RELATIONS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE 623 



architecture from debris gathered from all the edifices that had been 

 sacked, and Millin went about through France, in order to sketch the 

 most curious examples and to learn something about their history. 

 He published his National Antiquities from 1790 to 1798, and in 

 1792, an Englishman named Ducarel came over to study the subject, 

 and published in England a book on the Norman edifices of France. 

 The first really critical work was written in 1816 by a member of 

 the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Emeric David. His 

 History of French Sculpture shows a point of view astonishingly in 

 advance of his time; and his work is so accurate and his references 

 so clear that to-day one can hardly do more than change a few lines 

 here and there. It must be added that this work could find no pub- 

 lisher during the lifetime of its author. It did not appear until forty 

 years after it was written; and while the great History of Art through 

 its Architectural Monuments by Seroux d'Agincourt, published in 

 1827, is a trustworthy effort, it is a work that in comparison to that 

 of David seems very immature. The men who in 1795 had overturned 

 the throne and the altar were in all matters of art most fervent 

 believers, indeed, almost Ultramontanes. The doctrine of the infalli- 

 bility of the Roman ideas in art in their eyes did not admit of the 

 slightest discussion; the Restoration hardly modified their ideas. 

 Chateaubriand, however, discovered the poetry of the Gothic churches; 

 and in general it was through the men of letters that the Middle Ages 

 were already on the way toward being understood and appreciated, 

 when, about 1830, the Romantic movement brought about freedom 

 of thought in matters relating to art. 



Like all revolutions, the Romantic movement went too far, and it 

 misunderstood the true nature of those principles whose beauty it 

 had discovered; but it is not often that public opinion is conquered 

 by just and well-balanced ideas. Public opinion was brought to 

 appreciate the- architecture of the Middle Ages by Victor Hugo and 

 his school, and the official sanction of this worthy renaissance was 

 the creation of the Commission on Historical Monuments in 1S38, 

 and. in 1S47, the establishment of I' E cole des Charles, where a course 

 in national archaeology was offered by the director. .1. Quicherat, 

 Through these institutions there has come about a logical and 

 scholarly procedure in restorations and in the study of our edifices 

 from the historical point of view. 



With regard to restorations: Just at this time the restoration of 

 St. Denis had made it clear that a more serious study was absolutely 

 necessary. The idea of restoring the glories of an edifice which 

 summed up the annals of the French monarchy had been dear alike 

 to Napoleon, to Louis XVIII. to Charles X. and to Louis Philippe. 

 But each one of the three regimes had ignominiously failed to carry 

 it out. The chief architect. Debret. made himself famous In his 



