| i [ 160 j | 
_ PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
= ee 
"NATIONAL INSTITUTE, 
Report on -the Progress of the Fine 
Arts, from the Epoch of the French 
Revolution, (1789) to the Year 1808, 
made by a Commission of the Lusti- 
tute of France, by: order of the En- 
peror Napoleon. 
IS Majesty being in council,* a de- 
H putation from the class of the 
Fine Arts of the Institute, was presented 
by the Minister of the Home Depart- 
ment, and admitted to the bar of the 
council. . 
‘The deputation was composed of 
M. M. Bervic, president; Vincent, 
vice-president; I. Lebreton, perpetuab 
secretary; Vien, a senator; Moitte, 
Heurtier, Gossec, Jeuffroy, Grandmesnil, 
Visconti, Dufourny, Peyre, and Chaudet, 
After a speech from the president, the 
following report was read by the se- 
@retary : 
SIRE, ‘ 
The view which we submit to your 
_ Majesty, having for its object not only - 
to describe what the arts have pro- 
duced within the last twenty years, but” 
also to point out what may influence 
their prosperity, we have thought that, 
in order the better to second the gene- 
rous intentions of your imperial decree, 
it would be proper to trace farther back 
the causes which have contributed to 
their prosperity, or their decline, in 
France. The sciences connect their 
labours, and the truths deduced from 
them, with incontestable principles: we 
are obliged to appeal to examples, in 
order to establish rules, and to convince, 
May we then be permitted to consult 
for a moment our ancient annals? 
At the epoch of 1789, the fine arts 
had completed in. France their entire 
revolution. Brilliant with youth, strength, 
and grace, under Francis 1. who natu- 
ralized them, and under-Henry II. who, 
wifhout loving them as much as his 
father, equally protected them, the arts 
still threw a lustre on the only noble 
passion of Catharine de Medicis, her 
taste for magnificence. Thus, in less 
than 'acentyry, were raised and embel- 
lished the palaces of the Louvre, the 
Thuilleries, Fontainebleau, the Luxem- — 
bourg, for royal residences; the castle of 
* Sitting of Saturday the 5th of March. 
{March hy: 
Ecouen, perhaps more perfect, for the 
most famous of the Montinerencies; and ~ 
Anet, which appeared to be the work of 
the Graces, for the weman who to the 
greatest loveliness, and the most charins, 
_umited the greatest dignity of characters. 
Diana of Poitiers. 
The horrors of the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew, and its fatal. consequences, 
caused France to retrograde towards 
harbarism. Athens, Rome, Florence, 
might preserve the arts in the midst of . 
political troubles, and even obtain beau-. 
tiful monuments from them; but reli-. 
gious wars spare nothing that is liberal, 
When Androuet du Cerceau, one of the 
restorers of architecture, forced to quit 
his country or to abjure his mode of’ 
worship, preferred exde; when John 
Goujon was assassinated as a Huguenot, 
while working at those beautiful pieces — 
of sculpture of which our school is so 
proud; France was no longer worthy of - 
possessing the fine arts. * 
We must pass to the age of Louis 
-XIII. to witness their revival. Not that 
Henry IV. did not protect and support 
them: his natural inclinations, and his 
generous character, made him their 
friend. He assembled the ablest artists, 
and gave them apartments in the Louvre, . 
where he ofien visited them: but the 
misfortunes of all kinds which the civil 
war had left for him to repair, his plans, 
of policy, and death, which cut him off 
in the midst of his glorious career, pre- 
vented him from giving a strong impulse 
to the arts. Au 
Richelieu encouraged them all: he 
seized the sacred fire which John Cousin: 
had happily preserved during the dark 
reigns of Vraneis If. Charies IX. and 
Henry IIT. His vigorous administration 
impressed on the fine arts a more decided 
character, and greater perfection, than 
they had under Louis XEV. who, it is 
true, conferred on them greater magni- 
ficence. : ees ee 
The cardinal de Richelieu prevailed 
on Le Puussin to quit Rome, in order to 
devote his talents to the reign which that 
minister wished also to render illustrious 
by the fine arts; and during a residence 
of two years, that great painter composed 
cartoons for tapestry, allegorical subjects 
for the decoration of the great gallery of 
the Louvre, frontispieces for the fine 
€ditions produced by the royal presses, 
. recently 
