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has, on the especial recommendation of the committee, iustituted and authorized a course of lectures on Christian archæology, divided into two heads, one, of Christian architecture, by M. Albert Lenoir, the other, on Christian painting and sculpture, by M. Didron, and which, during the late spring, have been attended by overflowing auditories at the Bibliothèque du Roi. The most satisfactory results have already been produced by this measure, and the enthusiasm excited by it has been very remarkable. The commissioners therefore strongly call the attention of the clergy to the point, and recommend the institution of similar courses in connection with the ecclesiastical seminaries; the example having been already set in this respect at Troyes. In addition to this part of their subject the committee thank the minister for his having laid the foundation of an archæological library within his administrative department, to which considerable additions are continually making and to which access will be readily granted. The commissioners next point out and express their sorrow for the degradations which several of the finest monuments of the country, and especially those of Paris, either undergo or are in danger of suffering from the hands of ignorant, though sometimes well-meaning, persons; and they instance several cases in which they have been successful in preventing mutilations from going any further; stating at the same time that in this, and in their other functions, they have met with great willingness to assist from the minister of the interior and his other colleagues of the cabinet. After observing that, in spite of the best-directed attempts at preservation, many monuments are daily falling into partial ruin, and that a vast number of monumental fragments exist which it is highly desirable should be collected and preserved, the commissioners have peculiar pleasure in stating that the minister of the interior has promised to give up the church of the ancient abbey of St. Martin-des-Champs in Paris, for the purpose of forming in it a national museum of objects of this kind. This idea, the merit of which is entirely due to Baron Taylor, has had the good effect of preserving one of the most curious edifices of Paris, next after the church of St. Germain des Près, from being converted into the mayory of an arrondissement. To the enlightened taste of the same distinguished traveller and archæologist the committee are indebted for the suggestion, transmitted by them to the minister, of allowing burials again to take place in churches, on condition of the heirs of the deceased parties undertaking to erect monuments to their memory, subservient to the control of the committee, and calculated to adorn the interior of the sacred edifices. The commissioners conclude their long report by mentioning the use which they have been of to young artists and architects, in directing their studies; and stating that although their functions are entirely gratuitous, whenever any question of importance had to be discussed by the committee, not a single member ever absented himself."

We have hardly any thing to add to these extended accounts of the movements of the archæological world in France, further than to remark that they fully bear us out in our observations as to the enthusiasm now felt by the more enlightened classes of that lively

nation for whatever was good among the arts of their ancestors; and that the instance of a hard-working committee labouring gratuitously, and drawing up a lengthy report about the expenditure of 1000l. a year, is a thing which we can well imagine many of our worthy fellow-countrymen will be disposed greatly to marvel at. We cannot, however, avoid mentioning that the course of Christian archæology at the Bibliothèque du Roi,-the first example of its kind in Europe if we except the lectures of the learned M. de Caumont at Caen,-were most excellent, and that the subject matter of both the learned professors was entirely new and original. M. Albert Lenoir, who has travelled for several years in Italy, Sicily, Greece and Turkey, brought the most comprehensive and philosophical analogies to bear upon his subject; while the no less extensive information of M. Didron, the fruit of many years' careful examination of European monuments, and particularly of the illustrated documental remains of the middle ages, has opened quite a new field of inquiry to the archæological student. Twelve lectures by one and ten by the other professor have served only to break the ground of their extensive subjects; and as their courses, though nearly ready for the press, are not yet before the public, we will not attempt,-what indeed our space will not permit us to do,-giving any analysis of them. Most sincerely, however, do we wish that in our own country, where materials are so abundant, and where so many able lecturers may be found, chairs of Christian archæology were established in the metropolis and in all the universities. We should then no longer find our churches so incorrect in the ornamental part of their structure, nor our clergy so often exposed to the Vandalism of country churchwardens and provincial builders. How much soever we may admire the moral simplicity of the protestant forms of worship, we cannot avoid lamenting the mutilations and disfigurements to which the sacred edifices of England have been subjected; nor will we cease from exclaiming against the abominable want of common taste which is the universal rule of our land, in spoiling all the proportions, all the picturesque effect of church interiors, by stuffing them full of the boxes and sheds. called pews. We may certainly amend our practice in this respect by copying our continental brethren; there being no reason why, for all real purposes of devotion, the fair proportions of the house of God should be made subservient to the luxury, the ostentation, or the unsocial pride of a congregation; and could we hope to obtain the attention of the archdeacons of the Church of England, we would sound the tocsin for a crusade of extermination against all pews, galleries, organs stuck at the entrances of choirs, and other unsightly specimens of bad taste. John Bull,

however, is not likely to be persuaded to adopt any new-fangled notions, of some twelve or thirteen hundred years' standing, by the way, throughout nearly all the rest of Christian Europe; and so we will return to the subject of our notice.

The museum of M. du Sommerard furnished a great part of the illustrations and authorities for the course of Christian archæology just mentioned; and we believe, that whoever has had the advantage of inspecting that most interesting collection, will bear us out in saying, that a detailed description of the mansion and its contents must be a valuable acquisition to the existing stores of antiquarian knowledge.

"The Hôtel de Cluny is built in part on the site of the ancient palace of the Roman Emperors of Gaul, the Palatium Thermarum; the construction of which is attributed to Constantius Chlorus, father of Constantine, who died A. D. 306, or to his grandson Julian; and which, independent of its gardens, comprised a vast extent of buildings, as is proved by foundations recently discovered in the formation of sewers, &c. After having served for several centuries as a residence to the kings of the first and second races, and especially to Clovis, Childebert, and Ultrogotha his consort, this palace, ruined in part by the Normans, was reduced to bear the title of the old palace, the kings of the third race having chosen for their abode that of the Counts of Paris, and of Hugh the Great, father of Hugh Capet. From 1218, the time when Philip Augustus gave it as a reward to Henry, one of his chamberlains, until the sale of it, about 1340, to Pierre de Chaslus, abbot of Cluny, there are traces of its being possessed by Raoul de Meulan, Jean de Courtenay, the Lord of Champignelles, the bishop of Bayeux, the archbishop of Rheims, &c. The circumstance of its vicinity to the college of Cluny, on the Place de la Sorbonne, determined the abbots of Cluny to choose this palace for their residence; and it was Jean de Bourbon, abbot of Cluny, and natural son of Jean I., Duke de Bourbon, who commenced the construction of this hotel; but the undertaking, interrupted by his death, which took place in 1485, was resumed only in 1490, by Jacques d'Amboise, then abbot of Cluny, and afterwards bishop of Clermont." ......" This erection, as well as that of the magnificent chateau of Gaillon in Normandy, depending upon the archbishopric of Rouen, and a portion of the Palais de Justice of that city, constructed about the same time by George d'Amboise brother of the abbot, bear all the special architectural characteristics of that epoch of transition."-Notices sur l'Hôtel de Cluny, Du Sommerard, p. 8, &c.

From this period the list of possessors of this splendid mansion is rather uncertain; it is known, however, that the widow of Louis XII., Mary, daughter of Henry VII. of England, resided here in 1515, after the death of her royal consort, and was surprised by the Duke de Valois, afterwards Francis I., in the company of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, under such circumstances that, leading her from her bed-room to the adjoining

chapel, followed by the bishop of Coutances, whom he had brought with him, he forced her to marry the duke on the spot, and thus secured the crown of France to himself and his descendants. The chamber in which this scene occurred is still called La Chambre de la Reine blanche (veuve). Subsequent to this we find James V., of Scotland, and Madeleine, daughter of Francis I., residing here for a short period after their marriage in 1535, the hotel being at that period in possession of the powerful family of the Guises of Lorraine, and remaining so until 1621. From this date, however, the respectability of its occupiers began to decline, and at the time of the great revolution we find it tenanted by tradespeople of various kinds, and its central turret transformed into the observatory of the celebrated astronomer Lalande, while the revolutionary tribunal of the section Marat, held its audience within its walls. Since then the hotel has more than once changed proprietors, and now belongs to a family from whom it is generally believed that the municipality of Paris, or the government, intend shortly to purchase it, and to preserve it as a national monument. M. du Sommerard, only one of the tenants of the house, has done so much to it, and attracted such universal attention to this and similar edifices, that we may hope to see it, and the two corresponding mansions of Paris, the Hôtel de Sens, and the Hôtel de la Tremouille, remain free from injury; we hope at least that the commissions alluded to have their attention turned to the subject, and that as watchful guardians they will not allow these precious relics to suffer any wrong.

One of the works placed by us at the head of this article is a very learned notice of the history of the Roman palace, and of the Hôtel de Cluny; and contains, in addition, an extended account of the collection formed within its galleries, accompanied by valuable and erudite dissertations on the arts and architecture of the middle ages. It may be looked on as a complete antiquarian repertory of information on all points connected with the artists and their works of the epoch of the renaissance des arts; and will have to be consulted by whoever intends to study those arts, at least as developed in France. From the nature of its subject it is not capable of the encyclopediac order which would otherwise be desirable for a work of so much discussion; but as the whole is chronologically arranged, and as the dissertations, thrown mostly into notes, flow out of the main body of the work, according as the subject proceeds, the reader is thereby assisted to discover the information of which he is in need. Thus, under the head of the Early Roman palace, we find a very elaborate account of the Roman towns of Gaul, and the present condition

of their antiquities; another dissertation in the same division puts us in possession of a list of all the Royal Residences of the Carlovingian race in the neighbourhood of Paris. In treating of the Hotel itself, the learned author introduces us first of all to the architecture, and then to the arts of the middle ages; and with the true spirit of an antiquarian, of which, however, we have no cause to complain, plunges us into disquisitions concerning the great artists who reflected so much lustre on the times of Francis I. and his immediate successors, ou Benvenuto Cellini, Jean Cousin, Paolo Poncio, the contemporary Italian and Flemish masters, as well as Bernard Palizzi, Germain Pilon, Philibert Delorme, and a host of others. The painting, the sculpture, the games, the amusements and manners of the middle ages, and particularly of the latter periods, are all passed in review in this work; and the subjects of ancient arms, armour, and armorial bearings, are gone into at considerable length. Upon early jewelry, ivory, sculpture, and upon all that relates to sacerdotal ornaments, a great deal of very curious information is to be found in the pages of M. du Sommerard; and the whole work is illustrated and accompanied by a series of 100 plates taken from subjects either contained in or connected with the Hôtel de Cluny. An album of supplementary illustrations, 400 in number, supplied an infinity of details of all kinds; and the book, when completed, will be a perfect encyclopædia of the arts of the middle ages. In drawing up this elaborate history the author has been assisted by some of the first draftsmen of the French metropolis, and especially by M. Chapuy, whose long practice and experience in all matters of delineation connected with antiquarian art confers high professional value on his designs. The great invention of M. Gavard, the Diagraphe, perhaps the most ingenious instrument of the day, and the effect of which, by a well-combined system of pullies, levers, and powerful lenses, is to make the point of the draftsman's pencil follow the motion of the pupil of his eye, has been applied to the illustration of this volume with admirable success. The most delicate chasings of the works of Benvenuto Cellini, the finest carvings of a series of ebony or oaken cabinets, such as we believe are not to be met with in any other collection, could evidently have been only imperfectly represented without the aid of an instrument like this; as it is, however, they are given with the most mathematical exactness, and therefore are exceedingly bold and beautiful; we do not know where so faithful and comprehensive a record of the ideas of the great artists mentioned above can be found to exist. The illuminations of some very precious MSS. are comprised in these illustrations, and as a specimen of the taste and spirit of

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