Paris: Grant Allen's Historical GuidesAllen, Grant
History
Paris: Grant Allen's Historical Guides
Allen, Grant
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Guidebooks
The =last window= contains a few works of the =German School=, which it
is interesting to compare with their French contemporaries. Thus, the
shrewd, pragmatical, diplomatic head of Frederick the Pacific, a coarse,
cunning self-seeker, is excellently contrasted with the French
portrait-busts. The little scene of the Holy Family, after Dürer, which
should be closely studied, is essentially German in the domestic
character of its carpenter’s shop, in the broad peasant faces of its
Madonna and attendant angels, in the playful touches of the irreverent
cherubs, and in the figure of the Almighty appearing in clouds at the
summit of the composition. The Kiss of Judas, opposite it, is also
characteristically German; notice the brutal soldiers, whose like we
have seen in woodwork at Cluny: the bluff St. Peter with the sword is
equally noteworthy; in the background are separate episodes, such as the
Agony in the Garden; though officially ascribed to the French School,
this is surely the work of a deft but unideal German artist. Do not
neglect the many beautiful =decorative fragments= collected in this
room, nor the fine busts, mostly of a somewhat later period.
Now enter Room VIII, the =Salle de Jean Goujon=. The magnificent
collection of works contained in this room embraces the =finest
specimens of French Renaissance work= of the school of the great artist
whose name it bears, and of his equally gifted contemporary, Germain
Pilon. They represent the plastic side of the School of Fontainebleau.
In the centre is Jean Goujon’s =**=Huntress Diana, with her dogs and
stag; it was probably executed for Diane de Poitiers, and comes from her
Château d’Anet, presented to her by her royal lover. (Note all the works
from the Château d’Anet, which is a destroyed museum of the art of the
Renaissance.) Observe on the base the monogram of H. and D., which
recurs on contemporary portions of the Louvre. The decorative lobsters
and cray-fish on the pedestal should also be noted. Diana herself
strikes the keynote of all succeeding French sculpture. Beautiful,
coquettish, lithe of limb, and with the distinctive French elegance of
pose, this figure nevertheless contains in it the germs of rapid
decadence. It suggests the genesis of the 18th century, and of the
common ormolu clock of commerce. Step into the next room and compare it
with the Nymph of Fontainebleau, by Benvenuto Cellini. You will there
see how far the Florentine artist approached the French, and how much
the Frenchman borrowed from the Florentine. Walk round and observe on
either side this the most triumphant work of the French Renaissance.
Observe also its relations to the Diana of Versailles, in the Classical
Gallery—brought to France by François I^{er},—and its general debt to
the antique, as well as to contemporary Italy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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