boyant style. The dimensions of the cloister are very small, (suited however to the foundation); the arcades are open down to the level of the ground; the moulding of the ribs descend continuously along the piers, and their profiles, though open, are of good design. As the only medieval cloister extant in Paris, this, though rarely seen, should certainly be visited[1].
fifth period.
We come now to the closing style of the middle ages, that which in France has been termed the style of the Rénaissance des Arts,—a strange misnomer,—as if art had not existed in the most intense degree throughout many preceding centuries! A more appropriate appellation would have been that of the Franciscan style, as having derived its birth from the introduction of Italian art into France during the reign of Francis I.—just as we apply the terms Tudor and Elizabethan to its equivalents in England. The remains of this style in Paris are, however, to be found principally in secular buildings, such as the older portions of the Louvre, the Hôtel de Ville, the Palais de Justice, some of the colleges of the University, and numerous private mansions. Of ecclesiastical edifices we have only three that are of considerable note. The first of these is
The Church of St. Etienne du Mont. This, though a fantastic building, is one of great interest and architectural effect. It occupied all the sixteenth century in building, and therefore touches in some details on the Flamboyant style, while in others it passes into Franco-Italian. It consists of a central and side aisles with lateral chapels, pseudo-transepts, and a polygonal apse. A lofty and curiously elongated tower stands
- ↑ If we were examining lay buildings, we might here notice the three magnificent hôtels of Paris, the Hôtel de Sens, the Hôtel de Cluny, and the Hôtel de La Tremoille: buildings of the greatest beauty and value in every sense of the word, and of a class to which we have no parallels in England: our domestic edifices indeed have seldom equalled those of France. The last of these three hotels has been demolished; but its sculptured details, with all its parts of value, (and great indeed is their worth,) have been preserved in order to be re-erected into a palace for the archbishop of Paris, the design for which has been accepted by the French government from the hands of M.Lassus. The second of the three, a building of the very latest period of the Flamboyant style, has been purchased by the French government, with the magnificent collection of medieval antiquities formed in it by the late M. Du Sommérard. It has been appropriated to the purposes of a national museum for medieval remains; an institution which England has either not the means, or else not the taste, to establish. The third, we are sorry to say, the municipality of Paris has not yet had the good sense to purchase, and thereby to save from farther destruction; an act of omission of the same nature, as if any one should neglect to purchase a genuine picture by Raffaelle when offered for a few pounds, if ever such an opportunity could occur.
