THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI. 



451 



431. BORDEAUX: " GRAND THEATRE." 



parterre are two galleries with solid fronts, and a third with an open balus- 

 trade and an Ionic colonnade. Above the entablature is a great cove 

 divided by vertical ribs into panels, each pierced with an oval opening. 

 Above again was a flat dome of elliptical plan. A glazed sky-light was 

 substituted for this in 1871, in the alteration of the theatre for the sittings 

 of the National Assembly, when the colour scheme was also completely 

 changed. The transition from the auditorium to the stage is managed 

 by the introduction of a giant order of engaged Corinthian columns, 

 with a cornice ranging with the whole Ionic entablature (Fig. 429). The 

 proscenium is formed by two pairs of columns, coupled in depth with 

 their entablature. On either side two more pairs, more widely spaced, en- 

 close three tiers of boxes. The theatre itself, with its delicate ornament 

 carved in wood, chased in bronze, and modelled in stucco, with its figure 

 groups by Pajou, its painted wreaths and trellis backgrounds, and the sub- 

 dued harmony of gilding in several tones, the soft blue of the hangings, 

 and the greys and greens of the architecture painted to imitate verde 

 antique, is a gem of the first water, and a miracle of restrained, yet rich, 

 decoration ; and the rather severer forms of the oblong vestibule with its 

 creamy reliefs in a setting of dark marbles forms a worthy prelude to it. 



The theatre erected for Marie Antoinette at the Petit Trianon by 

 Mique (1777-79) is a pretty but less restrained rendering, on a smaller 

 scale, of the same scheme. Externally it has no pretensions to archi- 

 tectural treatment. 



THEATRE, BORDEAUX. The Grand Theatre of Bordeaux (1777-80) 

 by Victor Louis has generally been regarded as inaugurating a new era 

 in theatre design, because in several important points he made a distinct 

 advance. The building is independent and isolated ; it has elevations 

 of becoming dignity ; it is provided externally with covered galleries, 



