116 
ART NOTES FROM THE CONTINENT. 
[Nature and Art, September 1, 18GG. 
of the exhibiting artists. It cannot be taken for 
granted that the majority of those whose produc- 
tions are admitted annually by the jury for exhibi- 
tion are artists in the highest sense of the word, 
and it can scarcely be said that the painter of a 
mediocre portrait, a bunch of i lowers, or a bit of 
still life, is necessai'ily a judge of the higher 
qualities of art. It was a great step in artistic 
legislation to place the ballot-box in the hands of 
the body from which the laureates were to be 
selected, and it might be the means of bringing 
about failure and causing a retrograde movement 
were the artistic franchise to be lowered. The 
body of young artists might, perhaps, be more free 
from prejudice and camaraderie, and even more 
elevated in their vieAvs, theoretically, than their 
elders, but they would certainly be at least as 
liable to be led astray by enthusiasm, and would 
be less regardful of the views and opinions of the 
outer artistic world. 
Whatever may be the opinion respecting this 
important subject of artistic self-government, if 
Ave may so call it, the arrangement by which no 
prizes are given until the term of the exhibition is 
half expired, when not only artists and critics, 
but the public at large, have had full opportunities 
of saying what they think of this or that work of 
art, is one which has given universal satisfaction, 
and must, we are convinced, if persisted in, prove 
a most valuable means of general art education ; for 
if the interest of the ordinary spectator is naturally 
drawn towards those works which have been 
crowned by the jury, his judgment is far more 
satisfactorily employed and cultivated by trying to 
mark out for himself the works which will be so 
rewarded. The liberal regulations which Avere 
adopted three years since, and which place the 
election of three-fourths of the members of the 
juries entrusted Avith the admission or rejection of 
the works presented, in the hands of the artists 
themselves, has almost entirely SAvept aAvay every 
complaint on that head, and thus removed a cause 
of considerable irritation, and Ave believe that the 
other changes to which we have referred are 
destined to produce most beneficial effects in all 
directions. We trust that the art authorities and 
legislators at home Avill study the progress and 
effects of these reforms with care, for they are 
being tried in a bold manner and in a wider field 
than Ave have to experiment in. Art education is 
no chance accident, no hot-house plant ; it will 
grow vigorously or feebly like other things, ac- 
cordingly as it is encouraged or protected, aided or 
coddled. 
An interesting discovery has been made at 
Nancy : in removing a chapel erected by Henry 
de Yille, Bishop of Toul, between the buttresses 
of the cathedral, some mural paintings, long hidden 
beneath coats of whitewash, have been brought to 
light. The paintings recall the manner of the 
Italian school of the fifteenth century, and especially 
that of the Fra Angelico. They exhibit highly 
finished execution, and much vivacity in colour, 
and, as otherwise they Avould have been destroyed, 
an attempt is to be made to transfer them on to 
canvas for the museum of Nancy. 
In the beginning of the present year, a suc- 
cessful bronze casting was made of the famous 
“David” of Michael- Angelo, at Florence ; it is now 
proposed to substitute this reproduction for the 
original, Avliich has stood so long exposed to all 
changes of weather, and to place the Avork of the 
great master’s oavh hand in the gallery of the 
Palace of the Podesta. With this A-iew a com- 
mission has been appointed, and the “ David ” is 
now surrounded by a hoarding, in order that careful 
experiments may be made, to ascertain whether 
there will be any danger in removing the statue. 
1 The restoration of such edifices as the church of 
Notre Dame in Paris, and that of Saint Denis, has 
always at once a charm and a terror in the eyes of 
artists. It is charming to see the veneration that 
preserves such beautiful monuments of the art of a 
bygone day, terrible to think Avliat infidelities the 
restorer may be guilty of. If we except the re- 
placement of that abominable Louis-quatorze altar, 
and its glaring incongruities, the restorer lias done 
his Avork faithfully and skilfully at Notre Dame ; 
but it is not of the Metropolitan, but of the equally 
celebrated provincial church of Saint Denis that 
Ave have to say a few Avords at present. 
The Avorks have been going on in the latter 
for several years under the direction of M. Viollet 
le Due, and are now approaching their termination. 
The object in vieAvis true restoration; the sweeping 
away of the accumulations of those truly dark 
ages in architecture, when Gothic cathedrals Avere 
converted into Composite — Composite is the only 
Avord — and lancet-shaped windoAvs were trimmed 
up Avitli Corinthian colonnades, Homan garlands, 
! and rams’ heads, and the reproduction, as far as 
1 possible, of the edifice of the thirteenth century. 
FeAV fine churches have been worse treated than 
Saint Denis ; it has been chipped, and altered, and 
decorated, and redecorated in the most barbarous 
manner. The Avails of the chapels of one aisle had 
all been thrown down, and the space enclosed for 
service in cold weather, utterly destroying, of course, 
the symmetry of the structure : this part is to be 
! restored to its original condition. This is natural 
[ and comparatively simple ; but the rendering homo- 
' geneous all the parts of a structure, erected at 
various periods, is a difficult matter. For instance, 
the great sacristy Avas built in the time of the 
Empire, and the assimilation of this to the style of 
the church itself is a difficult task. The pictures 
by Guerin, Gros, and other painters will, very 
properly, be taken away and placed in the Louvre. 
The vaulted roof of the nave is to be painted and 
picked out Avitli flowers in the style of the time of 
Philippe le Hardi ; and the floor of the choir, which 
Avas so high as to spoil the proportions of the pillars, 
has been lowered. The grand altar has been recon- 
structed in the style of the thirteenth century. 
Beneath is the famous crypt which once contained 
the ashes of a long line of kings : this has been 
completely restored, and the tombs are now being 
replaced. That of Dagobert, the only one yet 
