1S40.1 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



171 



monuments of every age and of every kind may ho nicntinncd in it, and of 

 sncli an extent tliat every work of art may obtain in it a i)laee iiroportionate 

 to its Cotlictic or liistorical valnc. 



" Two orders of works are tliercfore to lie iirosecutcd nndcr the direction 

 of the Committee : statistics for all the mon\nnents withont cxee|)tion ; mono- 

 graphics for those monuments of importance wliicli conhl not l)e developed 

 siiftieiciitly in the statistics. The Committee eannot itself execute all the 

 statistics, which will amount to eighty-six if we proceed by department, and 

 to three hnndreil and fifty if we proceed by arrondissenient, and give sepa- 

 rately the statistics of several large cities, which seems desirable and neces- 

 sary to produce a eomiilcte work. Neitlier can the Committee undertake 

 directly all the raonographies, v.hieii will amount jierhaps to tliree hundred, 

 which is nearly the number of the important monuments in our country 

 which ajijicar to merit a s))ccial work. Time and money woidd be wanting 

 for such a colossal work. On the other hand, it would not ilo to let the de- 

 signs of tiie Committee be regulated by chanec, or to abandon tliem to the 

 individual caprices of all those who might think proper to undertake an his- 

 torieal work on the monuments. It has therefore been thought indispensable 

 to fix an uidform plan, and to apply it invariably to everything that shall be 

 undertaken, without as well as with the Committee. 



" Two means of Jiltaining this result ofl'cred themselves; both have been 

 adopted. In the first place monographies and statistics will be given as 

 models, to which all future monographies and statistics will conform, as well 

 in the scientific plan as in the luaterial execution. Next, instruction will he 

 sent to all the eorrespondcnfs, and to all the antiquaries in France, to indicate 

 tlie plan according to which their researches must he made, to fix the expres- 

 sions which arc to be used in the description of a monument, and the charae- 

 teristic signs which serve to class the works of art, and to determine their 

 age. 



" As to the statistics, fhey will be of two kinds; those which include all 

 the monuments of an arrondissement, aud those which only comprehend the 

 niouuments of a great town. 



" Kor the model of the statistic of an arrondissement, that of Rheims lias 

 been chosen — one of those which arc most numerous in connnuncs, and one 

 of the richest in monuments. .\n architect of Rheims, M. llippolyte Durami, 

 has been employed to make all the drawings; the archivist and librarian of 

 the same town, M. Louis Paris, will write the history of the edifices; the se- 

 cretary of the Committee, M. Didron, will give the description of all the 

 monuments which will be represented by engraving aiul lithography. 



" Paris has been chosen as the model of the statistic of a great town. This 

 work has been entrusted to M. Albert Lenoir, who will give drawings and 

 descriptions of all the Roman, Jlerovingian, and Carlovingian monuments 

 w'.iich formerly adorned the town of Paris, and which have left numerous 

 and imposing ruins. Paris, wluch possesses monuments of all e])ochs, from 

 JuUns Cicsar to oiu' own days, will serve as a ty|ie for those great towns in 

 Fraiice, Lyons, Rouen, Bordeaux, and Strasbourg. 



" The Committee w ill give also two models of monography ; for, the monu- 

 ments of France being splendid or austere, it is necessary to take a severe 

 moiunnent and a sumptuous one. 



" The cathedral of Noyon, graver still since the revolution and the course 

 of ages have broken the statues of its portal and its jiainted windows, has 

 been selected as the type of a church at once severe and original. I5y an ex- 

 ception which is rare in France, this cathedral is rounded at the extremity of 

 its transepts, as at its apsis, aud it is fronted by a porch on the west. M. 

 Kamee has just finished the drawings of this curious monument, and M. L. 

 Vitet, meniber of the Cliambcr of Deputies, is preparing the text. 



" The Cathedral of Cliartres appeared to be the monument the most com- 

 jilete and the richest in France — we may almost say, in Europe. Notre Dame 

 de Cliartres is a cathedral far more considerable than the others, by its crypt, 

 whii_h extends the whole length of the building; by the numerous sculptures 

 v\hich decorate its royal portal and its lateral porches ; by its two western 

 spires, perfect models of the architecture of the twelftli and of the fifteenth 

 centuries; by the six amurcen of towers which rise af the croiiHlonx and at 

 the apside ; liy the delicate sculptures w liich adorn the enclosure of the choir ; 

 by the painted glass wiiicii fills all tlie windows ; by a great chajiel — we may 

 almost say, a little church — which the fourteenth century has attached to the 

 great edifice of the thirteenth. 



" The drawings and text of this monography appeared to be of too high a 

 degree of iuiportanee to be entrusted to a single person. Two artists have 

 been joined together for the graphic work : MM. Lassus, aixhiteet, and 

 Amaury-Duval, painter. JI. Lassus will make all the drawings of arehitec- 

 tiu-e aud decoration, and will make the plans, and give the sections and ele- 

 vations ; M. j\maury-Duval will draw all the sculpture. The text itself, 

 which will accompany and explain these numerous designs, will also he divided. 

 In a literary work on a monument like Notre Dame de Cliartres, there are 

 two parts which are very distir.ct : the history of this monument, which re- 

 lates its foundation, its vicissitudes, the life of the personages wiio have in- 

 habited it, so to sjieak, that of the bishops who have adorned, enlarged, and 

 modified it, in fact the history of its former times ; and the description which 

 tells its present state, which describes by language all its stones one after 

 another, all the statues, all tlie figures painted in fresco or on glass, all the 

 various forms which sculpture has impressed on different materials to give 

 them a character, a style, which indicates an ei)och, an age. The history of 

 a monument, in fact, is still more different from its description, than archi- 

 tectural drawings are from drawings of figures ; and, since tliere Tvere two 



artists for the grajihie part, it was but logical to make the same division of 

 the literary part of the undertaking." 



Besides doing all that may be possible to preserve the ancient monuments 

 from ruin, the Committee of Arts and Monuments has taken measures to 

 form a Museum of National .\uticputies, in w hich the fragments of such monu- 

 ments, as their endeavours have not l>eeii able to save from destruction, may 

 be deposited. 



" la spite of the zeal of the correspondents, in spite of the ardour of the 

 Committee itself in defence of monuments threatened by men or ruined by 

 time, many objects of art perish, many edifices fall ; and, since there exists no 

 place destined to receive the fragments, we lose even the last trace of the 

 most interesting monuments. Sinre the destruction of the museum of the 

 Pelits-Augustins, our national .archajology has sustained losses of this kind 

 which are irreparable. Latterly, when the restorations were made at the 

 church of St. Denis, wiicn the mutilations were perpetrated on the eliurdi of 

 St. Benoit, when the churches of St. Come and of Cluny were demolished, 

 they were forced to throw away among the rubbish bases aud capitals of 

 columns, scidptured tuuiulary stones, car\ed fricses and g.ai-goyles, because 

 the royal museums which are consecrated to pagpu antiquities, cannot and 

 will not receive national antiquities. Such a state of things could not last 

 long without the greatest detriment to history ; for no archa.'ological studies 

 are possible without niouuments, and the monuments become rarer every 

 day. 



" Struck with these injuries inflicted upon art and historical studies, the 

 Committee, on the proposition of Baron T.aylor, begged the JNlinister of the 

 Interior to grant a place for the temporary reception of the objects of art 

 scattered in a thousand places, and which may be collected togeiher. After- 

 wards, the necessity will be felt of forming a gallery of tire fragments wiiich 

 will be gathered by little and little at a small expense, and we shall thus 

 have a museum of Christian antiquities, wiiieh may be compared v\itli |nidc 

 to the museums of pagan antiquities. In this museum, besides the pieces 

 which are originals, may be placed, as has been done at Louxre fm' the Creek 

 .and Roman monuments, plaster-casts of the finest works of art, statues, and 

 has reliefs wliich decorate our edifices of the Middle Ages. Several provin- 

 cial towns .already jiosscss a Christian museum ; Paris must not be behind 

 Dijon, Orleans. Puy, Jdans, or Carcassonne. The Minister of the Interior 

 received in the most favourable manner the proposition of the Committee, 

 and has made a formal promise to dedicate the church of St. Martin-des- 

 Champs, now depcmlant on the Conservatory of Arts and JManufacfures, to 

 tlie receptiou of the fr.agmenis of Christian architecture aud seul|iture which 

 may be collected at Paris and in the departments. This chureli, which, wilh 

 St. Germaiu-des-Pri's, is the oldest in Paris, is also the most curious for the 

 originality of its eonstruclion and decoration; it is iidmirably fit for ils neu- 

 destination — the casket will be worthy of the precious objects which it will 

 coufain. The Minister of the Interior has promised to cause to be restored, 

 for the object above specified, tliis eliurch, wiiich threatened to fall into ruins 

 from the efr'ects of age, or wiiieh was going to be demolished to make rotmi 

 for a mah-ie. The Committee regards this result as one of the most inijiortant 

 it has yet obtained, and knows not how to thank sufficiently the Minister of 

 the Interior. 



" When a monument falls of itself, as has lately happened to tlie church of 

 St. Sauvenr at Xevers, the Committee will have but one resource, and that 

 one it will use immediately ; this will be to send an arehiteetural drauglitsin.au 

 to the scene of the disaster, and to give him the task of collecting, or causing 

 to be preserved in a museum, a]\ the valuable fragments which may not be 

 broken to pieces ; of drawing, on the faith of traditions, on the inspection of 

 old engravings, and the examination of the localiiy, a plan, sections, eleva- 

 tions, det.ails ; of stating, in a cirenmstantial report, the cause of the accident, 

 in order to prevent the fall of monuments which may be tlireatened with ruin 

 under the same circumstances. The draughtsman will return to Paris wilh 

 tlie fragments, which will be placed in the museum, — with the drawings, 

 which will be engraved, — with the report, which will be published. Of the 

 ruined mouumnt will be ]irescnted at least its portrait and some fnigmeuts. 

 This is precisely the missiiui r.jiich, in the case of St. Sauvcur. the Cominil- 

 tee has entrusted to il. Robcliu, iirchitcct, non-resident member of the Com- 

 mittee, aud cliargc<l with important works in the Cathedral of Nevers, his 

 native place." 



All the evils here mentioned and provided against, are felt equally, if not 

 more, in England ; our national antiquities are daily perishing ; we li.ive no 

 museum to receive the fragments, no public spirit in our government to pro- 

 vide for them, and only here and there a solitaiy individual who, o.t his own 

 risk and inconvenience, will use his exertions to presene, will aftbrd a shelter 

 to what can be saved, or will publish, or cause to be published, drawings and 

 descriptions. We rejoice at the exertions of our neighbours, thougli we have 

 reason to be ashamed at being left so far behind them. Yet we think we see 

 ■at home a new spirit rising aud spreading itself, and we hope that it may bear 

 its fnut before it he too late. 



AVe ought to add, that the Conuuittcc of Arts and Monuments is pubhshing 

 manuals of the different bi-anc.hes of arclueology, drawn up by the first scliolars 

 in each branch, and intended more iiarticulaiiy for the use of its corresjion- 

 dents, to draw their atteufion to the dirt'crent points most necessary to be 

 observed, to fix a standard to guide them with certainty in their researches 

 and observations, and to give with accuracy and certainty that elcuienlary 

 knowledge which is necessary to enable them to work efficiently. 



