. Art in France. esolve, architects sought for novelty only in a more orless exact imitation of the antique. In the seventeenth century,Colbert dreamed of transporting the Maison Carree of Nimes toParis, stone by stone. The last classical church built, the Made-leine, after some vacillation on the part of the constructors, endedby becoming an enlarged version of a small Roman temple. Thework of classical architecture was accomplished. In the sixteenthcentury, small antique columns and entablatures had been ingeniouslyarranged to mark the storeys of modern structures; gradually, thesedecorative
. Art in France. esolve, architects sought for novelty only in a more orless exact imitation of the antique. In the seventeenth century,Colbert dreamed of transporting the Maison Carree of Nimes toParis, stone by stone. The last classical church built, the Made-leine, after some vacillation on the part of the constructors, endedby becoming an enlarged version of a small Roman temple. Thework of classical architecture was accomplished. In the sixteenthcentury, small antique columns and entablatures had been ingeniouslyarranged to mark the storeys of modern structures; gradually, thesedecorative facings had reverted to their original forms, till theyfinally imposed pagan architecture on the modern churches. TheMadeleine, indeed, verynearly became a Templeof Glory; it is now afashionable church. Butthe huge Pantheon is stillempty and lifeless. Thememory of Saint Gene-vieve, which haunted theancient sanctuaries of thehill, has evaporatedunder Soufflots icy vaults;the church is vacant,neither Christian nor. -LAilULK. , ,NANCY. 298 PARISIAN ART UNDER LOUIS XV AND LOUIS XVI pagan. It has been convertedinto a museum of paintings glori-fying Paris and France, and aSaint Denis for great in spite of the talents of itsdecorators, and the famous tombsit shelters, this secularised build-ing is mainly a place of pilgrim-age for tourists, and evokes littlesentiment beyond an indifferentcuriosity. This revival of a worship ofthe antique among architects andpainters was not the work of theAcademy. Those amiable deco-rators, the official artists of theeighteenth century, received theyouthful David and his exaltedmanner coolly enough. Theytook little interest in the theory of their art. The public was so welldisposed towards them, that it would have been folly to imperiltheir success by the pursuit of a difficult ideal. It was the world ofwriters and philosophers which produced esthetes and arch^olo-gists such as Diderot and Caylus, who attacked art
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