The Churches of Paris, from Clovis to Charles XBeale, Sophia
History
The Churches of Paris, from Clovis to Charles X
Beale, Sophia
Church buildings -- France -- Paris; Paris (France) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
The founder of the chapel of S. Geneviève was one Jehan Brice, a
merchant, whose desire that it should be richly decorated was carried
out by the widow, Guillemette de l'Arche, in 1546, who is said to have
been the heroine of a tale, which has been made familiar to us through
the Italian opera of _La Gazza Ladra_. It appears that an old MS. in the
possession of M. Boblet gives the list of foundation masses in the
parish, and amongst them is one entitled _La Pie Voleuse_, which was
said daily for the poor servant unjustly accused of stealing the spoon,
found later on in the roof of the church. But the unwonted hour fixed
for the mass, 4 a.m., and the name thereof, seem rather to point to the
magpie than to the maid. May not the mass have been for the thief rather
than for the innocent damsel? And was it not made thus early to assure
the attendance of all the feathered tribes (who are wont to rise
betimes), and to be unto them at once a warning and a duty paid to their
cousin-german, the mean and wicked magpie? A _Tobias and the Angel_, by
Santi di Tito, belonging originally to Louis XV., and ascribed to Andrea
del Sarto, is of a certain interest. The frescoes, taken from the life
of S. Louis in the chapel bearing his name, are amongst the best in the
church. M. Barrias has thrown much grandeur into his subject, _S. Louis
carrying the Crown of Thorns to the Sainte-Chapelle_; but no one has so
thoroughly depicted the ascetic beauty of the King, his true piety and
unflinching faith, as M. Olivier-Merson in the wall-paintings of the
corridor of the Cour de Cassation, in the Palais de Justice. In all the
works of the latter painter the truest religious sentiment is invariably
to be found; and if he errs upon the side of ugliness, is it not an
infinitely smaller fault than the sentimental upturned eyes and radiant
beauty of the German religious painters of the Cornelius and Hesse
schools?
The tribune over the sacristy door was put up by the Duchesse d'Orléans,
Adélaïde, the mother of Louis Philippe, in 1778, that she might enjoy
privacy when she was present at the offices. It is a noble example of
the finished style of Louis XVI.
Amongst the treasures of S. Eustache are an ivory crucifix in the
sacristy: a bone of the patron Saint, from the cemetery of S. Priscilla,
given in 1660 by Pope Alexander VII. to Sieur Chauvin; a tooth, formerly
in the church of S. Jacques-l'Hôpital; and some bones of S. Eustache and
his wife and children, said to have been formerly amongst the treasures
of S. Denis; but I find no record of them in Dom Millet. The frescoes in
the chapel of the patron Saint were painted by M. le Hénaff, in
imitation of those found in the catacombs of Rome, the painter having
copied the incorrect drawing as well as the fervent feeling of the early
painters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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