligent auditors of this course was M. Jouffroy, who already under our auspices, had presented to the faculté des lettres, in order to obtain the degree of doctor, a thesis on the beautiful. M. Jouffroy had cultivated, with care and particular taste, the seeds that our teaching might have planted in his mind. But of all those who at that epoch or later frequented our lectures, no one was better fitted to embrace the entire domain of beauty or art than the author of the beautiful articles on Eustache Lesueur, the Cathedral of Noyon, and the Louvre. M. Vitet possesses all the knowledge, and, what is more, all the qualities requisite for a judge of every kind of beauty, for a worthy historian of art. I yield to the necessity of addressing to him the public petition that he may not be wanting to a vocation so marked and so elevated.