Nature and Art, September 1, 18GG.J 
AET NOTES FROM THE CONTINENT. 
117 
finished, will be followed by those of Louis XII., 
Francis I., and Henry IT., and opposite to Dago- 
bert’s will be erected a tomb to receive eventually 
the remains of Napoleon I. 
The chapel to the right of the sacristy, which is 
known as that of the Grand Constable of France 
and has a separate crypt of its own, is being 
completely restored. This chapel dates from the 
fourteenth century. A very rich leaden coffin was 
found near the spot, which is supposed to be that 
in which the famous Duguesclin was buried. 
Only one of the two towers over the western 
fagade of the edifice remains entire, and that is in 
such a bad state that the upper part is to be 
taken down, and both completed after the founda- 
tions have been made secure. The famous historical 
church of Saint Denis will be well worth a visit 
next year. 
The restoration of the grand works of the Free- 
masons of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
brings to mind the laudable attempts which are 
being made in France to resuscitate the art of which 
they form such brilliant examples. The Central 
School of Architecture, established two years ago, 
is working earnestly in this way. The new school 
is intended to do what, unfortunately, academies 
have rarely done here or elsewhere, that is to say, 
combine sound practical instruction with theory 
in the education of youth for the jmofession of 
architecture : in the classes and ateliers they learn 
the principles of construction and their application, 
in the lecture-room they listen to the expositions of 
the ablest men of the day. 
A few extracts from a recent lecture on the 
Renaissance , delivered in the school, will not be 
uninteresting : — “ To understand this epoch,” said 
the lecturer, “it is necessary to take a glimpse at 
the two centuries which preceded it. After the 
Crusades all the institutions sprang into new life ; 
the taste for letters, arts, and sciences began to sow 
the seed of the Renaissance. The thirteenth century 
was a moment of wonderful intellectual blossoming ; 
there was more philosophic impulse in 1250 than 
there was in the time of Louis the Fourteenth. But, 
in the following century, literature fell ill of the 
same malady that attacked architecture and philo- 
sophy — of subtlety. In the poems of the time there 
was nothing but clever embroidery : subtlety, the 
mistress of the ingenious, dried up the true sources 
of poetry. The philosophers took up the text of 
Aristotle or of the Bible, and argued till they lost 
themselves. They did not study man ; the facts 
and real interests of society had no attraction for 
them. No one at that period saw things as they 
really were. Nature was effaced by an artificial 
substitute, subtle, but utterly incapable of producing 
anything good. The malady of the epoch was a 
progressive subtilization of the human intellect. 
The renaissance which had begun to spring up in 
the thirteenth century failed : the scholiasts had a 
large hand in the miscarriage. Literature had be- 
come a mere mosaic of words. The poems of Charles 
d’ Orleans, for example, full of finesse, were com- 
pletely wanting in elevation. One bore at its head 
the following notice to the reader : — ‘ The words of 
this poem may be arranged in twentv-eight different 
ways.’ There was nothing manly in them ; sparks 
without fire, sensibility without emotion.” The 
lecturer might have added that, contemporary with 
the poet of the royal house of Orleans, lived and 
wrote, in abject poverty, one of the most original- 
minded of poets — Frangois Villon, the author of the 
Grand Testament — whose poetry is now the wonder 
and the delight of critics, but for whom there was 
no audience in his own time. Villon dared to 
think for himself, and to pen what he thought ; his 
cloth was woven of real materials, and the work- 
manship was as good as tire wool, but he omitted 
the embroidery, and he became a vagabond on the 
face of the earth ; contempt drove him to miscon- 
duct, and he is said to have written one of his finest 
poems a prisoner at the bottom of a damp hole 
down which his bread was thrown to him as to a 
dog. There is, however, a bright ray thrown over 
the last days of poor Villon ; after all his sufferings, 
no one knows now by whose means, he was rescued 
from his misery, and was enabled to pay a visit to 
England, an undertaking at that time which re- 
quired both time and money. But it remained for 
the nineteenth century to find out the value of his 
poems. 
The later Renaissance, the true renaissance, was 
that which occurred in Italy. “ Already, in the 
fourteenth century, Boccacio and Petrarch did due 
honour to the Greek and Roman art. Distinguished 
minds gave themselves up passionately to the study 
of the ancients. In 1450, eyes were blight, ears 
quick, all the senses eager for impression, mind was 
re-awakenecl ; no hesitation, no reticence, now — the 
ardent nature of man unfolded itself in the sun- 
shine, eager to cull all the flowers of life. 
“ Two causes marked out Italy for the centre of 
the Renaissance. First, the development of the 
communal system. The hardihood, the freedom of 
manners, the independence of the inhabitants of the 
Italian towns, contrasted strongly with the timidity 
and the pusillanimity of our burgesses in their 
attempts to establish communes in France. They 
were accustomed in Italy to the sensation of strong 
feelings ; and it is certain that reflection on pro- 
found sentiments produces the fine arts. If the 
epochs which had preceded the Renaissance had 
been calm, we should not have had that noble array 
of artists which characterized the fifteenth century. 
The second cause which favoured the introduction 
of the arts into Italy was luxury , with its accom- 
, panying leisure and the general well-being which 
allowed it to be regarded without jealousy. Wealth 
had grown out of commerce with the East, and 
luxury became remarkable in Italy about the middle 
of the century. All classes felt a thirst for new 
sensations ; nothing could outweigh this longing 
for enjoyment. 
“ In 1453, after the taking of Constantinople and 
the fall of the Eastern empire, the Greek savants 
and artists fled to Italy from the tyranny of the 
Turks. They carried with them many treasures, 
and gave a new impulse to the taste of the day. 
