THE STYLE OF LOUIS XIV. 



271 



abroad, by importing artists and models 

 for imitation, by painstaking industry 

 in the conduct of the royal building 

 operations and of the decoration and 

 furnishing of palaces and public edifices. 

 The Savonnerie was amalgamated with 

 the private enterprise of the Gobelin 

 family, and developed, under the name 

 of " Manufacture des meubles de la 

 Couronne," into an institution for the 

 making of every kind of artistic object 

 for the royal palaces tapestry, carpets, 

 furniture, coaches, plate, china, glass 

 with a school of design attached. 

 Artists continued to receive free quar- 

 ters in the Louvre with exemption 

 from the oppressive regulations of the 

 " Maitrise des Peintres Imagiers," 

 which comprised every grade from sign- 

 painters upwards, and whose members 

 alone enjoyed the right of plying their 

 craft or selling their works. 



THE ACADEMIES. As the French 

 Academy had grown out of a private 

 literary coterie by receiving an official 

 status from Richelieu, so an association 

 of artists (founded 1648) including 

 sculptors, painters, and engravers, in 

 revolt against the "maitrise," was recog- 

 nised by Mazarin as a Royal Academy 

 of Painters and Sculptors (1655) and 

 Colbert became its Chancellor (1661). 

 Thus a blow was struck at an indepen- 

 dent corporation, art became a dis- 

 ciplined force and State control was 

 secured over art education. Later on 

 the Academy of Inscriptions, whose 

 duty was to compose inscriptions for 

 royal and public monuments, and the 

 Academy of Architecture developed 

 out of an informal committee sum- 

 moned by Colbert to aid him when 

 he became Commissioner of Works 

 (1664). 



262. VERSAILLES : DOOR IN 

 SALON DE L'ABONDANCE 

 (1683). 



