302 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[October, 



limp, the less \U strengtli is exhausted : a. fact the early builders seem 

 to have ivell understood. The impenetrable hardness of some of the 

 rough-cast pluster is extraordinary. 



One of tlie most curious instances of early quoining is found in the 

 church at Bedfield, at the west angles of the nave; it consists of 

 Roman tiles placed alternately horizontal and upright, on the long and 

 short principle, having at the point on which the roof rests five tiles 

 disposed horizontally in the usual alternate manner: it is not un- 

 common to meet with this arrangement in long and sliort quoining. 

 An e.irly Norman door, ornamented with the zigzag, is on the nnrtli 

 side, but it has every appparance of being a more recent addition. 



Tlie last example at present to be noticed, is Svvanscombe church, in 

 the neighbourhood of Gravesend. It is built of an heterogeneous 

 mixture of materials, chuik, rag, masses of stone of v.irious kinds, 

 and an admixture of Roman tile. The tower shows some attempt 

 at a regular plan in the disposition of its material : it is for the most 

 part constructed of small stones, laid in courses of three and four 

 alternately with one of flint: this disposition is by no means regu- 

 larly observed, sometimes there are two courses of flints, and some- 

 times but two of stone. There is something in the above arrange- 

 ment like an imitation of the Roman flint being used in the place 

 of tile. The quoining piesents some curious features, and has evi- 

 dently been controlled by the nature of the material at hand ; it ex- 

 hibits a strange variety of stones, some disposed in long and short 

 masses, some alternately with Rom m tiles, and the latter are found 

 worked into the rubbh^, here and there, without any order. It may 

 rIso be well to observe, that a large circular window of Reman tile, 

 on the south side, is now blocked up. 



The chancel is chiefly flint-work, set in herrii g-bone, and covered 

 with the durable rough-cast before noticed : the soulli-sid^, where 

 much of this is removed, shows very evident indications of the walls 

 liaving been formed by planking the sides, until the mortar or con- 

 ciete had firmly set; the marks of the planks are still very visible. 

 This part of the church has undergone many alterations : an addition 

 to the east end is easily to be distinguished, from its patched appear- 

 ance ; lancet lights of the twelfth century have superseded windows 

 of a much earlier date, traces of which still remain ; and a doorway 

 on the north side appears to have been blocked up at the same time 

 as the addition was made to the east end, but its architectural fea- 

 tures are quite destroyed. 



Herringbone work, according to Mr. Bloxam, is not of itself a 

 criterion of dale : but the flint-work in this fashion I have above 

 noticed, appears to me, from its being always connected with other 

 facts, to be one of the indications of Anglo-Saxon work. 



The few instances here brought together may not contain matter 

 entirely new, but the subject is worthy of attention, and it is Imped 

 that the other members of the Association will take advantage of 

 opportunities that may occur to them to furnish additional inform- 

 ation. J. G. Waller. 



THE ARCHITECTURE OF FRANCE IN THE REIGN OF 

 LOUIS XHI. 



U.VDER THE ADMINISTRATION'S OF RiCHELIEU AND MaZARIN. 



(Translated for this Journal, from the Magazine Pottoresqne.J 

 The history of the reign of Louis the Thirteenth is marked by con- 

 stant dissensions between the king and the nobles, and by the fre- 

 quency of intrigues and assassinations— Louis reigned but did not 

 govern. The minister Richelieu held the supreme authority uncon- 

 trolled, and having reached the highest pinnacle of power and wealth, 

 his ambition of glory led him to encourage letters and the fine arts. 

 He established the Royal Printing Press, founded the French Academy, 

 rebuilt the Sorbonne, and instituted the Jardin des Plantes. 



In order to judge of the architecture of this period we will examine 

 first of all the sumptuous Palace which the Cardinal built for his own 

 residence. The site chosen for this edifice was at equal distances 

 from the Louvre and Tuileries. The palace was first called the 

 Palais Richelieu, and subsequently the Palais Cardinal. The de- 

 signs were furnished by Lemercier, one of the most celebrated archi- 

 tects of his time, and the foundations were laid in 1629; the building 

 was not completed till 1036. 



The Palace Richelieu, as designed by Lemercier, consisted of seve- 

 ral courts, of which two were cuntral ; the second or largest court was 

 surrounded by buildings on three sides only, on the fourth it was 

 separated from the gardens by an arcaded gallery raised on a terrace. 

 The interior of the palace was decorated with a luxury scarce ima- 



ginable. The most remarkable apartment was the gallery of illustrious 

 men, adorned with portraits of celebrated persons, by Phillipe of 

 Champaigne, Simon Vouet, &c., and with a large number of antique 

 busts. There were also a chapel and two theatres, or Salles de Spec- 

 tacle. The chapel was remarkable for the richness of its monuments. 

 Of the theatres one was reserved for a select assemblage, and con- 

 tained about five or six hundred persons; the other three thousand. 

 This last was assigned to Moliere and his company in IGliO, and here 

 in 163G Curneille brought out the Cid, to which succeeded the Horaces 

 and C'inna. 



After Moliere's death, the theatre was used for the representation 

 of lyric dramas. This was the origin of the Opera. The theatre v/^s 

 twice burnt down and rebuilt. 



In 1G39 Richelieu made a present of his palace to the king, whose 

 death however happened so soon after, that he never inhabited it. 

 Four years afterwards Anne of Austria, Regent of the kingdom, 

 quitted the Louvre for this Palace, which thenceforward took the 

 name of the Palais Royal. 



The pile has since undergone great alterations. Of the architec- 

 ture of Lamercier little remains but the decorations of the wings of 

 the second court, where may still be seen in the piers between the 

 windows of the lower story, the prows of vessels which Richelieu put 

 there in allusion to his office of superintendent of navigation which he 

 joined to so many others. 



The Louvre under Louis XIII. 



The Louvre is one of those immense edifices which must necessarily 

 be the work of successive ages. It had already been the object of 

 the mimificence of Philip Augustus, Fiancis I, Charles IX, and 

 Henry IV., when Louis determined to give to it altogether new im- 

 portance. Under the superintendence of Lemercier, the court was 

 extended to four times the size originally proposed, and in conse- 

 quence of this extension Lemercier constructed the central pavilion, 

 crowned with a quadrangular dome, and repeated on the opposite 

 side, the facade already executed in the reigns of Francis I. and 

 Heniy II. The architectural decoration of Lescot was copied, except 

 only in the upper part of the central pavilion, where Lemercier fol- 

 lowed the bent of his own genius. Not wishing to raise a third range 

 of columns upon the two ranges of the Corinthian and Composite 

 orders which were already surmounted by an attic range, and at the 

 same time desirous of attaining a higher degree of enrichment he 

 employed Caryatides grouped two by two. These Caryatides, the 

 work of Sarazin, have certainly sculptural merit, but are devoid of 

 solidity and severity. The appearance of life and action which the 

 artist iias given them is inconsistent with their pupose. The Cary- 

 atides of Goujon are in this respect much superior. The three pedi- 

 ments erected one above the other, which crown the composition, 

 must be considered as an arrangement in the worst taste, and de- 

 serve severe condemnation. Under Louis XIII., the Louvre was 

 destined to become one of the largest palaces in Europe. Anne of 

 Austria erected 3l Salie de Spectacle in the pavilion. Levau continued 

 the river fafade commenced by Lescot, but this was subsequently re- 

 moved to make way for that erected Perault. The great square 

 central pavilion of the Tuilleries, surmounted by the dome which is 

 seen at this day, was erected under Louis Xlll. 



The Chateau of Versailles. 

 Versailles owes its origin to the hunting seat which Louis XIII. 

 caused to be built in this locality. This building, consisting of four 

 sides and four towers at the salient angles, surrounded by a fosse, and 

 protected by a drawbridge, preserved the arrangement and appear- 

 anca of the ancient feudal mansions. Now it is curious to see this 

 last example of the type of the ancient chateau of the middle ages 

 become the germ of the vast and magnificent se.it of Louis Quatorze. 

 The erections of the unpretending retreat of Louis XUl. are easily 

 recognised amidst the rest of the pile ; they are stone and brick, and 

 rise in front of the marble court, of which the dimensions are exactly 

 the same as those of the court of the primitive building. 



Convents and Public Buildings. 

 An immense number of convents were erected during this period. 

 That of the barefooted Carmelites and Les Minimes in the Place 

 Royale, the chapel of which rivals the most magnificent churches of 

 Paris, oft'.T examples of the religious architecture of this period. 

 But the most important of the convents founded in this reign is that 

 of Val-de-Grace, a royal abbey of the Benedictines in the Rue St. 

 Jacques, founded by Anne of Austria, who laid the first stone of the 

 cloister in lGi!4. Despairing of giving an heir to the throne, Anne 

 made a vow to erect a sacred edifice if her desires were accomplished ; 

 on the birth of the future Louis XIV, she nobly fulfilled her vow by 

 founding Val-de-Grace. 



