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.
Many marble tombs were also destroyed, some canopied, some resting upon
columns, others recumbent, the fragments of which were built up into a
pedestal for a figure of Liberty in the Place d'armes opposite the
church, a barbarous proceeding, surely; but forget not that the slabs
and broken tombs in our old burial grounds are treated much in the same
fashion, and piled up into pyramids to ornament the gardens. The
transportation of what was saved from the wreck to Paris was no mean
work. Think of the huge monument of François I., and about eighty
statues! The Convention had no cash to spend upon art; with its fourteen
armies defending the frontiers, it had enough expense without paying for
the carriage of monuments and such like. And so Lenoir conceived the
idea of stopping the military as they returned with empty waggons.
Arrived in Paris the difficulties did not end. Statues were chopped
about to enable them to fill certain spaces in the museum of the
Petits-Augustins, recumbent figures found themselves standing upright;
fragments of one tomb were taken to decorate another. But taking it all
in all, the museum arranged by Lenoir must have been very imposing. The
magnificent tomb of François I. stood in a chapel of the church, now
occupied by casts of the works of Michael-Angelo. Louis XII. had a place
of honour in another _salle_. But no sooner was all arranged, indeed
before the huge Henri II. monument had been set up, a royal decree of
16th December, 1816, ordered the museum to be closed, the building to be
turned into the École des Beaux-Arts, and all the kings and queens to be
marched back to S. Denis and the other churches whence they came. So
swiftly was the order carried out, that the poor old sovereigns became
still more mutilated; some were stowed away in the cellars, others were
re-erected upon principles of the greatest economy. If the
revolutionists tore down the monuments, the restored monarchists did not
take the trouble to set them up again; and those who went to study art
in the new schools were enabled to see the respect with which Mediæval
art was treated. Statues, canopies, columns, were tossed about anywhere;
until Louis XVIII. decided that they should be reinstated at S. Denis.
Then strange things occurred. The effigies were matched
indiscriminately, and every king was placed by the side of a queen,
whether his own or another's. Hence "singuliers incestes de pierre, et
des adultères de marbre de la pire espèce. On n'imaginerait jamais ce
qui se commit d'immoralités archéologiques sous les voutes obscures de
Saint-Denis."[29] The monuments were all arranged, museum fashion, in
the crypt until our own day, when they were once again removed, and
replaced in their old positions in the church, to be left, let us hope,
at last in peace.
The following is a list of the monuments returned to S. Denis:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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