i ‘ 
162 Progress of the French Fine Arts, &c. since ¥189. [March 1, 
. tury, in its relations with architecture ; 
-and the grand basso-relievo: of the Pan- - 
theon, as well as those lately executed 
ta the court of the Louvre, and the or- 
haments of the triumphal arch of the 
Carousel, are incomparably superior tu 
all the sculpture of the kind, since the 
age of Louis XIV. and even under the 
reith of that prince. The art of the 
Statuary Is therefore also ina state of 
progression. 
Amongst the wishes which we are au- 
thorised by your, Majesty to submit to 
you, is this: that an error, which would 
shortly become an abuse very prejudicial 
to sculpture, may uot be allowed to ex- 
tend any farther; that of submitting it 
to ideas foreign to the subject, and 
which, not being conceived in the spirit 
of the art, could only produce discor- 
dances, more or less offensive. The 
more prudent it is to require that sculp- 
tors should conform to the general sys- 
tem of a monument, the more necessary 
it, 18 that they should be at liberty to dis- 
pose their subjects according to the con- 
ception of the statuarys for every art 
has its poetics, its principles, its lan- 
guage, its means, (we might say its con- 
science,) which must be respected, to 
avoid introducing disorder by confound- 
ing the styles. 
Engraving in medals, which remained 
far behind sculpture, though it should 
have kept pace with it, had approached 
it in 1789. One artist only showed more 
knowledge of design, particularly of the 
talent of a statuary, which must be found 
i an engraver of médals.* Dering the 
revolution, a new engraver, still more 
distinguished, added to our Popes.t We 
have Jost him, and the former lias ceased 
to produce works before the usual age of 
inactivity. Both leave a voul- in the - 
art, which however still possesses some 
able men, whom we shall quote hereafter; 
but it does not appear to have made that 
progress, which might have been ex-- 
pected from the great number of medals 
executed within the last ten years. We 
apprebend that too much precipitation 
is the cause. 
As to engraving on precious stones, it . 
has been totally forgotten: some indivi- 
duals have applied fora few portraits; 
- 4 “ 
* M. Dupré, who announced himself as * 
early as the year 1776, by the medai of the 
Independance of America. / 
“f Rambert Dumarest, who dicd.a member . 
of tle Institute in 1806, was not noticed till 
4725. 
but no historical monument had, beer 
entrusted to it when the minister of the 
home department (M. Cretet) charged it 
to consecrate one of the great events of 
your Majesty’s reign.* Engraving on 
precious stones, and that of medals, 
which form two branches of the same art, 
are, however, the most durable deposi- 
taries of history, and on that account 
deserve to be tmproved as much as pos- 
sible. é; 
Architecture has suffered more from 
the revolution than the other arts. It 
had been attacked even in its principles 
by a crowd of men, constituting them- 
selves. architects without the study in- 
dispensably necessary. It appeared with: 
lionour on public festivities alone. If 
these were not ail worthy by their object 
to assemble and to collect a great peo- 
ple, they were for the most part remark 
able for the dispositions of the architects. 
Some have left recollections, which in 
every point of view are renewed with 
pleasure: such was the triumphal féte, 
at which the master-pieces of the arts, 
recently conguered by you, Sire, ap- 
peared in the Champ de Mars, there to 
receive the homages and acclamations of 
three hundred thousand Frenchmen. 
After the invasion of ignorance, ar- 
chitecture was threatened with being 
confined only to the agreeable ; a taste 
which, if encouraged, would have pro-— 
duced a deviation from the grand style 
to which the art should tend. We have 
exerted ourselves, as weil as the profes- 
sor of the school of architecture, to re- 
Strain the young artists by the influence 
of public competitions; and our zeal has 
not been unsuccessful. The last great 
prizes have been adjudged to works of a 
grander character. pe re 
As to great monuments, it is not to be 
expected that since the’ year 1789, a 
nation without a government, shaken by 
long and violent convulsions, could have 
decreed any. France, Sire, will be in- 
debted to your reign forthem. 
Engraving on copper isranked amongst _ 
the arts of design, of which it translates 
and multiplies the conceptions. It was 
not revived with the French school, he- 
cause it had heen left without consider- 
ation, and without great models; because: 
there was no: necessity that engravers 
should excel in design. The whims of 
taste and fashion kept it ‘alive ; and if 
some engravers sought for glory, they _ 
obtained it from foreigners, » 
Tp 
* The peace of Tilsit. 
- A Frenchman 
