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HISTORY OF DECORATIVE SCULPTURE IN FRANCE. ( Concluded from page 259.) When the kings of the first race founded the French kingdom, they built churches, some of which are mentioned by Gregory of Tours (B. 2 $ 14, 15, &c.), but which have all unfortunately been destroyed. Some, remains of these primitive edifices are still however to be seen in marble capitals used in the churches rebuilt after the Norman ra vages. Thus at Montmartre there are capitals of white marble, the style of which calls to mind degenerate antique forms, and which can only be assigned to the first ages of Christianity; this is evident from the Greek cross still to be seen on the volutes of one of them, the irregular management of fhe foliage, the inferior execution, and the sharp forms which made their appearance with Christianity, and did not leave until the Revival. These are features belonging to a period of art very nearly approaching the Lower Empire, but Christian not withstanding as the emblems plainly show. At Jouarre, a place famous for its abbey, is still to be seen a subterranean chapel at the end of the cemetery, having, like the church of Montmartre, several capitals of white marble, which in the singular form of their leaves, and in the variety of their composition, since there are no two alike, show more of the classic character of antiquity, and on the, contrary present all those which are proper to the first centuries of Christianity. The church of St. Denis has on several capitals feurons, like those of Jou arre, and which might have formed part of the church of Dagobert. To the same period a Greek cross, found some years ago behind the apsis of the present church, appears to belong. The ruins of the Abbey of St. Medard, at Soissons, have among them a marble capital, in which may be recognized the degenerated traces of ancient art, and seeming to belong to some of the edifices of the kings of Soissons, who were buried at St. Medard. Between this first period of modern civilization and the eleventh century, monuments are wanting to enable us to follow up step by step the history of the subject before us, a deficiency which must no doubt Ire attributed to the numerous invasions, which took place during the Carlovingian reigns. When the reign of the Capets commenced Robert the Pious rebuilt the churches, and art took a new direction, of which there is now abundant evidence. The church of St. Germain des Pres, at Paris, for instance, notwithstanding many details attri butable to the barbarism of the age, has some fine parts, particularly around the choir. There, the capitals, composed of large leaves, con tain chimerical animals, contributing to the effect of the composi tion, and the great variety which prevails is good proof of the rich and fertile imaginations of the medieval artists. At this period the leaves of the acanthus and the volutes, with other elements of ancient ornament, still formed part of decoration, but their general forms were entirely modified. The historical capitals of the nave of St. Germain are also of the eleventh century, and are not less interesting than those of the choir. (See Figs. 1 and 2.) During this period of art, the capitals form two very distinct classes, 1st, of those in which, in imitation of the Pagans, Christian artists only imitated foliage as the basis of decoration; 2nd, capitals enriched with human or animal figures, and of which the origin is also to be found among the ancients. The first are evidently a consequence of the capitals of the first period of our era, of which we have mentioned that there are examples at Montmartre, St. Denis and Jouarre. In the eleventh century they exhibit an imitation more or.less exact of the Corinthian column. The ornaments of the astragal of the capital in the church of St. Spire at Corbeil, and of Esnay at Lyons, are composed of water leaves, imitated from the antique, and executed badly enough. In the cloister of Moissac they are replaced by Byzantine rosettes. The foliage of this period presents acute forms, removing the artist from the study of nature, a direction which was given to art by the Orientals in the time of Justinian, and afterwards adopted in the west. Above the astragal is the capital, differing from that of the ancients as it takes every imaginable geometric figure, the details of the Corin thian foliage gradually disappearing and giving place to original com positions, sometimes not without harmony and taste. The sub joined capital from the church of St. Germain des Pres is an instance of this. During the whole period, included between the last Carlovingians and the 13th century, the principal elements of ornamental sculpture are an imitation, more or less good, of the acanthus, their leaves edged with pearls, palms, scrolls, and other exotic types. The second class of medieval capitals is distinguished from the first by heads of men and animals, chimeras, and sea or land monsters, mixed up with acute foliage imitated from the oriental flora, and which are afterwards succeeded by religious, historical, or symbolical subjects covering the whole surface of the capital to the exclusion of other Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Capitals at the Church St. Germain des Pres. ornament. This second system, like the first, owes its origin to antiquity. The Etruscans often mixed up the heads of men with foliage in their capitals;* the Romans introduced persons on foot, of which a fine example is to be found in St. Lawrence without the Walls. Without leaving France, ancient examples are to be found of this mode of decoration, as at Vienne in Dauphiny, where on a beautiful Corinthian marble capital of large proportion, are four heads of Pagan divinities. The Museum of the same city contains a fragment seem ingly rather later, and in which are also figures and animals in the midst of foliage. A Medusa’s head is in the middle, two serpents in tertwined form the volutes, which rest on large acanthus leaves. The church of St. Germain des Pres shows the whole progress of the sys tem, some of the capitals being covered with historical and religious subjects. (Vide Fig. 2.) The royal vault in the subterranean church of St. Denis, is decorated with purely historical capitals, representing kings of France, bishops removing relics, &c. (Vide Fig. 3.) Capitals at the Church St. Denis. In the 12th century national art acquired a less barbarous tendency, and in St. Denis, we see in the parts built by the Abbot Suger, capitals of good character and scrollwork still more remarkable, forming the decoration of the pilasters of the north side door to the cemetery of the Valesians. At this period, more than in the preceding, painting was applied in aid of sculpture, and in the next century, it attained its complete development. Even in the 12th century the Christian artists, deprived of ancient models, sought for the elements of ornament in the national flora; and in the succeeding period the acanthus and all the exotic plants -were wholly excluded from sculpture, and gave way to French flowers and foliage. The execution of ornament in the end of the 12th and 13th centuries is very good, for the sculptor, being per fectly acquainted with the forms lie was to imitate, produced broad and noble compositions, in a style which, although severe, was com pletely in harmony with the buildings. In the 13th century Peter of Montereau, architect to St. Louis, one of the most skilful artists of his time, gave new vigour to the art of decoration; he introduced in the chapel of Our Lady in the church of St. Germain des Pr6s, and the Sainte Chapelle of the Palais, ornaments of remarkable precision and taste. Notre Dame, which has some parts of the same date, shows in the great capitals, supporting the columns of the nave, and in the details of the doors, how much the art of the scultpor was advanced. * See an example in the British Museum,—Edit. 2 X