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.
"This church presents you with a single insulated row of fluted Ionic
pillars, on each side of the nave; very airy, yet consequential, and
even imposing. It is much to my taste, and I wish such a plan were more
generally adopted in the interiors of Grecian-constructed churches. The
choir, the altar ... the whole is extremely simple and elegant. Nor must
the roof be omitted to be particularly mentioned. It is an arch
constructed of wood, upon a plan originally invented by Philibert
Delorme--so well known in the annals of art in the sixteenth century.
The whole is painted in stone-colour, and may deceive the most
experienced eye. This beautiful church was built after the designs of
Chalgrin, about the year 1700, and is considered to be a purer
resemblance of the antique than any other in Paris. Perhaps the
principal front may be thought to be too close or servile a copy. It was
erected upon the site of an ancient Gothic chapel, of which latter the
author of the three quarto volumes of Parisian topography has given a
vignette from the only known design of it, in aquatint, but very
indifferent. This church, well worth your examination, is situated in a
quarter rarely visited by our countrymen, in the Rue du Faubourg du
Roule, not far from the barriers."[118]
I give this criticism of S. Philippe because it shows how taste has
changed in architecture, as indeed in all else. From most persons' point
of view the church is quite uninteresting; indeed the only object in
going there is, except to a certain number of fashionables, to hear some
celebrated preacher. It was from the pulpit of S. Philippe that Père
Didon poured forth those eloquent and learned discourses, stocked with
liberal ideas, which brought him into disgrace and forced retirement,
until quite recently.
It is curious, too, that the quarter should have so changed. It is now
the centre of the English and American colonists, and withal well filled
with persons who delight in the one o'clock mass. It is so convenient;
they can saunter in after _déjeuner_, say a few prayers, step into their
carriages again, and go straight off to the races. Perhaps S. Augustin
has bereft S. Philippe of some of its fashion; but it has still plenty
to spare; it may be said to swarm with elegant _toilettes_, and not much
else in the way of beauty. Let us walk on.
SAINT-PIERRE DE CHAILLOT.
"Chaillot, très ancien village de la banlieue de Paris érigé en
faubourg, sous le nom de la Conférence, par arrêté du conceil du mois de
Juillet 1659. Le nom de ce faubourg lui fut donné à cause de la porte de
la Conférence, située sur la rive droite de la Seine, vers l'extrémité
de la terrasse du jardin des Tuileries."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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