. Art and criticism : monographs and studies. new Sorbonne the vast allegory of SOME MODERN FRENCH PAINTERS. 31 the University, which is reproduced in our engravings. He-sides these works, which vie in importance with the frescos ofthe old Italian masters, we may note several pictures—a Re-tour de Chasse (1859), now in the museum of Marseilles; LeSommeil (1867), the Decapitation of St. John, and MaryMagdalene in the Desert (1870), Hope (1872), Summer (1873), The Prodigal Son (1879), the Pauvre Pecheur,The Mower, Women at the Sea-shore, The Grief of Or-pheus. To describe all these compositions
. Art and criticism : monographs and studies. new Sorbonne the vast allegory of SOME MODERN FRENCH PAINTERS. 31 the University, which is reproduced in our engravings. He-sides these works, which vie in importance with the frescos ofthe old Italian masters, we may note several pictures—a Re-tour de Chasse (1859), now in the museum of Marseilles; LeSommeil (1867), the Decapitation of St. John, and MaryMagdalene in the Desert (1870), Hope (1872), Summer (1873), The Prodigal Son (1879), the Pauvre Pecheur,The Mower, Women at the Sea-shore, The Grief of Or-pheus. To describe all these compositions would be fastidiousand useless. Let us rather select the allegory of the Sorbonne,so that the reader may complete the impression of our indigentprose by the vivid image of the engraved reproduction.* In * The original fresco forms a continuous picture occupying the whole breadthof the vast amphitheatre of the new Sorbonne. The limits of our pages haveobliged us to divide the composition into four parts in order to engrave it ade- ALLEGORY OF THE SORBONNE.—I. EXTREME LEFT: HISTORY AFrom the painting by M. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. 32 ART AND CRITICISM. an Elysian landscape, whose smooth lawns are bounded by abelt of trees, the allegory is developed in the foreground, whichis divided into three compartments by the distribution of thetrees, the rocks, and the irregularities of the soil. In the cen-tre, under a screening canopy of trees, the old Sorbonne isseated, draped in robes of monastic cut, and having at her sidesgenii bearing crowns and palms, symbolizing homage to theglory of the living and of the dead. Eloquence, laurel-crowned,stands erect, and with impressive gestures celebrates the bat-tles and conquests of the human mind. To the right and tothe left are groups representing the different kinds of poetry,crowned with laurel wreaths and draped in antique style, someholding inspired converse, others meditative or wrapt in dreams,all graceful in form and post
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookpublisherharper, booksubjectartcriticism
