RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



456. 



THE SECOND 

 MADELEINE 

 CHURCH, BY 

 VIGNON AND 

 HUVE (1807-42): 

 PLAN. 



could find time to examine the designs in the 

 midst of the arduous campaign of 1807, wrote 

 from a camp on the Russian border that Vignon's 

 alone fulfilled the conditions by providing "a 

 temple and not a church/' " a monument such as 

 could be found at Athens and not in Paris." 

 Vignon was instructed to carry out the building 

 on these lines. He remained in charge of the 

 work till his death (1828), when he was succeeded 

 by Huve, who had been inspector of the building 

 under him, and after a long interruption completed 

 it in 1842. But the Restoration had quite other 

 views than the Empire, and insisted on having a 

 church. 



Exterior. The resulting edifice is therefore 

 externally a complete pagan temple of the Cor- 

 inthian order, octastyle and peripteral, with 

 eighteen columns on the side, and internally a 

 hall, such as might form part of some Roman 



thermae, but fitted up for Christian worship (Figs. 456, 457, and 458). 

 Such buildings as the Madeleine and its compeers mark a standstill, if 

 not a retrogression, in architectural evolution, but whatever may be 

 thought of their suitability to modern conditions, they must always have 

 value as scholarly studies in classical design, and excite admiration in 

 proportion to the fidelity with which they reproduce the beauties of a 

 great architectural period. If the Madeleine fails to impose on the 

 imagination in the same degree as an ancient temple, this is due not to 

 any imperfection in its details or proportions, which are as good as 

 they could well be, 

 but rather to the 

 nature of the sur- 

 roundings and 

 materials. In size 

 the building is com- 

 parable to some of 

 the largest temples 

 of antiquity the di- 

 mensions of the plan, 

 which, measured 

 from outside to out- 

 side of the column 

 bases, are approxi- SCALE OF 

 mately 333 feet by .SCALE OF 

 144 feet, are only 457. THE SECOND MADELEINE CHURCH : SECTION. 



