Paris: Grant Allen's Historical GuidesAllen, Grant
History
Paris: Grant Allen's Historical Guides
Allen, Grant
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Guidebooks
Michel Colombe from the same building, which we saw at the Louvre. Both
these imposing works—the portal of Château d’Anet and this
_façade_—should be compared with the Italian Renaissance doorway from
Cremona and the Gothic one from Valencia, which we saw in the collection
of sculpture at the Louvre. They are indispensable to a full
comprehension of the French Renaissance. The Château de Gaillon was
destroyed during the Revolution, and many of its finest monuments are
now at the Louvre. If you have time, after seeing this Museum, go back
and compare them.
The =Second Court=, beyond the _façade_, contains several fragments of
buildings and sculpture, among which notice the capitals from the _old_
church of Ste. Geneviève (Romanesque), and a fine stone basin of the
12th cent., brought from St. Denis.
Now, return to the First Court, and visit the former =Chapel=. It
contains =plaster casts=, adequately described for casual visitors by
the labels, as well as =copies of paintings=. These plaster casts,
especially those of the pulpit from Pisa, by Nicolò Pisano, the first
mediæval sculptor who tried to imitate the antique, will enable you to
piece out your conception of Italian Renaissance sculpture, as formed at
the Louvre. Do not despise these casts: they are excellent for
comparison. Among the pictures, notice the copy of Mantegna’s fresco of
St. James conducted to Martyrdom, from the church of the Eremitani at
Padua. The fresco itself is a work of Mantegna’s first period, and I
select this copy for notice because it will help you to fill in the idea
you formed of that great painter from consideration of his originals at
the Louvre. Notice, for example, the strenuous efforts at perspective
and foreshortening; the introduction of decorated Renaissance
architecture; the love of reliefs and ornament; the classical armour;
and many other features which display the native bent of Mantegna, but
not as yet in the maturity of his powers. Observe, again, the copy of
Ghirlandajo’s exquisite Adoration of the Magi, with its numerous
portraits, disguised as the Three Kings, the Shepherds, and the
spectators, to which I have already called attention when speaking of
Luini’s treatment of this subject in the Louvre. I do not enlarge upon
these mere copies, as the originals will occupy us at Florence or
Munich; but the student who has become interested in the evolution of
art will find it a most valuable study to trace the connection, first,
between these subjects and others like them in the Louvre, and, second,
between these copies of works by various masters and the originals by
the same artists preserved in that collection. Compare, and compare, and
compare again ceaselessly.
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