630 MODERN ARCHITECTURE 



These men are most particular as to the question of the imitation of 

 the Gothic style, even in new buildings, and, as a matter of prin- 

 ciple, restore the old buildings without the slightest divergence from 

 the original style. 



In France, the most eloquent and the most learned of the pupils 

 of Viollet-le-Duc, M. de Baudot, has exerted an excellent influence 

 and has offered a well-attended course in the Museum of the Tro- 

 cadero. He has made the study of the styles of the Middle Ages and 

 of the Renaissance serve ends that are not speculative, but prac- 

 tical. In other words, his results are not copies, but logical deduc- 

 tions. The Rationalist school, of which he is the head, studies the 

 principles of the masters of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance 

 and modifies them in so far as the modern problems have become 

 modified by new building-materials, better facilities for transport- 

 ation, more practical mechanical devices, and changes in customs 

 and needs. 



Unfortunately the Rationalist School meets great difficulty in the 

 fixed habits of contractors and workmen, who- have become accus- 

 tomed to work and to set their prices in accordance with the prevail- 

 ing usage. Furthermore, the results obtained by mechanical appli- 

 ances give a monotony that is not in the spirit of an architecture 

 that is really carefully studied out in its details. 



Still. M. de Baudot has. in the new church of Montmartre. suc- 

 ceeded in creating entirely new forms adapted to iron and cement 

 construction; and another artist, M. Plumet, has carried on higher 

 and higher the art of adapting from the Gothic forms a modern archi- 

 tecture that is at the same time thoroughly logical and thoroughly 

 satisfactory. 



The Middle Ages have come to exert so strong an influence on our 

 study that, for the last fifteen years. 1'Ecole des Beaux Arts itself 

 has maintained a course by M. Paul Boeswilwald which acquaints 

 young architects with the artistic history of their country: and, 

 shortly after this course began, one was opened by M. Lucien Magne 

 upon decorative art. in which the principles of M. Viollet-le-Duc were 

 openly approved. 



One idea of Viollet-le-Duc 's, which was realized only after his death, 

 has become very fruitful in its results. This was the establishment, 

 in 1SS2. of the Museum of Sculpture and Architecture at the Tro- 

 cadero. The Museum has developed in an astonishing way. and it has 

 been literally a revelation to the public. It contains casts of carefully 

 selected examples from the architecture of the Middle Ages and the 

 Renaissance, and makes them still better known to the public by 

 sale of copies. 



Architectural work in France is to-day improving, and no one can 

 question that the present advance in style and accuracy is the result 



