Nature and Art, January 1, 1867.] 
ART NOTES FROM PARIS. 
29 
besides, Gothic architecture is not the forte of our ingenious 
neighbours. 
From an announcement set forth by the Academy of the 
Beaux- Arts, it would appear that an important work is con- 
templated in connection with the coming Exhibition. A 
lady, Mademoiselle Esther Le Clere, has, in the name of her 
late brother, who was a member of the Academy, founded a 
prize of one thousand francs for the best architectural 
project on a subject to be given by that body. The Academy 
proposes, for the session of 1867, a grand Monumental 
Bridge, situated in the centre of a great city ; the bridge to 
be two hundred metres long by thirty metres wide, con- 
necting an island with the two opposite quays of a river. 
On the island is to be a monument in commemoration of a 
Universal Exhibition of Industry connected with the bridge 
by appropriate decorative elements. The competition is 
confined to natives of France under thirty years of age, and 
will be divided into two stages after the customary manner 
here with respect to architectural designs ; sketches are to bo 
sent in by the 18th of the present month of December, and 
on the 20th they will be exhibited publicly, and the members 
of the architectural section of the Academy will at once 
proceed to select the six designs which they think best. 
The authors of these chosen designs will be required to send 
in complete plans and elevations in March next, when they 
will be exhibited and adjudged. The successful work is to 
remain the property of the Academy, but the author is to 
have the right of reproduction by photography or otherwise. 
The terms set forth above can only apply to the Pont-Neuf, 
which touches, as everybody knows, the point of the old 
island, the Paris of Charlemagne and Dagobert, and which 
has been for many years in a very bad condition. The 
project may, however, be a mere speculative one on the part 
of the Academy, though the commemoration of an Industrial 
Exhibition is certainly out of keeping with those classic 
principles of which it deems itself the sole conservator. 
The attention paid to the applications and the history of 
art is quite as great as that which is devoted to the Fine 
Arts pure ; the collection, exhibition, and illustration of 
objects of ancient art workmanship form in fact one of the 
most remarkable features of the time. The City of Paris 
determined some time since to establish a museum of its own 
antiquities, and, after some trouble, it has succeeded in 
purchasing, for the sum of .£36,000, a place for its reception. 
The Hotel Carnavalet, now the property of the City, has 
much artistic and historical interest of its own ; the famous 
Abbe of Clagny, Pierre Lescot, furnished the designs, which 
were carried into execution by Jean Ballaut, in the middle 
of the sixteenth century ; Jean Goujon sculptured the 
principal ornaments, most of which still exist, though not 
all in situ, or quite intact, and are thoroughly worthy of the 
artist. Ballaut’s work was afterwards continued by the 
architect Androuet du Cerceau ; and in 1634 Francois 
Mansard completed it, and took some curious liberties 
with the arrangement of Goujon’s sculptures, part of 
which he removed from within the vestibule to the outer 
face of the building, where they still remain. The Hotel 
Carnavalet was not the original name of the mansion which 
was built or rather begun by Jacques des Ligneris, Seigneur 
de Crosnes, and President of the Parlement of Paris ; it 
afterwards passed to another family, and then into the 
possession of Franqoise de la Baume, Dame de Carnavalet. 
But the chief historical interest is of a later date: the 
Hotel Carnavalet was for many years the residence of 
Madame, or to give the lady her full names and honours, 
Marie de Rabutin de Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne, whose 
salon was the rendezvous for all the savants and wits, besides 
a few of the witlings, of her time. 
The mansion stands in the rue de la Culture Sainte- 
Catherine, in the old Court quarter of Francois Premier, of 
which the now calm Place-Royale was the fashionable 
piromenade, the Mall, the Court garden, the scene of the 
triumphs and flirtations, the intrigues, the duels, the 
insolences, and the puerilities of that gay, bedizened throng 
of beautiful women and brave coxcombs that buzzed around 
a monarch who was declared to be as groat a hero in 
pleasure as in war, and who made one grand step in social 
improvement by the introduction of ladies at the royal 
receptions, with the gallant saying, that “ a court without 
ladies was like a garden without roses.” 
This once royal quarter now shelters one of the most 
hard-working sections of the Paris population, and here, 
amid the art-workmen of the present day, will be the 
repository of the chefs-d’oeuvre of their ancestors. Tho 
materials of the museum already exist in part, and accessions 
will pour in rapidly ; the city already possesses some curious 
collections, ancient plans and pictures, medals and an- 
tiquities, and a special bureau has been established at the 
H6tel-de-Ville for all business in any way connected with 
art, ancient and modern. The municipal authorities paid 
not long since 35,000 francs for the Legras collection of 
leaden medals, badges, and tokens. We shall watch the 
growth of the Retrospective Museum of Parisian Art with 
much interest. 
It is said that many illustrations of Paris Art, now in the 
museum of the Hotel Cluny, will be transferred to the Hotel 
Carnavalet, and they will scarcely be missed from the former 
which overflows with riches and increases them daily. It 
has just received a very valuable legacy : M. des Mazis, 
late of Mayenne, has left to the Cluny Museum a large 
collection of the artistic iron-work of the sixteenth century, 
including many beautiful damascened coffers. The same 
gentleman has left a fine collection of arms to the Museum 
of Artillery, and a magnificent silver-gilt plateau, decorated 
with enamels. M. Mazis’s museum was estimated to be 
worth more than a million of francs. 
The restoration of the old chateau of Saint Germain, and 
the intention of forming there a museum of Gallo-Roman 
antiquities, has already been alluded to in our columns ; and 
another historical museum is about to be formed at Pierre- 
fonds, the famous ruin near Compiegne, which has been 
restored by M. Viollet le Due. The latter will probably bo 
devoted to gallic art of the Middle Ages, and thus form a 
continuation as it were to the museum of Saint Germain. 
The magnificent collection of arms and armour belonging 
to the Louvre and to the Emperor’s private museum has 
already been sent to Pierrefonds, and it is said that the new 
galleries will be open during the Exhibition year. 
A curious question connected with ancient art has just 
been accidentally solved. The apartments of the Palais 
de Justice at Nancy have been decorated for a long period 
with a number of pieces of very curious old tapestry, which, 
according to local tradition, ornamented the tent of the 
rash and unfortunate Duke of Burgundy, Charles-le- 
Timiraire, who lost his life in the frozen lake or pool of 
Saint-Jean, when besieging the capital of Lorraine ; anti- 
quarians had pretty well decided that rumour was a story- 
teller when M. Achille Jubinal, author of a History of 
Ancient Tapestry, discovered in the imperial library of Paris 
a manuscript, No. 7,406, entitled : — “ Declaration de plu- 
sieurs pieces de taipisseries que quelqidung ijeit longtemps d 
Vienne ; ” in fact, a description of these very pieces of 
tapestry sent to the Duke of Burgundy by his ambassador 
in Austria. The subjects of two of the pieces are described 
in the following quaint terms : — Grant dibat qui fut jadys 
en la court de la royne Vinus, entre Jemiesse et Vieillesse,’ ’ 
and “ Condamnation de Souper etde Banquet, sur laplainte 
portie par Diner en la court de dame Experience.” It 
appears that Supper and Banquet were both condemned to 
be hanged. If the good people of that age found supper 
bad after a mid-day meal, what would they think of tho 
habits of the present century ? This subject is not certainly 
peculiarly artistic, yet a writer named Nicole de la Ches- 
neraye founded a play upon it which was performed in Paris, 
before Louis XII. The town of Nancy ought to pay civic 
honours to M. Jubinal, who has thus raised their tradition 
to the rank of an archaeological fact. 
An essay, or, to quote the title as given by the author, 
“ Considerations on the Principles and History of Bas-relief,” 
read by M. Guillaume, the eminent sculptor, and director of 
the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, at the late annual meeting of the 
five Academies of the Institute, excited great interest and 
has since been published by the author in the Moniteur des 
Arts. The paper is long, but well repays perusal. It cannot 
be said that we moderns show any remarkable ability in 
sculpture generally ; but perhaps there is no branch of the 
