478 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



crowns. The Napoleonic wars were accompanied by a flood of military 

 emblems ; arrows, spears, and short Roman swords alternate with 

 cannon and bayonets, helmets with shakos, cuirasses with braided tunics, 

 tubes with drums. In the place of tablets or cartouches, there appear 

 several types of ancient shields, especially the short curved pelta and 

 the elongated hexagon of the clipeus; and rooms were designed to 

 imitate tents. After the Egyptian expedition came Egyptian sphinxes, 

 heads of Isis, scarabs, winged globes, imitation hieroglyphics, lotus 

 capitals and bases, columns with only the upper part fluted. An 

 ephemeral Turkish fashion also followed the same event, and boudoirs 

 and bath-rooms were decorated with ogee arches and painted with 

 scenes from the harem. With the Empire the N of Napoleon and 

 the Bonaparte bees usurp the places of the L's and fleurs-de-lys of the 

 Louis, while the imperial crown and eagle with outstretched wings 

 proclaim the revival of the Roman Empire, and winged thunderbolts 

 the swift destruction likely to overtake its enemies. The reigns of 

 Louis XVIII. and Charles X. restored the royal emblems, and intro- 

 duced various medievalisms, but otherwise continued the Empire types 

 with less taste and less vigour. 



GARDEN DESIGN. The reign of the landscape garden which pre- 

 vailed throughout this period declined into confusion worse confounded. 

 Each turn of the serpentine path brought the enchanted stroller into 

 view either of a " rustic " farm or a Chinese bridge, a chapel of Straw- 

 berry Hill Gothic or a Turkish kiosk, an Egyptian swing or a classic 

 tomb at the foot of a weeping willow, or among waterfalls and rockeries 

 of ever-increasing naturalness. Yet these importations are as far from 

 being assimilated to the stylistic character of the age as they are from 

 being the replicas of their supposed originals. 



SECULAR AND CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 



GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS. The National Assembly, which had 

 met in the royal tennis-court at Versailles, on removing to Paris in 

 October 1789, was accommodated in the royal riding-school, along the 

 north side of the Tuileries Gardens, hastily arranged for the purpose. 

 The National Convention, which replaced the Legislative Assembly 

 in 1793, was housed in the palace itself. The theatre of the Tuileries 

 was gutted and fitted up to this end by Alexandre de Gisors. The 

 space, which was long and narrow, was ill-suited to the purpose. 

 The platforms and seats for president, officials, and speakers stood in 

 the centre of one side ; along the other ran the tiers of seats for the 

 members, curving inwards at the ends, while the public occupied 

 galleries on three sides of the hall. The decoration simulated panelling 

 in porphyry and verde antique with bronze enrichments, but like the 



