THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI. 



443 



422. PARIS : TWIN PALACES IN PLACE Louis XV. (NOW PLACE DE LA 

 CONCORDE), BY J. A. GABRIEL (1761-70). 



as against 95 feet, with columns about 33 feet high, or nearly 7 feet 

 shorter than those of the Louvre; the open space in front is also incom- 

 parably more extensive. Again, while Perrault's fagade is a bit of pure 

 architecture more or less in vacua, a screen with little reference to 

 what lies behind it, Gabriel's facades belong to buildings intended for 

 practical use, and correspond with their internal arrangements. Lastly, 

 Gabriel aimed, no doubt, at an effect of festal, if stately gaiety, rather 

 than of majestic solemnity. Each building, which is 312 feet long, and 

 forms, as it were, one half of the Louvre facade, has three instead of 

 five divisions. The end blocks (Fig. 423) are finely treated, their 

 centre being slightly recessed between broad unpierced piers, and 

 having in front of it a tetrastyle pedimented portico, whose columns 

 project one diameter beyond the angle piers. Between these angle 

 blocks runs a colonnade of eleven intercolumniations, which is not a 

 mere decoration as at the Louvre, but provides a covered gallery for 

 viewing ceremonies in the square below. The order in both cases 

 is Corinthian, but here the columns are not coupled, an arrangement 

 which contributes to a lighter effect. The lower storey, too, differs in 

 being rusticated, no doubt in compensation for the loss in solidity due 

 to its being pierced by an arcade and forming an open gallery. This 

 feature makes the substructure of the wall behind the colonnade visible, 

 an arrangement more satisfactory than that of the Louvre. 



In the decoration the trophies on the angles alone recall the manner 

 of Louis XIV. The garland-hung oval medallions so frequent at this 

 period trace their descent through Perrault's outer elevations of the 

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