FRANCE. THE MAISON CARRÉE, NISMES. It has no name, no honourable note, No chronicle of all its antique pride, To testify what once it was; how great! THE building vulgarly called the Maison Carrée, or square house, is one of the most perfect and beautiful relics of Roman art in existence. This character is sustained by the exquisite sculpture with which it is adorned, and the fair proportions which it displays. Excavations made in the year 1822, have disclosed a fact long concealed from the antiquary, namely, that the Maison Carrée was not originally an isolated temple, but only the sanctuary of some great structure, the remains of which have since been traced in the vicinity, and it is conjectured that here once was the Forum of ancient Nemausus, the Nismes of to-day. Vitruvius has laid down rules, which are violated in the design of the Maison Carrée, and, according to that great writer's decision, this building is pseudoperipteral. Illegitimacy in this instance has found the most universal support, for no building in Europe is estimated more highly, valued more entirely as a gem of ancient art, than this interesting architectural record. The ichnographic plan is a parallelogram, eighty feet in length by forty in width, the inner area being of little more than half these dimensions. The entrance fronts the north, and consists of a grand portico open on three sides, consisting of ten beautiful Corinthian columns, detached, fluted, having highly enriched capitals, and supporting a superb entablature with a decorated architrave, frieze, and cornice. Six columns stand in the façade, and two on either side of the portico. The entrance-door within the portico is also adorned with pilasters of admirable design and execution. The attention of artists is uniformly attracted by the very delicate carvings of the frieze and cornice, and the grand vestibule itself has supplied the original for the portico of St. Martin's-in-the-fields, and the new Royal Exchange, both in London. This fine peristyle is approached by a flight of fifteen steps enclosed between pedestals still lower by two steps than the plateau of the portico. The whole number of surrounding columns is thirty, of these ten only are detached, the remainder appearing only as half columns engaged in the enclosing wall; they are all of a beautiful white marble, and their height is equal to ten and a quarter diameters. Amidst many vicissitudes, this exquisite work has escaped entire. In Augustus's reign, they say it was a temple of the gods; it was afterwards a Christian church; and later, the Town-Hall of Nismes. Desecration did not cease here, for a proprietor of the public diligences and voitures hired the Maison for his store-house, and, to enlarge its capacity, built up the intermediate spaces of the vestibule with stone and mortar. After this indignity it became attached to an Augustinian convert, and the heads of that religious establishment made it their mausoleum; a revolutionary tribunal was erected amongst the tombs during the republic, and since the restoration of the monarchy it has been converted into a Museum. A remarkable example of the presumption that accompanies ignorance is exhibited in the position which a modern artist has chosen for the theatre of Nismes. Perhaps a more striking contrast between beauty and deformity has never been presented in works of art, than exists between the ancient temple of the Maison Carrée, and the modern portico that stands beside it. Conjectures as to the original destination of this building are now probably superfluous, because they are based on the hypothesis that it was an isolated building, a theory which recent discoveries have explicitly contradicted. Therefore, the idea that it was erected by Hadrian, in honour of Plotina, his adoptive mother, need scarcely be entertained. It is true that he desired such a monument to be raised to her memory, as he passed through Nismes on his return from Britain, but as the Maison is but a small part of some great edifice, it is obviously not identical with a mere sepulchral honour. Mons. Seguin, a learned antiquary, and member of the Academy of Nismes, by great pains and industry, recovered, as he supposed, an inscription on the frieze, which had been utterly lost. According to his interpretation, this temple was erected in honour of Caius and Lucius, the sons of Marcus Agrippa, and grandsons of Augustus Cæsar, the elder of whom died in Syria, and the younger at Marseilles, on his way from Rome to Nismes. The only assistance M. Seguin had in discovering this very problematical inscription, was the holes into which the cramps were inserted that held the bronze letters of the inscription. An iron balustrade enclosing the whole structure preserves it effectually from premeditated injury, and leaves the spectator a more advantageous view of the temple's admirable symmetry. Within the area are collected various carved blocks, parts of cornices and capitals, and shafts and friezes of buildings that stood in the vicinity, and were once probably incorporated with the great structure of which alone the Maison Carrée now remains. 7 THE QUEEN'S STATE BED-CHAMBER, FONTAINBLEAU. "Yet 'tis not here that I should dwell, Though fair the palace be The summer's favourite citadel: A busier place for me." The Retreat. An ONE of the apartments shown to the public, is the Queen's state bed-room. immense medallion, accompanied by four smaller ones, variously decorated, yet uniting in design, forms the ceiling, which is of handsome wood-work, beautifully sculptured and richly gilded. It was built in the reigns of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. The doors are from designs of the time of Louis XVI., and so also are the chimney-piece, the windows, and their accompanying decorations. The state-bed and its canopy, which have replaced the ancient alcove, as well as all the other furniture, are of the same date; but the stuff, manufactured at Lyons in 1785, was not made use of until the commencement of the Imperial government. This apartment communicates with the Queen's boudoir, formerly called the Cabinet of the Emperors, because Charles IX. had the twelve Cæsars, on horseback, larger than life, painted on canvass, and placed here. During the reign of Louis XIII., this apartment became one of the most favourite in the palace, and was embellished with paintings by the first masters. Louis XVI. destroyed it, and caused it to be replaced by the boudoir, which is now shown to visitors, as well as by the little room which is above it. This boudoir, so remarkably costly, is ornamented with painted hangings upon a silver ground. The arabesques which adorn the panels are very graceful; the floor is mahogany, in the centre the arms of Marie-Antoinette are inserted. The ceiling was painted by Barthélemy, which leads to the supposition that the decorations altogether date from the year 1780 : in short, nothing has been neglected, in order to give to this apartment all the elegance which would be required for such a distinction. It is lighted by two windows, looking into the king's garden. The fastening of each window is a blue and gold thyrsus, out of which an acanthus is chiselled with much ingenuity. This piece of workmanship, which the cleverest artist might be proud of, is attributed to the unfortunate Louis XVI. Above this is the Turkish apartment, consisting of a small saloon and bed-chamber, fitted up after the Eastern fashion. |