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< I V IL ARCHITECT*!* K. 



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built by order of (he king; and likewise the abbeys i 

 nrr Milan ; of Longchamp, near St Cloud : am! S; 

 Maihiru. near Rouen ; the greater part of tin- abbey 

 chorch of St Dcnii, the Hotel Dicu of Vernon, 

 torn, and Compeigne ; and the church and abbey of 

 Minbuiton. The church of Notre Dame de* Urns, in 

 Flaoden, was beguo by Pierre, the 7ih abbot, and com- 

 pitted io 1264, by Theodoric : the whole church was 

 !iy the monki themselves, astisted by the lay bro- 

 therl tod their ervantf. Robert de Coucy completed 

 the cathedral of Rhcimi, and the church of St NicaUe 

 for boldness ai.d symmetry he surpassed all hit contempo- 

 raries. Jean Rauy, an architect and sculptor, was em- 

 ployed 26 year* upon Notre Dame. 



In the ti-i^n of Charles V. the monasteries of the Ati- 

 guttinet and IVleiliue* were built at 1'aris ; a magnificent 

 chapel, i . the model of the Sainte Chapelle, at Paris ; and 

 many important additions were made to the Louvre. 

 Charles ^ . was the founder of the Royal Library of 

 France ; be placed 120 volumes in one of the towers 

 of the Louvre. The abbey of Bonport was erected 

 about 1 



utbc M<b The 14th century differed considerably from the last. 

 The windows, instead of foils and roses, branched into 

 leaves, and there were richer decorations upon the vault- 

 ing* of the roof. Similar changes took place in Eng- 

 land, where they were carried to a higher degree of per- 

 fection. 



In the i*il> The taste of the 15th century was inimical to archi- 

 . caiury, lecture j it resembled that iu England and other coun- 

 : tries in the present day. There were many instances of 

 tracery, especially in chapel* and sepulchral monument*. 

 The chapel of Charles de Bourbon, archbishop of Lyons, 

 in the cathedral of that city, is a fine instance, and one 

 of the latest works iu the Gothic style produced in 

 France. Charles de Bourbon died in 1478. The distract- 

 ed state of France at this period prevented them from 

 equalling what was done in England. 



The Italian artists about this time began to restore the 

 of Ro- Roman style, and painting and sculpture soon arrived at 



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excellence ; but in architecture, though the Gothic was 

 abandoned, there was little of the pure Roman style in 

 that which was adopted. It consisted chiefly in imita- 

 tions of the Abarasque designs of Raphael, which he had 

 copied from the frescoes of the baths of Titus and Livia, 

 and introduced into the galleries of the Vatican, which 

 met with applause in a generation too much accustomed 

 to profusion of ornament to relUhySimplicity. 



Having thus traced the progress of this school of ar- 

 chitecture from its introduction into France to the reign 

 of Louis the Xllth, which marked a total abandonment 

 of it, Mr Whittington nest proceeds to comment upon 

 the principal edifices, and compare their merits with those 

 of buildings of the same age in England. 



Of St Germain des Prez, it is remarked, that the in- 

 terior is low and gloomy, lighted by small windows, as 

 in our Saxon buildings ; but in the arches and columns 

 of the choir, which have remained since the time of Mo- 

 r ar<l, the general proportions, and especially those of the 

 capital to the shaft, approach very nearly to the Roman 

 Cunntlibn, while others are a sort of Abarasquc, corn- 

 Doted of bird* and griffins, still retaining the Corinthian 

 leave* and volutes. Here columns support a series of 

 circular arches, excepting the circular arcade at the east 

 end of the church, where they re pointed, in conse- 

 quence of the arrangement of the pillars, which are 

 placed nearer to each other than where the colonnade i* 

 m straight line. The same circumstance is found in the 

 rypt at St Denis ; in the choir of the church of La 

 Chsritf snr Loire, and at the east end of Canterbury 



cathedral, built between 1180 nJ 1185, where "the HUiory. 

 arches are some circular, and some mitred, for the dis- ^ - *"<"" > 

 tances between the pillars here diminish gradually as we 

 go eastward. The arches being all of the same height, 

 are mitred (pointed) to comply with this fancy, so that 

 the angles of the eastern ones arc very acute. See Goat- 

 ling's Canlfrlairy, p. 



With regard to the abbey of St Genevieve ; in the St Gene- 

 time of the Celts, an island in the river Seine, surround- vicve. 

 d by forests, was first retorted to for shelter. The Hittory. 

 habitations did not extend beyond the L'Isle dc la Cite, 

 till retains the metropolitan church and palace of 

 justice. This place was enlarged by the Romans, espe- 

 cially Valentinian and Grotian. 



Clovis at first resided in the Roman palace, but after- 

 wards erected one on rising ground uear the south su- 

 burbs, and added a church to St Peter and St Paul, 

 which was not finished at his death in 5 1 1 . This church 

 was afterwards named St Genevieve, after a pious lady, 

 in whom the Parisians had great faith. 



The abbey church has probably the same disposition, 

 and partly the same walls, as in the time of Clovis. It 

 is without transepts, but has a circular termination. It 

 was only repaired by Robert the Pious, or by Abbot 

 Stephen. The facade is remarkable for its nakedness ; Dncrip- 

 its portal consists of three pointed arches, with small tion. 

 columns and capital, decorated with ivy leaves ; ab-jve 

 the middle door is a rose window. The other windows 

 are lon and lancet-shaped, the whole enclosed by a mas- 

 sive plain pediment. The nave is separated frc-m the nave 

 aisles by eight columns ; four, larger than the others, 

 tluir capitals truly Lombard, being a mixture of leaves, 

 birds, &c. ; the four smaller ones have Acanthus Kaves ; 

 upon these caps rcat clusters of small pillars and pointed 

 arches, erected by Abbot Stephen, to support the roof. 

 This is an example of die exact shape of the early French 

 churches, with narrow lancet windows, which are rare 

 in that country. 



St Denis, or St Dionysius, was reckoned the first St Denis, 

 preacher of the gospel to the Gauls. The persecutors Hl}torT 

 ordered his body to be thrown into the Seine, but a Pa- 

 gan female got possession of it, buried it in a field near 

 Paris, and sowed the field with corn ; she afterwards erect- 

 ed a small monument over it, to which the Christians re- 

 sorted, and built a church there, about the middle of the 

 third century ; but from its having been rebuilt on a lar- 

 ger scale, and endowed by Dagobert, he generally passes 

 for the founder. Felibien places the commencement of 

 the building in 629. It was oblong, with a circular 

 termination, having marble colums within, and a profu- 

 sion of Mosaic work : he also built cloisters and offices 

 to the monastery. This church of Dagobert was taken 

 down, and another built by Pepin and Charlemagne, and 

 dedicated in 775. The Normans plundered it in 865. 

 Sugcr was elected abbot in 1122, being nominated nyi-nt 

 of France by Louis VII. on his departure for the Holy- 

 Land. He restored, added, and embellished it, espe- 

 cially the west front and towers. He discovered excellent 

 stone in a quarry near Pontoise, and procured timber 

 from the forest of Chevreuse, which he marked with his 

 own hand. It was dedicated in 1140. 



St Denis had lands in England, i. e. Tinton, in Oxford- 

 shire; Kotlierricld, in Sussex ; and Deerhurst, in Glouces- 

 tershire. This edifice is externally very lofty, but the west 

 front is deficient in majesty. The chief portal is arched 

 semicircular! y, and adorned with sculpture. The walls 

 have alternately round and pointed arches in half relief, 

 on small pillars, similar to those of Purbeck employed 

 in England: the height of the towers is unequal. In St 

 Deaii, there are three eras of architecture : 1st, The 



