THE STYLE OF LOUIS xvi. 415 



and weathered the storm. Had the attitude of Gabriel been more 

 general among architects, the old Palladian-academic system might 

 have taken a new lease of life, and been widened into a more intelligent 

 and elastic synthesis, based on Greek, as well as Roman, antiquity. 

 But as the State and society were precipitated into anarchy by too 

 sudden and too radical reforms, so, when Andre Chenier attempted to 

 infuse a Greek spirit into the metrical system of Racine, and Soufflot into 

 the architectural system of Mansart, the new wine burst the old bottles. 



TRANSITION FROM THE Louis XV. TO THE Louis XVI. STYLE. 

 Although the style of Louis XVI. may be found completely developed 

 in a few cases soon after 1730 in the work of Servandony and Soufflot, 

 and in Gabriel's work, the change from Louis XV. to Louis XVI. work 

 was accomplished suddenly and completely about 1750, there are many 

 examples, especially between 1750 and 1770, which form a transition 

 between the two. These are of two kinds ; the first method of transi- 

 tion consisted in taming the rococo, as in Contant d'lvry's early work. 

 At the Palais Royal, for instance, in a pavilion between the Cour des 

 Fontaines and the Rue de Valois, the severe rectilinear treatment is 

 already marked, and the rococo motives which persist are confined to 

 a few unimportant details, which do not overstep their architectural 

 framework. Other buildings which present a mingling of the two 

 styles are the Bibliotheque de la Ville at Versailles, formerly Hotel des 

 Affaires Etrangeres, by J. B. Berthier (1762); the Hotels Sanson, Rue 

 St Gilles, at Abbeville ; and the charming Loge du Change at Lyons, 

 by Soufflot (1747), now a Protestant church. The wrought-iron screens 

 of the cathedrals of Toulouse and Amiens (Fig. 394) retain some rococo 

 elements, but their wayward lines are counteracted by a sturdy rect- 

 angular framework and an intermixture of quiet meanders and 

 geometrical patterns. The same combination of elements is found 

 in many of Roubo's designs for trellis-work (Paris, 1769-75), and of 

 internal decorations by various designers, as in the antechamber to 

 Marie Antoinette's apartments at Fontainebleau, and in rooms 

 decorated by Soufflot in the Archbishop's Palace at Lyons. 



The second mode of transition was the resumption of the Louis XIV. 

 manner in a somewhat chastened form. This is Gabriel's more usual 

 method, and is commonest where its broad and rhetorical character is 

 most appropriate, that is, in public buildings, such as the Ecole Militaire 

 and Hotel des Monnaies (Figs. 424 and 425). The deep enriched 

 cornices, pyramidal trophies, the massive swags and cornucopias, all 

 reappear. But the real date is apparent, nevertheless, from the puristic 

 treatment of the orders, the lessened emphasis on every part, and the 

 admixture of distinctively Louis XVI. motives. 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL TENDENCY. But meanwhile the influence of 

 Soufflot's magnum opus, the Pantheon, increased as its walls rose 



