THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI. 



411 



an increasing submission to the guidance of antiquity, with whose 

 monuments there was now a wider and minuter acquaintance. Yet 

 the old academic methods, though shaken, on the whole maintained 

 their sway, and the new ideas influenced detail and ornament more 

 than composition. This was the trend of the teaching, conservative 

 in the main, of Blondel's famous "Atelier," where many of the 

 architects of the new school, such as M. J. Peyre, Charles de Wailly, 

 Mique, Ledoux, and Cherpitel, were trained. 



The resultant style is characterised as regards the main archi- 

 tectural lines by a four-square sobriety, as regards decoration by 

 great refinement, and generally by classical purity. Further, it is a 

 more completely homogeneous style than any of those which had 

 obtained since Henry II., and usually bear traces of a struggle between 

 an architectural tendency pulling in one direction, and a decorative 

 tendency pulling in another, only appeased through a compromise 

 forcibly imposed by a Le Brun or a Mansart. 



The period dur- 

 ing which the new 

 manner grew up and 

 flourished extends 

 over some sixty years 

 ( J 73'9)> which may 

 be divided into three 

 sub-periods of twenty 

 years each. In the 

 first the reaction to 

 classicism makes its 

 appearance in a 

 sprinkling of build- 

 ings which break with 

 the rococo fashion. 

 By 1750 the new style 

 is formed, and begins 

 to receive official 

 support ; for the next 

 twenty years the old 

 and the new run side 

 by side, occasionally 

 mingling, but the new 

 rapidly gains ground 

 and triumphs in the 

 twenty years which 

 precede the Revolu- 

 tion. 



28 



FRONT ELEVATION 



SECTION. 



FEET 

 METRB5 



392. 



AMIENS : PORTION OF THE ECOLE DBS 



BEAUX ARTS. 

 Measured and Drawn by P. Hepworth. 



