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    LORD BROUGHAM'S LITERATURE. Lives of Men...

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    The Biography Op A Museum. The Louvre ; ...

    the topography of Paris . They will see among others a copy of the . ^ re * P eieoute ? in the early part of the sixteenth century in tapestry , the original of which , after many vicissitudesTwas used as a carpet at a ball given by the H 6 tel de Vilie in ^ T ^ n ^ T f ^ i ^^ rles VL for the Toumelles , where to lived when at PariT Charles VII ., Louis XI ., Charles VIII ., Louis XIL , Francois I ., and Henri II The widow o £ the last-mentioned king , after his supposed accidental death , eadiibited her grief by ordering the Toumelles to be rased to the ground ; but instead of building an expiatory chapel , according to more artful modern custom , sold the ground for building purposes , and so made a good profit by the transaction . Catherine had the thrift , as well as the craft , of an Italian of those days . Francois

    During five reigns the Louvre was utterly neglected . But at length I ., struck by the beauty of the site , ordered the great tower of Philippe-Auguste to be destroyed , —a task performed with some difficulty and at considerable expense—2500 livres of those days—in 1627 . Twelve years afterwards , when Charles Quint was expected , the hero of Marignan—always accustomed to squander the greatest means to produce the smallest results—determined to resuscitate the Louvre for the occasion . Thousands of workmen were collected : artists and artisans were employed to decorate the walls with paintings and tapestry ; the windows were enlarged , and supplied with new panes ; the arms of France were sculptured in profusion ; the weathercocks were regilded , and various ugly old walls were thrown down : but the result of all this industry was evidently not satisfactory , and when that time of breathless suspense had passed—during which the fear of public opinion , perhaps , alone gave the victory to public faith—Francois I ., still in astonishment at his own chivalry , determined to distinguish himself by architectural achievements .

    The Renaissance— " event , " says Mr . St . John , " which successive ¦ writers are endeavouring to characterise in a series of conflicting epigrams " —had . already far advanced , when the royally demonstrative personage whom ordinary Englishmen are more accustomed to call " Francis the First " than " Francois I ., " took to building-improvements , for a change of occupation . The conflict of taste at that time has left records which prove that the Gothic style and the modern expression of ancient styles had each an advocacy , very much as in time present . Mr . St . John says well of the school of Fontainebleau—the men who could only think of the horizontal balustrades of the south , and their regular beauty , set off by a clear blue sky , and who looked on a building capped by a kind of slate pyramid as a mere barbarism . —that " they forgot the snow , the rain , the winds , the fogs of the north—as all these circumstances are forgotten by our modern architects , for whose incapacity and subjection to routine we are compelled to pay annual penalties in the shape of quarrels with landlords , and visits from tilers and plumbers . "

    ITrancois I . did not , after all , contribute greatly to the renaissance of the Louvre . His principal architect , Lescot , delayed active measures until another king was on the throne of France . The -work of alteration was carried on throughout the reign of Henri II ., and , after his death , was hastened by Catherine , who soon saw two symmetrical wings opposed to the old cluster of towers , turrets , pinnacles , and weathercocks , which ' formed the east and north portions of the building . Under Charles IX . and Henri III . the works were continued by Androuet , Du Cerceau , and others , Jean Goujon being employed on decorative parts . Henry IV . built the Pavilion de Flore , at the corner of the Tuileries , and began the Long Gallery .

    Under the Regency succeeding Henri IV ., the Louvre was abandoned , and the works remained suspended until Richelieu , came into power , when Lemercier ' s designs for the completion of the building were accepted , and the first stone was laid with great pomp . The progress of the renewed works , however , was not rapid under Louis XIII ., and had again ceased entirely when Louis XIV . gave Levau commands to carry out the plans of Lemercier . But Levau was set aside when Colbert came into power . Now followed the reign of the celebrated Charles and Claude Perrault . The completion of the Louvre became an affair of State . Colbert ' s coterie exhibited wonderful mastery in intrigue . At first the mighty reputation of 11 Cavaliere Bernini , the Autocrat of Roman Art , interfered with their designs . Some of his admirers suggested that he should be sent for by the king ; but it was not easy to prevail upon

    him at an advanced age to undertake so long a journey . At length an autograph letter from his majesty , Louis XIV ., and a state visit of the French Ambassador , produced their effect . The Cavoliere's progress through Italy and France was quite royal in its magnificence . All municipalities hastened to prostrate themselves at the feet of a man who was going to build a palace for the Great King . He was well received at St . Germain ; and royal condescension even , withstood the somewhat independent manners which he affected , and which much greater painters have not always preserved . Bernini , . the prince of mediocrity , must have felt himself a match for the king , who was already surrounded by unmerited honours , and who was destined to prove during his long-life that the capacity which would scarcely enable a common man . to shine in a village , isyraite sufficient to overawe the world , when concealed behind a flowing wig , a solemn face , a gorgeous robe , a crowded court , and a splendid palaco .

    . Bernini was very soon drawn into an entanglement of court squabbles , in which he was ludicrously unable to support that aspect of dignified serenity , so long habitual to him , and so inseparable , in fact , from his character . His blan v ?' though , " in the words of Mr . St . John , "it contained many sensible features , was violently criticised ; and not long after ( the solemn inliiuguvation of his labours ) , his absence was bought with a present and a ipension . " ¦ The brothers Perrault were now permitted to carry out their own dosigns , and they began by destroying all that Bernini had done , which was extremely little . They built the celebrated colonnade , and worked so industriously , that it was thought they would have the honour of completing the Louvre ; but their work received n sudden check . Let Mr . St . John tell us why : — o r Jri truth , there -was no national reason why the work should bo continued . Royalty

    tii » d resolved definitely to keep out of the roach of popular indignation beyond the wtila , and retire to distant and rural situations . Versailles had begun entirely to ecwapy the mind of Louis . The Perraults woro ejected from their architectural >^ hurone and retired into private life , to spend their timo in making fanciful sketches of < VJwt they would have done ; and Rfan & urt roigned in their stoad . For seventy-five Team the Louvro -tyaa almost uttorly abandoned , and externally became covered with W ° W WVgT ft * ° » and plants , and wall-flowers , like an old village church . There exists an old plan of Paris on a large scale , drawn up in 1780 , from which some hints may be obtained of the state of this palaco at that timo . It reminds ono of an

    Egyptian temple miserably buried amidst mud vUlages and heaps of rubbish . A whole quarter stretched between it and the Tuilenes , with the Hotel de Longueville still in the centre . Houses climbed up the walls in various parts ; and in the middle of the quadrangle was a block of common cottages , with gardens and courts . Twothirds of the building were completely without roof . ... Some of the apartments of the Louvre had long been occupied in various ways . It had come to resemble our Hampton Court on a large scale . Under Louis XIV . lodgings had been granted to certain officers of the crown and certain pensioned aristocrats . Ateliers were granted to various artists . All the Academies also had housed themselves there , —the French Academy , the Academy of Inscriptions and the of

    Belles Lettres , the Academy of Painting and Sculpture , Academy Architecture . The Louvre became the great hotel , the lodging-house of the whole rabble of courtfollowers court-artists , and court-savans . In order to increase the number of habitable rooms , most of the great halls were divided horizontally and perpendicularl y by temporary floorings and partitions ; staircases and chimneys were cut through the walls- on all sides projected iron tubes of the most hideous shape , that perpetually vomited smoke and soot . By degrees some of the inhabitants , who could aflbrd to keep horses , turned the lower halls into stables ; the government post-house was built against the colonnade , along which were ranged lines of mangers ; wooden sheds gradually accumulated on every side . .,.:..,.: _ ,. _ . , „ ., _ . , ... ., the lethinking they had at length

    In 1750 the owners of the houses in quadrang , obtained a prescriptive right , began to rebuild them in solid stone . This at length irritated the Parisian public , which had always , more or less , felt interest in the fate of the Louvre . Even in 1664—when the great project of completion was under consideration—there had been a perfect rush of pamphlets , memoirs , projects , and counter-projects . In the middle of the eighteenth century , literature had become more accustomed to deal authoritatively with the topics of the day . The gazettes were beginning to show their power . Articles , essays , epigrams , followed in rapid succession ; and at length M . dc Marigny , whose department was concerned , determined not only to clear out the Augean stable , but to resume the work of building .

    The houses in the quadrangle , the court painters , the postal establishment , the crown sinecurists , the queen ' s stables , and the noble pensioners were actually removed somehow , and new works were begun , in 1755 , under the architect Gabriel ; but had he been the angel instead , he could scarcely have made way in spite of royal caprice . In a short time the favourites , the sinecurists , the queen ' s horses apd painters , the pensioners , ami , for anything we can tell , the post-office , were back again in their old quarters —the Louvre—which was abandoned to them and the weather . The Revolution not only drove out , in a more effectual manner , the heterogeneous population of this equally heterogeneous locality , but it nobly helped to restore the " old Palace of the Kings ; " for Mr . St . John succeeds in controverting the statement of M . Vitet that the Consulate first " restored order to the Louvre and to France . " The famed artist David , who gave the death-blow to the old Academv , may be said to have called into young and vigorous life a national collection . The " Museum of the Republic " was opened on the 10 th of August , 1793 , in the gallery which connects the Louvre with the Tuileries .

    Here is the description of a scene taken from the account of an eyewitness , and worthy a page in the history of a great nation : — A singular ceremony took place on the ninth of Thermidor , in the sixth year of the Republic—namely , the triumphal entry into Paris of the objects of art and materials of science—books , statues , manuscripts , and pictures—conquered in Italy during the early Italian wars . These treasures were landed at Charenton ; and during the ten days that preceded the ceremonj ' , from morning until evening , prodigious crowds streamed up along the banks of the Seine to see the innumerable cases containing them . Enormous cars , drawn by richly-caparisoned horses , were prepared , and early on the morning of the appointed day the procession began . It was divided into four sections . First came trunks filled with books and manuscripts taken from the Vatican , from Padua , Verona , and other cities , and including the " Antiquities " of Josephus on papyrus , with works in the handwriting of Galileo , Leonardo da

    Vinci , and Petrarch . Then followed collections of mineral products , with tho celebrated fossils of Verona . For the occasion were added waggons , laden with iron cages containing lions , tigers , and panthers , over which waved enormous palmbranches and all kinds of exotic shrubs . Afterwards rolled along a file of chariots bearing pictures carefully packed , but with the names of the most important inscribed in large letters outside ; as , the " Transfiguration" of Raphael , and the " Christ" of Titian . The number of paintings , principally included in thia lot , brought from Italy to France was great , and the value was still greater . Fifteen important worka by Raphael , seventeen by Perugino , twenty-eight by Gucrcino , four by Corruggio , nine by Guido , five by Titian , and a vast quantity o & others by tho best master * , are mentioned in the lists of General Pommereul . When these trophies had passed amidst the applause of the excited crowd , a heavy rumbling announced tho approach of still more weighty treasures : of massive carts , bearing statues and marble

    groups , the Apollo of the Belvedore , tlie Nine Muses , tho Antinous , the Laocoon , the Gladiator , tho Melpomene of tho Capitol . All these vehicles woro numbered and decked out with laurel-boughs , bouquets , crowns of flowers , flags taken from the enemy , and French , Italian , and Greek inscriptions . Detachments of cavalry and infantry , colours flying , drums beating , music playing , marched at various intervals : the members of the newly-established Institute fell into the line : so did tho artist * and the savans ; and tho singers of tlio lyrical theatres preceded or followed , making the air ring with national hymns . This prodigious procession—probably not unlike a Roman triumph in its general outline—marched along tho quays amidst tho . shouts of tho assembled population , traversed all Paris , and reaching tho Champ du Mara , defiled before tho Five Members of tho Directory , who were placed near the nltar ol the country , surrounded by thoir ministers , by the groat civil functionaries , the generals , and tho whole garrison of tho capital .

    Thia is tho last extract which we will give our readers , who have already , we hope , made up their minds to turn to the book itself . It is a book so laboriously compiled , so conscientiously finished , and , on the whole , so pleasantly written , that its affectations ought rather to be regretted on tho reader ' s account than visited as high Crimea and misdemeanours upin the author .

    Lord Brougham's Literature. Lives Of Men...

    LORD BROUGHAM'S LITERATURE . Lives of Men of Letters of the Time < f George III . toy Henry Lord Brougham , RK . S . Grifiin nnd . Co . It is mutter of very common observation that members of tho " privileged classes , " , either from wnnt ol ' work or want of ability to do their proper work , find their time hang rather heavily on their hands , try to get rid of it by employments which , if not Belf-imposed , they would think ratb . 6 r pitiable

    m 2 IMBI B ? ' -liffi- & . 3 > E K P * o- 276 £ gkTpg ] DAY ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 7, 1855, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07071855/page/16/