Part 17 (1/2)
yet never rendered public. Private and partial admission to it had, indeed, been granted; but artists and amateurs, in general, were precluded from so rich a source of study. By inconceivable neglect, it seemed almost to have escaped the attention of the old government, having been for a hundred years shut up in a confined place, instead of being exhibited to public view.
The variety of the forms and dimensions of these drawings having opposed the more preferable mode of arranging them by schools, and in chronological order, the most capital drawings of each master have been selected (for, in so extensive a collection, it could not be supposed that they were all equally interesting); and these even are sufficiently numerous to furnish several successive exhibitions.
The present exhibition consists of upwards of two hundred drawings by the most distinguished masters of the Italian school, about one hundred by those of the Flemish, and as many, or rather more, by those of the French. They are placed in glazed frames, so contrived as to admit of the subjects being changed at pleasure. Among the drawings by RAPHAEL, is the great cartoon of the Athenian School, a valuable fragment which served for the execution of the grand _fresco_ painting in the Vatican, the largest and finest of all his productions. It was brought from the Ambrosian library at Milan, and is one of the most instructive works extant for a study.
Besides the drawings, is a frame containing a series of portraits of ill.u.s.trious personages who made a figure in the reign of Lewis XIV.
They are miniatures in enamel, painted chiefly by the celebrated PEt.i.tOT of Geneva.
Here are also to be seen some busts and antique vases. The most remarkable of the latter is one of Parian marble, about twenty-one inches in height by twelve in diameter. It is of an oval form; the handles, cut out of the solid stone, are ornamented with four swans'
heads, and the neck with branches of ivy. On the swell is a bas-relief, sculptured in the old Greek style, and in the centre is an altar on which these words may be decyphered.
[Greek: SOSIBIOS ATaeNAIOS EPOIEI.]
_Sosibios of Athens fecit._
This beautiful vase[2] is placed on a table of violet African breccia, remarkable for its size, being twelve feet in length, three feet ten inches in breadth, and upwards of three inches in thickness.
It might, at first, be supposed that the indiscriminate admission of persons of all ranks to a Museum, which presents so many attractive objects, would create confusion, and occasion breaches of decorum.
But this is by no means the case. _Savoyards_, _poissardes_, and the whole motley a.s.semblage of the lower cla.s.ses of both s.e.xes in Paris, behave themselves with as much propriety as the more refined visiters; though their remarks, perhaps, may be expressed in language less polished. In conspicuous places of the various apartments, boards are affixed, on which is inscribed the following significant appeal to the uncultivated mind, ”_Citoyens, ne touchez a rien; mais respectez la Propriete Nationale_.” Proper persons are stationed here and there to caution such as, through thoughtlessness or ignorance, might not attend to the admonition.
On the days appropriated to the accommodation of students, great numbers are to be seen in different parts of the Museum, some mounted on little stages, others standing or sitting, all sedulously employed in copying the favourite object of their studies. Indeed, the epithet CENTRAL has been applied to this establishment, in order to designate a MUSEUM, which is to contain the choicest productions of art, and, of course, become the _centre_ of study. Here, nothing has been neglected that could render such an inst.i.tution useful, either in a political light, or in regard to public instruction. Its magnificence and splendour speak to every eye, and are calculated to attract the attention of foreigners from the four quarters of the globe; while, as a source of improvement, it presents to students the finest models that the arts and sciences could a.s.semble. In a philosophical point of view, such a Museum may be compared to a torch, whose light will not only dispel the remnant of that bad taste which, for a century, has predominated in the arts dependent on design, but also serve to guide the future progress of the rising generation.
[Footnote 1: In the great _Gallery_ of the _Louvre_ are suspended about nine hundred and fifty pictures; which, with ninety in the _Saloon_, extend the number of the present exhibition to one thousand and forty.]
[Footnote 2: Whatever may be the beauty of this vase, two others are to be seen in Paris, which surpa.s.s it, according to the opinion of one of the most celebrated antiquaries of the age, M. VISCONTI. They are now in the possession of M. AUBRI, doctor of Physic, residing at N. 272, _Rue St. Thomas du Louvre_, but they formerly graced the cabinet of the _Villa-Albani_ at Rome. In this apartment, Cardinal Alessandro had a.s.sembled some of the most valuable ornaments of antiquity. Here were to be seen the Apollo _Sauroctonos_ in bronze, the Diana in alabaster, and the _unique_ bas-relief of the apothesis of Hercules. By the side of such rare objects of art, these vases attracted no less attention. To describe them as they deserve, would lead me too far; they need only to be seen to be admired. Although their form is antique, the execution of them is modern, and ascribed to the celebrated sculptor, SILVIO DA VELETRI, who lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Indeed, M. VISCONTI affirms that antiquity affords not their equal; a.s.signing as a reason that porphyry was introduced into Rome at a period when the fine arts were tending to their decline. Notwithstanding the hardness of the substance, they are executed with such taste and perfection, that the porphyry is reduced to the thinness of china.]
LETTER XVIII.
_Paris, November 17, 1801._
The _Louvre_, the _Tuileries_, together with the _National Fete_ in honour of Peace, and a crowd of interesting objects, have so engrossed our attention, that we seem to have overlooked the _ci-devant Palais Royal_. Let us then examine that noted edifice, which now bears the name of
PALAIS DU TRIBUNAT.
In 1629, Cardinal Richelieu began the construction of this palace.
When finished, in 1636, he called it the _Palais Cardinal_, a denomination which was much criticized, as being unworthy of the founder of the French Academy.
Like the politic Wolsey, who gave Hampton-Court to Henry VIII, the crafty Richelieu, in 1639, thought proper to make a present of this palace to Lewis XIII. After the death of that king, Anne of Austria, queen of France and regent of the kingdom, quitted the _Louvre_ to inhabit the _Palais Cardinal_, with her sons Lewis XIV and the Duke of Anjou.
The first inscription was then removed, and this palace was called _le Palais Royal_, a name which it preserved till the revolution, when, after the new t.i.tle a.s.sumed by its then owner, it was denominated _la Maison egalite_, till, under the consular government, since the Tribunate have here established their sittings, it has obtained its present appellation of _Palais du Tribunat_.
In the sequel, Lewis XIV granted to Monsieur, his only brother, married to Henrietta Stuart, daughter of Charles I, the enjoyment of the _Palais Royal_, and afterwards vested the property of it in his grandson, the Duke of Chartres.
That prince, become Duke of Orleans, and regent of France, during the minority of Lewis XV, resided in this palace, and (to use Voltaire's expression) hence gave the signal of voluptuousness to the whole kingdom. Here too, he ruled it with principles the most daring; holding men, in general, in great contempt, and conceiving them to be all as insidious, as servile, and as covetous as those by whom he was surrounded. With the superiority of his character, he made a sport of governing this ma.s.s of individuals, as if the task was unworthy of his genius. The fact is ill.u.s.trated by the following anecdote.
At the commencement of his regency, the debts of the State were immense, and the finances exhausted: such great evils required extraordinary remedies; he wished to persuade the people that paper-money was better than specie. Thousands became the dupes of their avarice, and too soon awoke from their dream only to curse the authors of a project which ended in their total ruin. It is almost needless to mention that I here allude to the Mississippi bubble.
In circ.u.mstances so critical, the Parliament of Paris thought it their duty to make remonstrances. They accordingly sent deputies to the regent, who was persuaded that they wished to stir up the Parisians against him. After having listened to their harangue with much phelgm, he gave them his answer in four words: ”Go and be d----n'd.” The deputy, who had addressed him, nothing disconcerted, instantly replied: ”Sir, it is the custom of the Parliament to enter in their registers the answers which they receive from the throne: shall they insert this?”