THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI. 



447 



day took part in the competition for this building held in 1768, but 

 the design selected by the assessor was that of a contractor, Jacques 

 Denis Antoine (1733-1801), the son of a joiner, who had been appren- 

 ticed to a master-mason. He seems to have been largely self-trained, 

 and to have modelled his style on that of Gabriel. His Hotel des 

 Monnaies at any rate seems much influenced by the Ecole Militaire. 

 Built on the site of the old Hotel de Conti it has only two outer fagades, 

 one on the narrow Rue Guenegaud and one facing north to the river, 

 a fact which accounts for the scant attention usually paid to its virile 

 architecture. 



The main block on the quay (Fig. 424) has a rusticated basement 

 and two storeys, with a console cornice, which in the central pavilion 

 is supported by giant Ionic columns and surmounted by statues with 

 a panelled attic behind them. The court is reached through this 

 pavilion by a central carriage-way with a coffered barrel vault carried 

 on Doric columns, behind which are aisles for foot passengers with flat 

 stone ceilings. From one of these aisles a splendid stone stair ascends 

 to the Monetary Museum, a rectangular hall with a flattish dome, and 

 a Corinthian order carrying an octagonal gallery with four semicircular 

 recesses. 



PALAIS DE JUSTICE. After a fire at the Palais de Justice in 1776 

 extensive repairs and alterations were put in hand. Guillaume Martin 

 Couture (1732-99) was first entrusted with the work, but finding it 

 impossible to get on with his colleague Pierre Desmaisons (1713-1802) 

 he retired, and was replaced by Moreau Desproux, who was forced to 

 withdraw for the same reason and was succeeded by Antoine. The 

 principal parts of the building resulting from their joint labours are 

 those surrounding, on three sides, the Cour du Mai, which contains the 

 main entrance, the 

 fourth being formed 

 by a massive 

 wrought-iron grille 

 (Fig. 426). The 

 central pavilion with 

 its great order, attic 

 and square dome, is 

 of a type which ap- 

 peared perhaps for 

 the first time in Le 

 Vau's south front at 

 the Louvre (Fig. 

 286) and was par- 

 ticularly fashionable 427 OlD ECOIE DE MEUECINE, BY J. GONDOUIX 

 at this period. It (1769-86): ENTRANCE SCREEN, 



